Slaughter in the Henhouse

This morning when I braved the frigid temperatures to go out and bring food and water to the chickens, a horrible scene met my eyes when I opened the large door and stepped into the henhouse. At first I thought that only one or two chickens had succumbed to the cold, but as I made sense of the confused mass of birds I could see that many more had died. Most of them were attacked around the head, and there were dead chickens crammed in corners and lying out on the floor. The automatic door hadn't failed me; it was still closed. But what I saw was that one of the small louvered windows, that I had left open for air, had a rip in its screen, which had fallen partly out of the window frame. All I can think of is a weasel, because it had to have been small to get through the partially open louvers and through that little tear. We saw tracks, but the snow was too soft to take a good impression. We were also puzzled by a couple of other sets of tracks until we realized that they were made by the geese, half running and half flying to get away from the carnage.

All in all we lost ten hens and our rooster; I will have to count to see what is left. One white hen is somewhat mauled around the neck but she seems okay and we'll keep an eye on her. DH is going to tack rat wire over the windows and hopefully we'll be able to open them again when the weather warrants it. But what a shocker. I feel so bad for the poor chickens; what terror they must have felt! This is the first time in all the years that we've kept chickens that we've had this happen. But who would have thought that anything would get in through those small openings?

And weirdly enough, two days ago seven or eight hens spent the night outside because they didn't want to come out from under the henhouse in the snow to go up the steps or ramp to get in the coop. And they were fine in the morning. Still, I wonder whether that somehow alerted whatever did the killing last night to the fact that there were lovely snacks inside. We'll never know.

Bummer!!! Weasles just drink the blood, right? Maybe it'd been around peeking in to make the hens not want to go back inside.

So sorry for your loss. Try to not dwell on it, there's just future things to think about now.

Yeah, I know, but it's still really upsetting. You raise critters and care for them and feel responsible if something happens to them.

Our dog has been doing a lot of barking around that area recently and I'm wondering if she sensed something.

sooo sorry for your loss :-( I think weasels like to get in the hen house to kill because the chickens can't get out. I rotate mine, half free range, half in the coop and when they got attacked, the ones outside just stood by and watched...considering I was in the coop, you'd think the once outside were the easier target...

I'm sorry for your loss. I hope I don't have to go throught that type of thing. I'm glad I won't have to deal with weasel-like critters, we just have raccoons and oppossums to deal with. I'm not too concerned about the oppossums, it's the raccoons that concern me.

I think the weasel, if that's what it was, found the only weak spot in the coop. (We hope!) We're just going to keep the louvers closed and then cover them with rat wire when the weather gets nicer. We have raccoons and opossums too, but they haven't been a problem except several years ago with the young chicks once or twice. But we trapped the coon and relocated it.

That just makes me feel sick, Don't fault yourself for what you could not have known. I know thats easy to say but my dear friend we just do the best we can...What a horrible shock that had to be to you, keep you head up my dear it sounds like your taking the right steps to remedy the situation. We all know of your love for your flock and indeed are very sorry for your loss. Hope your day gets better. Hay

Thanks for the kind words, Hay. You do feel as though you let your flock down, but who knew that a weasel could scale the wall and enter that way? It must have used one of the nearby fence posts and jumped to the window from that, because the exterior wall of the henhouse is fairly smooth.

I'm sure the rest of the flock was totally traumatized; I'll bet we won't be getting many eggs for a while.

Sorry for your loss, it kills me when it happens.

I am so very sorry! Have you considered setting a trap for the culprit? There are probably more than one and you want to eliminate the risk of more attacks. I guess you can't be too careful. It's hard to believe it went to that much trouble getting in there.

I wish I had a closed circuit camera in my coop that I could watch on the TV in our bedroom. Not only for security but just to watch what they do when we're not around.

Please accept my most sincere condolences.

I am so sorry g_g. It is bad enough just losing a couple over a few months, but to lose so many so brutally is horrible.

After I lost two layers to some unknown predator, I rented a havahart trap from the local feed store and trapped several feral cats and several curious chickens. If you could trap the weasel (or whatever it is) you would at least know what you are dealing with and that you had caught it.

It definately sounds like a weasle. I'm so sorry for you. I know how it feels to loose an entire flock in one night.

Thanks, Loon, Catsy and Jyl. DH has set a HavaHart trap with some fish in it, to see what he can catch. The louvered windows are closed and hopefully everyone is safe. I went to the supermarket this afternoon and asked the woman behind the fish counter if they had some past-due-date fish so I could catch a weasel. She didn't react at all, but just said that even if they had any they wouldn't be allowed to sell it. So I bought one small porgy, which was the cheapest fish they had ( a little over a dollar!), and that's what DH used. I shall report back, but please keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't find some other way in tonight!

I'm so very sorry..

Oh dear, what a horrible shame. Those poor things. That must have just broken your heart.

This is tough to find at any time. If you need more bait, you might try a tin of sardines packed in water or possibly a stinky can of cat food. I have had the urge but have resisted getting another batch of chickens as I have lost them in the past to skunks and snakes and just regret it. Do what you can to offer your ladies protection and I do hope you catch the weasel. Such a waste, I am sorry.

I still wake up at all hours of the night straining to hear the preditor that took the turkeys. Now that we have geese, I dont want to loose them. I look in the pen when I round the corner and am not happy until I see them. I know how you feel.

