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What Killed My Chicken – How to Know

Something got one or more of your chickens. Naturally, you want to know what in the world it was. And, more importantly, how to prevent it from happening again.

In this article I’m going to teach you a couple of things:

#1 –  I’m gonna show you ALL the possible killers

#2 – I’ll give you a series of questions that you can ask yourself to figure out who did this.

Here’s a video I created on this subject (if you’d rather watch and learn): 

First, let’s go over a number of possible land predators:

Examples of land predators:

Fox, Raccoon, Sasquatch, Opossum, Skunk, Rat, Feral Pig, Max the Dog, Other people, BAHFEEMUS, Bear, Coyote, Snake, Bobcat, Oliver the cat, Weasel, Wolf, Tiger, and pretty much everybody and their brother.

Examples of Aerial Predators

Hawk, Owl, Eagle, and Crow (usually only go after chicks or small breeds). 

That’s a pretty exhaustive list of all the possibilities, and yes, there are more.

But, how can you possibly tell who killed your beloved bird?

Here’re a series of questions to help narrow down the possibilities…

Did it happen at night or in the day?

Night – Human, fox, raccoon, opossum, skunk, rat, sasquatch, feral pig, bear, coyote, bobcat, weasel, wolf, snake, Max the dog, tiger, Bahfeemus, or an owl.

Day – Human, bear, Max the dog, snake, Oliver the cat, sasquatch, weasel and the Bahfeemus, hawk, eagle, crow.  

As you can see most killers roam around at night, so it’s going to be essential to secure the flock over night.

Are chickens missing and leaving no signs of their death?

Human, Sasquatch, snake, owl, eagle, hawk, coyote, pig, bear, tiger or wolf. If it’s a small chicken it could have been a snake.

Check out what happened to one of my Cornish Cross chickens:

 

Is the chicken mangled, but not eaten or partially eaten?

Suspects are Max the dog, weasels, Oliver the cat, a crow, or a raccoon.

I tell neighbors and visitors all the time to not allow their dog on my property because I’m afraid they’ll eat one of my chickens.

All the time they say, “My sweet ol’ pup would never harm a flea.”

Then, half the time a chicken gets got.

I’ve also had domestic cats eat my chickens. Yes, we were free ranging young chickens and caught a couple of our barn cats in the act! I wouldn’t put it past many domestic cats to take advantage of a young bird, if given the chance.

The instinct to kill and eat animals runs deep in our dogs and cats.

Another shocking killer to me was the little ol’ crow. Who dreamed a crow would kill and eat a chicken?

Well, it happened. But, not on one of my adult birds. This crow took advantage of some chicks I had in a pen in my yard. I came out one morning and saw several torn apart. I knew it was an aerial attack so I went to get some supplies to secure a shade cloth over the birds.

When I came back, I saw a crow perched on the cage, ready to strike again!

Here’s a video after I found the kill:

 

Is the head gone (and maybe some innards) and everything else is left behind?

 

Think raccoon, hawk, owl, or eagle.

Are guts scattered all over the place? Consider opossum or a weasel.

Is the bird gone, but there are feathers left? I could have been a fox, coyote, feral pig, bear, tiger, or a wolf.

Just blood (nothing else)? Rare, but miraculous job of the BAHFEEMUS. 

Are the inside of the eggs gone and the shells cracked? It’s most likely a skunk

Are the eggs completely gone? Almost definitely a snake, but could be a rat or a human.

Is the chicken seemingly unharmed, but blue? This bird probably self-destructed from its own health issues.

This happened to my “King Daddy” rooster. Nothing killed him, his little ol’ heart just gave out, that’s all:

But all these killers can be narrowed down to just 2 things!

THING #1 – Land predator

THING #2 – Aerial predator

Now, what do you do about it?

12 Ideas to Keep Your Chicken Posse 100% Secure

Now that you have a better idea of who or what got your chicken, the MOST important thing is preventing this from happening again. Don’t worry, even if you don’t know what killed your chicken, my 12 ideas for preventing predators will stop them 100%!

I’ve created a free video on this article, AND included the 12 different things you can do STOP ALL predator attacks. Simple things like how to secure the coop, set up an electric fence and even have a guard goose!

My video, plus many other videos from homesteading experts around the world (on a wide range of topics) will be available for FREE inside the Marjoy Wildcraft / Mother Earth News Homesteading Summit (Starting October 31, 2016).

Sign up NOW for the FALL Homesteading Summit, HERE. 

 

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