something got our chickens :sadface:

DH and I went to the store around 4pm and gave the chickens some bread. Got home about 430 and went inside to eat dinner. Around 530 DH went into the kitchen to get a drink and looked out the window to see the chicken coop door blown down and on the ground. He yelled for me to come help him find the chickens and we went outside.
(we had a chicken coop custom built, and it sits inside a 6' by 6' by 6' dog kennel so they have more room to run around and added protection from animals.)
We walked around the whole house and didn't see them at all. We were walking back towards the coop and noticed feathers inside the coop...sure enough our 3 chickens were dead in the coop. We didn't see any injuries at first but as we were trying to find out what killed them we saw some bloody feathers on the ground. We think something got in there and as it tried to get out, it knocked the door down. We have never seen a dog on the loose, and we live on a residential street (it is in a country area, but we are surrounded by houses!) so we have no clue what happened.
And now we have no clue what to do with the bodies of 3 chickens. I don't think it is something the trash men would take? IDK if we can just disguise it by putting them in a trash bag or what. DH is a little upset about it, I think it sucks too but he was a little more attached to them then I was. Poor things...

Thing is, it could have been almost any predator. Could have been a dog, a fox. raccoon, even a weasel (particularly if there were bloody feathers and no chew marks). The chickens themselves could have knocked the door trying to get away.

h no, I'm so sorry, thats terrible.R.I.P chickens x

Originally Posted by frankthetank

And now we have no clue what to do with the bodies of 3 chickens. I don't think it is something the trash men would take? (

Click to expand...

I'm sorry for your chickens. I would be so upset if that happened to me. The Hartford, CT trash men take everything. Just wrap the dead chickens in several bags and throw them in the trash. The only thing is they'll smell if the garbage men don't pick them up soon.

I'm sorry about your poor chickens! I once made my husband bury a raccoon found dead in our yard - and he actually did it!

Oh how awful! I'm so sorry! My grandpa raised chickens (farmer, hundreds of them. He raised sheep too). We lived in a different State but used to visit him every August. It seemd that at least once each visit we'd wake up to him leaving in the middle of the night with a gun - he'd hear a rucus and know a fox had gotten into the barn.

Chickens

Oh how incredibly sad, I am so sorry hun. Is there someplace you can bury them?

I'm sorry about your chickens. I suggest burying them.....deep.

I'm sorry you lost your chickens, that happened to me too. My (now ex) thought it a good idea to get some chicks "for the kids". I did not as I had enough to do already without becoming attached to chickens.

We built a house for them in the back field and a fence though they wandered all over anyway. There were two roosters and four hens, though Louie, one of the roosters, got sick and in spite of my insisting we take him to the vet, he didn't make it. They did of course become my pets and I would spend hours interacting with them, each had a unique personality (and we had one hen who layed green eggs)

One morning I found all the chickens dead in the coop. Apparently the weasels go for the eggs inside the chickens?

I don't know, but it was devastating.

I'm so sorry for your loss.

Thanks everyone. We got them as little chicks in the very early spring..one of the first weeks that places around here started selling them. We wanted to raise from babies so they would be more comfortable around us. We had them inside until they were big enough, then outside with a heat lamp at night just until it started getting warm. They have only been laying since August, they were still young. Every time we went anywhere, we would get home and they would stare at our car and squawk. They knew that if they made us feel bad they would get treats!! We always gave them extra veggies we had in the house and scraps of bread. Their favorite was corn and tomatoes....well and digging into the grass. We let them out of their cage for about an hour a day so they could wander the yard...they never left the yard and as soon as we started throwing food into the cage they would run back! They were too funny. We had just got them some late season corn at the farmers market this weekend, and I feel bad that we didn't get to give it to them. I also feel bad that we didn't protect them enough apparently.
The experience of raising them from babies was really cool...I think we might try again in the spring. Korey is looking online to try and find some more but he is worried because they won't be bonded to him. So we aren't sure yet what we are going to do.

Well we think we found out what got our chickens!!
Today we picked up a couple chickens from a woman on the site backyardchicken.com. Not sure if that is the exact name of the site, as DH is the one on there and not me, but he posted a want ad for chickens and a woman in WVA had two hens and a rooster that she was looking to get rid of. We met up halfway between her home and ours, and got our new chickens. The girls are just about old enough to lay but with the winter so near and the hours of sunlight so few, we think it might not be til spring that they lay. We are a little concerned because the rooster crows and we are hoping no one around us minds and complains. In our township we are allowed chickens...and so far he has crowed a couple times and not super loud...we are getting up tomorrow before the sun so we can listen and see how he is. We think having a light in the coop might stop him from crowing, so if he is too bad we will leave the light on year round. (We have a warming light for cold nights set up in the coop)
Anyway, we were outside getting them settled into their new home and our neighbors live across the field (we have never met them in the 1 1/2 yrs we have lived here) walked over to us. They asked if our old chickens were dead and we said yes....the man told us that earlier in the week he noticed two big black & white dogs around the coop and later in the day noticed the chickens were gone so he wondered if the dogs had killed them. He said it looked like the dogs were stalking the coop and trying to get in. We don't know whose dogs they are, we have never seen them and the man says it is the first time he had ever seen them. SO hopefully they don't come back...although DH says a rooster will fight to protect the hens. Now we are just trying to get the new chickens used to us which I think might take awhile. The family we got them from handled the rooster a lot so I think it is just a matter of time.

Dogs sounds about right. Any wild animal getting into a coop would be after a meal and less likely to have left them for you.

I hope the dogs don't come back, but be on the look out. Either you have another irresponsible neighbor or they're a couple of strays - the latter could pose some risk to you.

Also might ahve been someone illegally hiking on the property and allowing their dogs to run free without keeping track of where they (the dogs) were going. I hate that.

Good luck with the new set. I know a family whose neighbor has a rooster, and they HATE the rooster and are always complaining about it. To me I mean, I don't know if they've ever complained to the neighbor.

Probably not as they have a dog who runs away (to the neighboring homes) every time they let her out, so they aren't such hot neighbors either, LOL

I am so sad to read this. I spent my childhood summers on my grandmother's farm and I love chickens. I used to name them and babytalk to them all the time. And I loved feeding them, they used to follow me around. It was devastating when they died.