[Ag-eq] Chicken Killer

[Jody W Ianuzzi]

Oh Susan I am so sorry you lost so many chickens. Sounds like you need a shotgun. 


JODY

"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!" Thomas Jefferson

On Oct 15, 2013, at 3:16 PM, "Susan Roe" <dogwoodfarm at verizon.net> wrote:

> Well, we definitely have uncovered our chicken killer.  Not a fox, but a large farel yellow tom that comes around from spring to fall, spreading his seed and then leaves.  He does not get fed with our cats along with a few other roaming toms, so he has just decided to start helping himself.  In the past month, he has killed 7 hens and my last rooster.  Him killing the rooster is what gave him away.  That night, he got into coop 3 and tore a hen to pieces.  The rooster didn't go so quietly, he died fighting and it was the marks he left on the cat that gave him away.  The last hen that was taken was on Friday morning about 5:30 a.m. and I heard it when it happened.  When my sister went to check a bit later, he had for the first time actually gotten the hen out of the coop, through the hen yard and outside their enclosure.  When my sister turned the corner behind coops 2 and 3, he was pulling feathers out so he could feed.  He didn't run away from her when she approached, just stood up and slowly walked away like he was telling you he'd be back for more later when he got hungry again.
> 
> I am now down to only 4 hens, 2 buffs, 1 bard and my one loan black hen who is my oldest.  We've even had to stop selling eggs.  My husband is coming home from Seattle tonight and we are going to put the 4 hens in coop 1 where nothing has been able to get in and we will continue to shut up the coop at night.  Coop 2 and 3 will now have to go through a total strip down to make it cat proof and figure out a way so nothing can dig down under the coops to get to the main yards.  All hens will now have to be put up at night for added security.
> 
> I will really have to get the two flocks of hens next year, 25 hens each and a rooster for each coop.  I think Rhode Island Reds are going to be my choices, large brown egg laying hens and the roosters are extremely protective.  I know without a shadow of a doubt, that if I still had Big Red, a Rhode Island Red rooster, the cat may have come in, but he wouldn't be leaving alive.
> 
> Susan 
> dogwoodfarm at verizon.net 
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