Something is Eating My Chickens 

Suggestion: you might want to permanently attach a few trail cameras onto the chicken coop itself. It might help you find out over time what predators roam the fields, and when you put them on the chicken coop as opposed to on the ground with a tripod you will be able to get a better view.

Hunting when the shadows are long, striking in the middle of a pasture, not moving the catch, stripping feathers neatly and only partially eating the catch before getting scared away: almost definitely a falcon or a small hawk.

Your poor rooster, what a good boy trying to protect his ladies 🐓

Rooster trying to do its job! Protect its ladies!

My first gut instinct was a raptor too. You had issues in the past with owls, likely the same bird this time. Your solution was to put a fake owl on your coop which is still by the duck pond. The coop on the pasture didn't had one. Next year spend the ~10 bucks to get this and might solve your issues. Raptors are very territorial which is why this works.

With all the gopher(?) holes you mentioned being present now, it's possible one of those weasel-like critters has moved into a burrow. They could have come to hunt things like mice or other native wildlife that would also use the tunnels, and the chicken just happened to be an opportunity

Goats are another gateway drug into farming! And VERY addicting! So happy you are also so happy with your goaties!!!!! My goaties always make me smile!

You really need to put a thick flat surface under your broken toe, something you can put weight on without forcing your toe to go upwards at all

Attacked out in the open despite the presence of guardian dogs... Prey only partially eaten and then abandoned... Rooster looking like he's just come out of a brawl... That doesn't look like the job of a fox or a cat, as you wouldn't have found the bodies. A mink or a feret would explain the missing head, but they'd never have been able to catch a chicken out in the open like that. Same thing for racoons, Skunks and Badgers : out in the open like that, they're not a threat to chickens, they're a threat when they can get inside the coop at night. I'd put my money on a raptor problem, either an hawk or an owl, but I'd recommend placing a trail Cam on top of the chicken coop to make sure of it. Guardian dogs can do a lot to protect bird flocks, unfortunately they can't do anything if the danger comes from the sky. PS : for your foot, I'd recommend "customizing" your shoes so your sole forms a flat and rigid surface. It will be uncomfortable, but that way you can walk without moving your toe too much so it'll remove some of the pain.

Morgan if i was you i would keep a few trail cams up at the top field for a few days to see whats sneaking around up there mate because it might come back

Maybe set the door to open later? Close to dawn some predators not gone to sleep yet for the day

When I was in TN it was a fox, a mink, and a raccoon we had to worry about but mainly the fox and the mink.

I’m sorry about your painful toe. A tiny window of insight into what many people go through everyday to live their lives. 😮

Thank you for censoring the bad parts

Morgan hope your toe gets better soon

you need a trained predator in upper pasture .

Cockerels will fight some predators to protect hens.

Fox..🦊 They love fresh Chicken🐔...

Hawk or Eagle. I'd start by adding more places for them to retreat to cover, and probably hanging reflective objects or wires, which is supposed to deter raptors. Moving them back to the lower pasture is a good idea for now.

Suggestion. You might want to consider solar motion activated spotlights on the corners of your coup. Sometimes that light is enough to scare off a predator when they set it off. Works well for me.

This weekend ive lost another good hen to a fox. Her name was Lara and she was a golden big hen. She laid huge beautiful brown eggs with dots. She loved nightly cuddling and was a good mother. I've asked a hunter friend to get the fox, so hopefully soon the fox won't be a problem anymore. This fox is extremely smart and quick. Its sad that its going to get shot but it has basically taken 80% my flock this year

Nice hair cut 🎉🎉🎉

Feathers scattered like that. Looks like a 🦊 to me. I'd get some electrified poultry netting.

I agree. I think it could possibly be an owl, hawk, or another flying predator, or fox. I'm sorry for your loss.

Maybe now that it's getting colder, the wild animals are looking for easier food before winter hits.

definitly need to re start training abby to protect upper pastures , maybe merge the chiken and the goats togheter

Owl. Might be good to have some kind of awning on the chicken shed to give them more hiding space.

Everything eats chicken

my mom made some hides through out the yard for the chickens to hide under if a hawk flew over.

Aww poor chickies

I'm thinking the predator was a fox. A well fed one would only come for the kill and sport but not for the feast.

Maby you should get a trail camera on the coop, next year

I live in Iowa and raccoons kill my ducks and chickens. They rip the throats out and leave the bodies. They have done this out in my chicken yard. They even scale my chicken fence

A previous boss I had lost his chickens to a fox. They kept getting out of the coop area but a fox wiped all but one out. Was a horrifying scene and the fox just took one away

I joined you in the broken toe club last night. Fortunately I’m already disabled and have strong painkillers, walking sticks, and a wheelchair for outside the house, so it’s not as bad as it could be, despite the pain. 😅

A donkey would help deter predictors or a mule, Lama < all of these animals would be happy hanging out with cows.

