2dream
Flibbertigibbet
I know I should probably post on BYC but we all know how fast that moves and what happens.....So
I am quite puzzled and need input. Night before last something killed a cornish bantum hen. Ate everything but 1 foot, the head and the feathers. Last night I closed the pop door but there was a crack about an inch that was left open at the bottom. Today I found a half grown chick dead, head, back, gizzard and both feed were all that remained and I have one whole half grown chick missing completely. This house is a tin A-frame. The floor is wood with 1/4 inch wire at the walls for ventilation. The run is 1" chicken wire doubled from bottom to half way up the 5' wire height, with 4x4's all the way around the outside staked to the ground. There is netting completely covering the run and half the house. All zip tied to the chicken wire. There are a few holes in the top of this netting from age but nothing major. The vulnerable point is the netting at the door to the run.
First dead chicken we thought, owl, possum or the black domestic cat that roams our neighborhood. Last night there was no way it was any of those things. A rat is the only thing that could have fit through that crack under the pop door. Would a rat do this? Any ideas out there. Remember, this is the equivlant of Chicken Alcatraz. I guess there is the slight possibility that a very small young possum could have but I just don't really think so.
Dazed and confused here.
I am quite puzzled and need input. Night before last something killed a cornish bantum hen. Ate everything but 1 foot, the head and the feathers. Last night I closed the pop door but there was a crack about an inch that was left open at the bottom. Today I found a half grown chick dead, head, back, gizzard and both feed were all that remained and I have one whole half grown chick missing completely. This house is a tin A-frame. The floor is wood with 1/4 inch wire at the walls for ventilation. The run is 1" chicken wire doubled from bottom to half way up the 5' wire height, with 4x4's all the way around the outside staked to the ground. There is netting completely covering the run and half the house. All zip tied to the chicken wire. There are a few holes in the top of this netting from age but nothing major. The vulnerable point is the netting at the door to the run.
First dead chicken we thought, owl, possum or the black domestic cat that roams our neighborhood. Last night there was no way it was any of those things. A rat is the only thing that could have fit through that crack under the pop door. Would a rat do this? Any ideas out there. Remember, this is the equivlant of Chicken Alcatraz. I guess there is the slight possibility that a very small young possum could have but I just don't really think so.
Dazed and confused here.
