Attack

[Merryski]

This morning I have lost one of my girls, had them for approx 4 months, today 1 was attacked with severe damage to her back, obviously a scuffle had occured as there were feathers spread over a large area but she had been left and not killed, any idea what this may have been and what precautions can be taken could this be a stoat ?

 

[chrismahon]

Sorry to hear this Merryski. You don't say where your girls were at the time, I presume free ranging in the garden? Is your garden suburban or country? I ask because think a stoat would have killed her immediately and dragged her off. Sounds to me like a domestic animal as it has lost the killer bite knowledge, so a dog or cat attack. Either a cat jumped from behind or a dog tried to pick her up in its mouth is my guess.

Perhaps someone else on the forum has first hand experience of this sort of attack?

 

[Bertie & The Chooks]

This morning I have lost one of my girls, had them for approx 4 months, today 1 was attacked with severe damage to her back, obviously a scuffle had occured as there were feathers spread over a large area but she had been left and not killed, any idea what this may have been and what precautions can be taken could this be a stoat ?

Oh no!! sorry to hear that How distressing.
I was under the impression stoats didn't attack larger birds. But when they do attack they do similarly to foxes on smaller birds. Were any of the other birds harmed? foxes usually ransack the whole place, then have a nibble and leave the rest. Are there any signs of entry, or break in? any fur caught in any of the wire fencing? Do you have a cockerel that could have scared the attacker away?

 

[Bertie & The Chooks]

Sorry to hear this Merryski. You don't say where your girls were at the time, I presume free ranging in the garden? Is your garden suburban or country? I ask because think a stoat would have killed her immediately and dragged her off. Sounds to me like a domestic animal as it has lost the killer bite knowledge, so a dog or cat attack. Either a cat jumped from behind or a dog tried to pick her up in its mouth is my guess.

Perhaps someone else on the forum has first hand experience of this sort of attack?

A female cat would have brought it back home. Dog would have probably brought it somewhere and buried it for later. Badgers apparently will attack and leave what they don't eat. Foxes will bite all, either killing, shocking them all and then take one to go. That's all the info i can find. We've been ever so lucky with ours not being attacked. So sorry

 

[Marigold]

Sorry to have to welcome you to the Forum in such upsetting circumstances, Merryski, but it's good to have you here anyway.

When you say you lost her 'this morning,' do you mean you went down first thing and found the body? Was the hen cold when you found her? Or was there any chance you had interrupted the attack and the predator had run off and left her, ie she was just dead, still warm and not stiff?

Probably quite a large predator, I would have thought, as I believe stoats, mink etc usually make quite small teeth holes near an artery and drink blood rather than pulling out feathers. Have you had a good look round the outside of your run, or the perimeter of your garden if the hens were out there loose? Have you any idea how it got in? You'll need to find this out, and do what you can to keep them safe from another visit, before tonight. These dark evenings are a real pain, aren't they? Do keep us posted about how you get on.

 

[chrismahon]

Marigold makes a good point about being interrupted, hence still being alive. It could have been a young and not hungry fox as a mature one would have just grabbed it and run off -alive or not. Friend of mine had one of his bantam leghorns grabbed from his garden. Neighbour saw the fox running away and shouted. The fox amazingly dropped the leghorn which promptly ran back to the coop and laid an egg!
As Marigold says, securing your perimeter is top priority.

 

[Chuck]

Job to know what caused this but I think you need to look at your system and your set up. You've had several questions put to you which might be of help if we had answers to them. There are quite a few possibilities but in the end, you may need to make some adjustments, in case it happens again.
Sorry you had to face this so soon into your chicken keeping.

 

[Merryski]

Thank you all so much for your thoughts on this, the girls were out in the garden I had five, they had only been out an hour, It was when I went out I saw one lying down half way up the garden and when I got to her realised she was injured and could not move, fairly large hole in her back, then found three areas where there were feathers these were about 20yds apart , we live in the country, none of the other girls have any injuries but think they may have seen what happened, our garden is approx 1/2acre backing onto fields so quite difficult to secure completely, I did not have their wings clipped when we had them, initially they were in a small run about 10 x 5m and 1 metre high but then started flying over the top so we ended up letting them free range the whole garden, now dont know what to do for the best !

 

[foxy]

Sounds very much like a fox attack, they are very quick and tend to dart out from hedgerows and woodland and take a bird and it sounds like they have come in from the fields.

There are lots of things you can do to protect your livestock, an electric fence set-up is undoubtably the best arrangement. Electified poultry netting or a perimeter set up with a few electrified stands set off on an existing fence.

Alternatively, to make a run predator proof, the basic tools will be small-guage weld mesh, dug well into the ground to prevent digging. A roofed run, foxes can easily climb 6 foot fencing. Robust fixtures and fittings (good bolts etc..)

Whatever predator you have, will most certainly be back so you will have to be on your guard I'm afraid.

 

[Marigold]

Lovely as it is to be able to let them roam such a large garden, I think yuor first priority should be to make them a safe run with small-gauge mesh, as Foxy suggests. (With larger-gauge mesh there is the possibility that a fox can bite through the wire but with small-gauge, especially 1/2'' square, he can't get his jaws through. Also smaller vermin such as rats can't get in to steal and pollute food and water.) 10X5 metres actually sounds like a very large run for 5 birds to me - but you may not be able to roof 50sq.m. effectively and your safe run also needs a mesh roof as foxes can and will climb in up to 2 metres high or more. So perhaps you're looking at nmaking a smaller run, say 10 sq metres, as the recommended space per bird is 2 sq. metres of floor space, with mesh either dug in round the edges or you could line the floor with it and wire this to the sides, as I have done, so nothing can tunnel underneath. If you can make a walk-in run 6ft high you will be able to put your coop inside and also walk around to clean up and check the birds without having to stoop or crawl and chicken keeping will be much more pleasurable. You can let the birds out during the day when you are out there in the garden with them, but don't leave them alone because the fox WILL return and may be watching for his chance. When you have a nice safe enclosed run, you could begin to think about perimeter solutions as well maybe.