I didn't tell you so, but nonetheless I'm very happy the goats are making you happy :)

Hey Morgan, I enjoy all your videos and look forward to seeing them when they come out. One watch out that iI can relate to personally is to watch out for the milk weed and make sure you do not get any into your eyes, such as on your hands and then rubbing your eyes. For some folks milk weed and eyeballs do not go together.

I broke my toe once at work. I was newly hired so i couldnt say anything or risk getting let go. It was at the beginning of my shift too. I got excited for a moment at the end thinking it was a cat and got hopeful Molly returned.

Everything eats chickens 🐔 Including me 😂

Oh poor Christina & Brittney, RIP 🪦 Your so clever Morgan, so sorry 😢

Sorry for your losses Morgan, did you look closely at the actual bite marks to try and determine if it was a beak that tears, or tiny to larger sized teeth? If a fox could get into that area that may be the culprit, but let us know. So proud of Abby, I’m sure it wasn’t her. Thanks for the update, sorry about your foot, and have you looked into a special boot for support? 🐓🐓🐕🐕💕👍

I was thinking a badger honestly because of the way the chickens were killed

Abby heard there was a predator around and decided "Now is my time. These birds are under my protection."

Coyote or Fisher attacking the chickens. Maybe a Lama should be added to the farm.

Raccoons will learn to wait for for the coop to open in the morning. It's relative common in urban areas.

Perhaps a scarecrow might be cheap, effective and easily moveable? Assuming a raptor is the problem

it was the chupachickena

Would you consider no more contained cattle for the season to make it easier for you? Let them free range until you move them into winter feedlots?

Smart move, getting the chickens to a safer place.

I’ve had raccoons attack my free ranging chickens during the day but only when the corn or soybeans are grown tall. They hide in the foliage until they’re close enough to grab someone. I’ve lost 6-7 birds in my career and all but one have been raccoons. I had a mink attack a duck in the daytime but luckily he found them free ranging where they could run away while he was eating his first victim and he only got one

Goat: cow in dog size 😂

So many people don’t understand that death is a part of farming just like life. Even taking every precaution you WILL lose chickens. Morgan does amazing by his animals.

"Scrubs" i told you so dance " I told you so I told you so! XD

Put Tobydog up there for a few days

Idk how feasable this is but 24/7 video surveillance of the entire yard could solve mysteries like this and could lead to good footate. also maybe prevent crime idk

I was a YT couple who have goats and they have talked about making sure the goats are checked for parasites, etc. because they are good at hiding if they're sick. Good luck with your chickens.

Love your goats 🐐 ❤😊

That looks like what a mink did to my hens

my neighbors whole flock was decimated in a week by a fox

Maybe next spring you could get some does for milk!

I think the fox was just a passerby and your problem is with a raptor.

The rooster may have been injured defending the flock.

Guard goose? The return of Owl Pacino?

Wow🥺😢this is why I can’t be a farmer. This would break me.

I told you so😊

Suggestion: Keep some geese with the chicken

I second attaching some sort of cameras to the coop next year when in the back. Not only would it help tell you what predators your dealing with but also you might catch some good pictures of animals that can still have access to your fenced off fields to show. Fences don't always stop animals after all. Their sometimes just "suggestions". We have a battle between fox and red tail hawks that prevent me from free ranging anymore. I miss giving our birds that freedom. I battle with my mother over our flock. Livestock vs pet. Me being on the livestock side. They were bought for the purpose of being egg and meat purpose. Their not being used for either.

Also I broke my finger after dropping a couch on it I lifted the couch with my left hand which I never should have done because I have nerve damage in it and even though I can use my index , middle finger and thumb on that hand,I do get spasms where my hand will open without warning effectively causing me to drop anything in that hand. My right hand was under the couch as I was reaching under it in an attempt to see if the keyboard for my tablet ended up under the couch somehow… the keyboard has been,issuing for a couple months and no, I didn’t find it under the couch but I hadn’t finished looking under there. If breaking my finger by dropping a couch on it wasn’t bad enough, 2 weeks before the couch got dropped on it, I was doing housework and somehow nicked the skin on that finger and it ended up getting infected… i had waited a week before getting the infection looked at and was about halfway through my antibiotics when I dropped the couch and broke my infected finger…. My doc said it was definitely broke, probably chipped or a small crack, but said everything looked like it was where it should be so opted to skip an X-ray and just have me splint it for a couple weeks since I had also waited a week after dropping the couch on it thinking it was just bruised, but the pain and swelling didn’t improve so I caved and saw my doc… he said 3 weeks of splinting is typically what I would need, but because I delayed a week he said 2 weeks of splinting. Anyway I think it was the day after I saw my doc that I saw your video about you breaking your toe… so, I’m right there with you and honestly I don’t know which would be worse a broken toe or a broken finger…. This is my first fracture ever and I’m 50+ Hope you heal soon.

