RIP to my lovely chickens.

by Jaiden
(Monticello NY )

A baby raccoon unlatches a chicken coop. Could a raccoon be responsible for killing Jaiden's chickens?

About a month ago 5 of my chickens were safely locked in their coop. Then the next morning I come out and there was a big hole in the wooden door.

I opened the door and saw my chickens with their head bit off. I don't know what happened but something got them.

I was so sad I went and buried them all by my self ... I'm only 11.

Comments for RIP to my lovely chickens.

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So sorry...
by: Anonymous

How sad for you Jaiden, I hope you have been brave enough to get some more chickens. Chickens bring out our loving natures, and the ones you lost were lucky little ones to have you loving them too. Best wishes.

A sad story of chickens.
by: Cath

Hello Jaiden,

What a terribly sad story about your lovely chickens. I thought it was especially sad that you had to bury them all by yourself. It's not a nice job to have to do and I think you did very well to be able to do it.

From my experience, this won't have been a fox. Foxes ate all my chickens two years ago, and all that was left of them was feathers. :( It was upsetting but I got over it and now have another flock who have not - touch wood - had any problems with predators.

It's always hard to know how to protect our chickens unless we know what the predator is which is killing them.

The predators which are most likely to be responsible for your flock's deaths are something like a a bobcat (you will usually see marks on the body as well with a bobcat), a weasel (you can usually tell if it's a weasel because they leave behind an unpleasant smell), or a raccoon.

Opossums can also attack in this way but they tend to go for only one adult chicken at a time.

My guess in your case is it was probably some kind of weasel or raccoon who did this. Weasels can get into the smallest of spaces, and raccoons are actually very good at undoing bolts and other catches - they've learned how to do it in cities as well as in coops in the country.

I've put a picture above of a raccoon. Luckily I don't have them (I live in Italy) but a friend of mine had several of her hens killed by a raccoon who learned to undo the latch on her chicken run.

It's strange that there was a hole in the door though. Normally a weasel or raccoon would not do that.

Well, I am terribly sorry you have lost all your hens. I hope you'll be able to get some more. When mine were killed I didn't feel like getting any for quite a long time, but I missed having chickens around so in the end I did, and I had a large fence built round the coop, and got a dog who protects them.

I'm sending you lots of hugs. Thank you for being brave enough to tell us your story.

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