 

[chrismahon]

If there are any obvious entry points you could always sprinkle sand on the floor to see what is prowling around at night -or just loose soil will do, but it gets readily compacted by the rain.

As everyone has said -making the perimeter/run safe is priority, although I personnally like to know exactly what I am dealing with.

 

[AlexArt]

It sounds like a bird of prey attack - they always go for the back and will immediatly start plucking feathers out - large female buzzards are easily large enough to take a chook, they can take pheasants, however they are too large to fly off with so will sit on the ground and eat them, they are pretty oportunistic it could have been sitting in a nearby tree and the opportunity arose and it took a chance! It could also be a young fox - but it's unusual to get them during daylight hours at this time of year - it's usually when the weather is pretty bad that the young ones get desperate, but they usually chase them all over the spot and then do a runner with them, I've had vixens come in the middle of the day during cub season and take a duckling and I was only 10ft away - she got a well aimed shoe up her butt and she dropped it!! If it is a fox then it will definitly be back and probably won't be far away, they always take full advantage of a food resource until it is all gone, I had 20 ducks killed on a very foggy day - it rolled in when i was out - the fox used the fog as cover and went on a spree, they kill as much as possible then bury them for later unless disturbed!! Definitly go for a pen of some sort even just the electric fence types for the mo and just let them free range when you're in the garden - that's what I had to do with mine eventually.

 

[chrismahon]

Good info there AlexArt. Forgot about buzzards. The local poultry farmers here lose far more hens to buzzards than they do to foxes. Problem is the hens here are released into large open fields so there is nothing to obstruct buzzards landing, or more importantly, taking off. We have a similar problem with crows which can land betweeen the orchard trees. We put dozens of 6 foot canes into the ground spaced randomly about 4 feet apart in the run the chicks were in, so there was no flight path in or out. Didn't lose any although the crows sat in the trees and watched.

 

[Marigold]

I'd have thoughgt buzzards were pretty low on the list of suspects since they prefer carrion and I wouldn't think they''d attack a fully-grown hen, in a garden, early in the morning, at a time of year when there's still plenty of food about. Much more likely to have 4 legs, I think.

 

[Merryski]

Tanks again everyone for your input, something I had not considered but we do have a lot of buzzards in the area and have noticed the girls in the past when buzzards have been about they do seem to take cover, this does make sense the fact that only 1 chook was attacked and her feathers were spread over about 40yds and there were no teeth maks just ripping of the wound, Its just knowing what precautions to take not knowing where the attack came from how do you stop it happening again apart from having the girls under lock and key constantly

 

[chrismahon]

If you think as some of us do, and you are the only one who has seen the wounding, that it is a Buzzard you need to protect from aerial attack. A simple wide mesh net would do the trick, supported by uprights and held with pegs perhaps. Or even a series of ropes strung across overhead. I presume the attack took place out in an open area?

 

[Chuck]

I too think this was most likely a fox attack. To fox proof half an acre would be very very costly, but electrified chicken fencing is an alterantive for a smaller area. As the fencing can be moved, they could have access to a big part of the garden in rotation. There are some good walk in pens available now but costly (£300 +) but they are moveable and adding up the cost of fox proofing my two big pens I must have spent nearly that much.
I think it's best to tell you that foxes are everywhere and they either pick one off at a time or sometimes have a frenzied attack and the whole lot can be killed so you do need to seriously consider some form of more secure penning.

 

[Merryski]

The girls are in a covered secure run 4.5m x 1.8m x 2m high this is when we are out we do not let them free range any longer unless we are out with them, the attack did happen in an open area, we have an additional area of 10m x 5m which is just a 1m high fence attatched to the secure run but they started to fly over the top and therefore we allowed them to free range all the time, checking on them every hour or so, they were never left free ranging if there was no one around, the attack happened around 9.00am they had been out for approx 1hr, the four survivors were found in a small forest area at the end of the garden.
I understood that foxes killed and took away, there was no damage to head/neck just her back and left in an open area, I first spotted her from looking out the window and seeing her lying down, so the attack was not disturbed, as I said earlier it's not knowing for sure what it was, but hopefully they will not resent me not letting them have quite so much fun and freedom as they have had !
The thing is I am going to install an electric fence, however if it was a buzzard, then the rest of the girls would not have anywhere to escape to.

 

[mollteaser]

Just to add my two pence, I too was told buzzards rarely eat live food. I have a video on my phone of a family of buzzards in the huge conifer at the end of my garden, 2 younglings and two others wheeling round, and my hens purring under bonsai staging in fright. I'll have to upload it to Flickr or something, for your opinions!

 

[foxy]

We have quite an open area, surrounded by a wood so perfect for buzzards. We have never had any injuries from buzzards despite their low flybys at times. Foxes well that's another matter! Which is why I am posting so early having just been rudely awakened by one entangled in the electric fencing! Everyone is safe though, more than I can say for a friend who had just lost all her gorgeous east indian ducks tonight to a fox