There has been a lot of disturbances recently 🤔

Most def an flying predator.

I don't understand how the potential killers (non-aerial) get into your pasture. You have it fenced - unless they are small enough to wiggle their way in.

Sounds like feral cat or mink? Or a sick animal. Now Foghorn Leghorn always had issues with chicken hawks..

Morgan fell down the hole and broke his toe.

I get it you sit on a big acreage but it is an open farm so sounds or noise can travel to where you are indoor. You must have some good insulation and sound proofing( Vermont quality I guess 😅) not to hear chickens specially rooster noises when they are under attack unless your speaker or earpods are on full blast.

Considering that 2 of the 3 were carried off over the last week. I would guess the fox. They probably left the 3rd carcass because the rooster fought them off before they got a chance to carry it off.

OMG not Christina Aguilera!!!! I was not prepared for this. RIP.

Those white chickens are so visible they can't catch a break. 😢

Moving the coop back to the lower farm seems to be the best course of action.

Hello 🎉

Sorry i got the rumblies.

Unfortunately I've had this happen too, your top 3 predators for this type of kill (in order): Racoon: they kill for sport, they behead. Skunk: they breast out the chicken, lastly fox: they catty the chickens away leaving only a trail of feathers. Does not look like a canine kill, they don't stop at one.

🍁🍂 It IS Macrophage Season in the north… increased predation is to be expected.

Chupacabra

I was going to say, due to the freshness of the kill, you might have scared off a fox, coyote or bobcat. They might have grabbed one bird, poor Brittney, carried it off and come back for a second which is about the time you were coming up. Most of the larger predators on your list have the sense to leave food rather than get caught because they were to slow. The fact that your rooster also was injured, suggests he had the chance to defend the flock, to some extent. Most aerial attackers will swoop in, not giving time for a fight. On a side note, we used to only lock our chickens up at night with our turkeys guarding them and let our ducks have run of everything at night. This worked for several years but then my ducks started to disappear, oddly only the females. We thought they were going broody and would return but after a month we realized they were gone. A few mornings later I found what remained of another duck. It was near my fence line so we asked our neighbor if we could see the footage from the night before, sure enough it was a racoon. The next few nights we rounded up the ducks and put them into their pen for the night and waited. We caught the racoon with his band of buddies searching the area the ducks liked to hang in at night. We also caught several opossums breaking into the food bins. They troubled us no more but we also forced the ducks to abide by their bedtime once more, which they were not happy about. So in my experience, yes, racoons will attack animals in the open. Our ducks had 1/4 and acre to run around in and the racoon squad was attacking them in the open, not their shelters. It might have been only when the females were laying eggs, as it was only the girls, but they were not really confined either.

I thought one of the dogs stayed on the upper pasture?

Could be Owls or Hawks? An owl killed and ate a Mountain Blue in my front yard.

If its just beheading the chickens then i think its a MINK. Kendal Grey did a video on this a few months ago

Other coop had a owl on top but this one not?

Maybe a young fox? Didn’t have kits to feed so didn’t drag it off? Seems like whatever it was was waiting for the chickens to emerge in the morning. Fox might stalk like that .

What do you think about getting a donkey or alpaca to protect the back pasture? I know my mom was up near Buffalo, and she kept her pet rabbit in a pen outside when she was a kid. It was a weasel that got in the hutch, killed it, and left the body. I feel like a flock of chickens would take on a weasel pretty well, though. Do you think maybe a stray dog?

I was wondering about a feral cat?

A feral cat? If it was a fox, you are lucky you arrived when you did. Some foxes will kill every single bird.

The ghost of Molly Murder Mittens (trip M) was hungry

can you get 2 turkeys you can put them with cickens

Wasn't there a vulture flying around in possibly the gopher/woodchuck hole video??? RIP Christina and Britney... Take care of that toe!!! Don't overdo it!!!

Weasels go for the throat.

must have been eminem then

I would echo what other comments suggest, position more cameras, as many as is affordable. I know zero about farm life (beyond videos on this channel), but I would think as with any random violence the best defense would require knowledge of the identity (aka species) of the perpetrator in order to guard the flock. Whatever it was it had to be fast, relatively small but still strong along with being quite agile to not ignite the wrath of Toby and Abby. BTW shock can impact the immune system so pamper that rooster until his behavior returns to the typical rooster level of confidence.

How much does a Farm Sitter cost in Vermont or USA .