All clear this morning - including the trap. When I went outside there was a faint fragrance of eau de skunk wafting about, and DH and I were on pins and needles until I checked the trap, hoping that at the very least we hadn't caught one of our white-striped friends! So it was rather a relief when it was empty. All the girls were present and accounted for, but two White Rocks who were attacked but not killed outright are looking rather sluggish and may not survive. The henhouse looks empty minus the eleven that died. I still haven't counted to see how many are left. I would suspect about twenty or twenty-five.

For your injured hens, you may want to check on antibiotics. A friends' goose was attacked by a dog. He sewed the gooses' wounds up and then went to the feed store and purchased a series of antibiotic shots to give the goose. They told him chance of infection was far worse than the deep wounds.

How about using a baby monitor where you could hear what is going on. I am sure the gals will raise a fuss if something is wrong.

I think that closing the louvers did the trick. We've lived here for almost forty years with chickens the whole time, and this is the first time this has happened. But it's a new chicken coop and we didn't realize that the louvers could offer access to predators; now we know!

How awful for you and yours! We have our dog kennel right next to the chicken coop and everytime Queenie barks in the middle of the night I jerk awake. I'm begining to tell now by the sound of her barks if she is barking at the moon, barking at the donkeys as they move from one spot to the other in the pasture, of barking at something she thinks does not belong in the area.

So sorry for your losses!

I just finished reading this and had to wipe away tears,jso sorry for your loss GG ,hope you catch the culprit.

Dh was debating whether or not to set the trap this afternoon because of the skunk smell we noticed this morning. What DOES one do if one finds a skunk in a Havahart? Any tips?

I counted them and we have about 22 hens left. There may be a few more; it's difficult to count moving targets. But at least it's still a respectable number.

How sad for the little chickies. It must have been a shock since you had gone all those years with no attacks. I've only had chickens since last July and was just thinking I had gotten very complacent thinking that if nothing had come along by now, we were safe. I guess you never are safe.

I was told if you have a skunk in your trap don`t get behind it stay in front of it and throw something over it so it can`t see and then it can be moved or whatever you decide to do with it.

Thanks, Green! Gwen, we were fine until we got a new henhouse, and then it never occurred to us that those louvers could be a point of entry! Now that we know, it should be okay.

Reply to skunk in havaheart trap.
If it has not already sprayed because the trap shutting and scaring it you have a good chance of releasing it.
Do not let it see you... use a tarp or old blanket( blanket better less noise) approach the trap behind the blanket ...no noise do not talk to it...slowly place blanket over entire cage...wait a couple minutes for skunk to calm down then release the locking door, but do not let it see you..peel back the blanket so the door is exposed and step back ...way back....they sometimes get confused and will run in your direction.
good luck

sorry for the reply I am a slow typer and I see you already got some good advice.

Thanks, Gardengus! Sounds like you and Green are on the same page, so that must be a good trick.

I'd put the cover over the trap beforehand. That way if you catch a skunk you are already protected. They'll wander in from the smell of your bait.

Podster, the louvers had light screening over them, but the whole chicken coop is new; we got it this summer as an 8x12" Amish-made shed, and then modified it for the chickens. DH put up a sort of loft to store things, and he installed a gate in one section to keep young chickens away from the older ones. He also built a fold-down opening in the side to access the nest boxes so we can collect the eggs without going in. Before that we had a very old structure that was actually here when we moved to this place, many many years ago, but it was finally deteriorating and we needed to replace it. Anyway, we didn't realize that something could get in the louvers, so we've been leaving them open even when the large door and the chicken door are closed at night, just for some air circulation.

DH decided not to try to trap the thing because the possibility of a skunk getting caught instead was too unnerving!

We actually caught a skunk in a havahart trap once. I thought at first it was a black and white cat because it was mewing just like a cat. Did you know skunks make that sound? I sure didn't. Anyway, we left it in there till our son could come over after work. We weren't sure what to do with it. By the time he got here the skunk had just died on it's own. Not sure why. Maybe he died from stress or something. We were relieved.

That's kinda scary Loon... I've heard them mew like a cat tho. One tried to trick me into picking it up once. I also thought it was a black cat with white splotches. This one had no stripe.

On the other hand my nephew had a skunk as a pet for years. It had been de-scented when they got it, and it really seemed to be a nice pet. They lived in NYC, to boot, and it did very well.

I actually kind of like skunks, but only from afar! They have a job to do, a place in the world and they go about it with aplomb. One might even say panache...just don't like them near the house or coop. They never seem to notice they, well, stink. I also wory about rabies with them. Its too bad, really, that they think they have to come around chickens. Despite that I kind of like skunks I'm still sorry for what happened to you chickens. Is there something that we can do to discourage the little devils from coming into certain areas?

Weasels, by the way, can leave that "skunky" smell behind as well.

Hmmm, do weasels actually have a skunky smell? I wondered. How would you describe it?

We have very few weasels in the area, so they're usually not a problem. I think it was the combination of snow and a new-ish coop that was our downfall this time. Making sure housing is predator-proof is the key, but of course we thought we'd done that. We still have to deal with the occasional hawk, but the geese seem to help deter them.

Weasels have a musky smell to them, but some folks smell it more as a "skunky" smell. Depends on the person beholding the smell really. Males spray their territories.

Will skunks kill chickens?