I think I have a sneak thief stealing poultry.

[RoseGarden]

I posted on the Singletree that I had some Silkies go missing, and one of the little Marans. Nothing else. Until the other day when I had five Cornish X's go missing all at once. Today, my pet turkey hen. Through all of this I haven't been able to find feathers, blood, body parts, nothing. The pen has no holes that I have been able to find. And anyway, I have observed in the past that when a coon kills a chicken and drags it through a hole in the chicken wire, there's usually some sign of it, feathers, blood, the ground being wallered out and scratched up a bit if it came under the fence, etc. But I've been able to find no sign at all of these chickens being killed. No coon tracks in the very wet mud we've had from the last several weeks of near daily rain. I kept puzzling about why would just the silkies go missing, then just the Cornish's, and now just the hen when there is an entire pen full of poultry including more Cornish's, full grown layers of several breeds and several chicks about 3 months old of several breeds, and some ducks. The only oddball missing chick is the one Marans.

So I am thinking maybe I have a sneak thief. There is a clearing behind the fence in the woods behind my property, and it is generally pitch black back there at night and far enough away that I would not hear someone back there. It is also out of sight of any windows or doors. I went out and twisted some wire around the door to the pen in a particular manner and put a little plastic tie wrap on top of the door in a manner that, if the door is opened the tie wrap will drop on the ground close to where the door hinges. I was careful to tuck the ends of the wire behind another strand of wire. I don't have a padlock or any tape that would stick to the wood frame of the door, but tomorrow I'm going to buy a padlock and some chain. I figure if the wire and tie wrap show signs of tampering, I'll know it was a theif.

I also intend to see if baby monitors will have enough range, maybe if they do and aren't too expensive I might put one out there and the other in the bedroom.

[big rockpile]

Had a neighbor taking my Rooster and Guineas.But he would get them while I was at work.

big rockpile

[wewantout]

This maybe a little harsh but it is a little funny now. This was about 20 years ago. My uncle and I did this with his older son. Their neighbor(3 miles away) and his son were stealing their chickens every night for about a week. My uncle decided we would all lay low one night by the barn. It was about 1am when we heard the commotion we cocked our shotguns ( unloaded of course) and threw a spot on them.

Only problem here was my aunt was out to scare the crap out of whoever was stealing HER chickens and she never let us know that she was staying up waiting that night as well. So whne she hears our shotguns cock,she comes screaming out from around the corner of the house firing buckshot into the air. I do not know who ran faster, the three of us. Or jack and Billy (the neighbors).
We all caught up at the back fence and Billy let my uncle know that he and his dad had lost their jobs a few months back and they was just to proud to ask for help. Moral up the story here is never anger a 90lb woman that plays softball, because you will end up running at 1am no matter if you are in trouble or not.

[RoseGarden]

That's hilarious, thanks for sharing your story! I can just picture it all.

I think there are a few unsavory folks in the neighborhood nowdays. We've started getting MS13 and Latin Kings gang graffiti on the stop signs within the neighborhood, police have been down the road sirens going at 2 a.m. and etc. Not saying these fine people are the culprits, but maybe they are, who knows. I also found the light on in my shed yesterday morning. The shed is empty of any valuables right now, just Christmas decorations, boxes of canning jars, shovels and rakes, stuff like that. I haven't had the light on inside the shed in probably months. Something is up, the more I think about it. I guess I'll start booby trapping stuff.

[seedspreader]

Maybe it's some neighbors just "snitching" some "clippings"???

[RoseGarden]

?

I don't get it.

[Meg Z]

Originally Posted by ZealYouthGuy

Maybe it's some neighbors just "snitching" some "clippings"???

[seedspreader]

Originally Posted by RoseGarden

?

I don't get it.

Sorry, just bringing in some levity from another thread where people didn't see a big deal about going on their neighbors land and "snitching (stealing) clippings and suckers" from plants.

[fin29]

Originally Posted by ZealYouthGuy

Maybe it's some neighbors just "snitching" some "clippings"???

LOL! We never got an update on what they decided to "teach" their kids about "saving" the blueberries from their negligent owners...Thread drift...

[quietstar]

Know a fellow who recently had gas stolen from his truck at night and suspects some new neighbors. Happens he reloads shot shells and put together some 3", 12 ga. loads with hard peppercorns instead of shot. When I was a kid stealing Watermelons, it was rocksalt...Glen

[shellrow]

Sorry to hear that RoseGarden. I hope that your situation is resolved quickly and with no harm to your feathered friends. I know I just hate thieves!!

[PineRidge]

[QUOTE=RoseGarden

I guess I'll start booby trapping stuff.[/QUOTE]

No, no, no ....Technically, even if someone is stealing your personal property, you are not allowed to set any kind of booby trap on your property that could cause harm. Of course, in some states you could shoot to kill that same person, but not set a trap. (Hey, I don't make the rules, lol)

But, I will say that my FIL, may years ago, had a problem with parts missing from his work truck. He would get up early and the battery would be gone, or the starter, etc. Happened several times, and it really hurt him financially to pay for the parts, and missed work, so he decided to rig up a razor blade on the hood latch. Well, one morning there was blood on the hood, so he called the cop who lived down the road, who advised him that even if they could get fingerprints from the blood left, FIL would be charged. No more parts were stolen.

[RoseGarden]

Sorry, but booby traps it is. They'd have a hard time proving I had caused any injuries....

[naturewoman]

Rose, you said you would have seen coon prints in the mud during the rains...why not human prints? Why not spread some sand or loose dirt around the coop door, and then rake it smooth before you go to bed...then in the morning check for prints. If you get some good shoe prints, take photos of them for a record, or make a plaster cast...and then set yourself up in a blind to catch them the next night. It sounds like they have been coming by most nights. I like the idea of the baby monitor too, but maybe you could rig up some other kind of alarm system triggered by opening the coop door, that would ring in the house or something?

[bill not in oh]

Wire the door closed with 14 gauge high tensile wire - just make sure the other end is attached to the properly grounded 50 mile low impedance charger and that you wet down the area around the door. It won't actually injure them, but they'd have to be awfully motivated to try to get that wire off without well insulated tools.

Alternatively, you could get a rather large noisy dog...

[leecofarm]

my chickens were disappearing without a trace. one here. one there. four there. caught my dog stalking them.

a noisy dog would be helpful.

[BJ]

Originally Posted by naturewoman

Why not spread some sand or loose dirt around the coop door, and then rake it smooth before you go to bed...then in the morning check for prints.

You can dust the area with a little flour or baby powder before you go in for the night. You will be able to see the prints clearly.

We had problems with eggs disappearing from our coop. Thought we had a black snake living somewhere in the barn. Hummmm once we put a hasp and padlock on the door we started getting more eggs! Now if we could just post a guard on the blackberry patch...maybe we would get a few of those too!

[Clifford]

I like the razor blade idea. That'd work nice on the coop door latch for the intruder, but the electric wire is appealing too. I'm sure we could think of all kinds of little nastyies to ruin someone's evening.

[seedspreader]

Originally Posted by Clifford

I like the razor blade idea. That'd work nice on the coop door latch for the intruder, but the electric wire is appealing too. I'm sure we could think of all kinds of little nastyies to ruin someone's evening.

Until you get lax and it's your kids who get hurt.

If I sincerely believed that I had a thief coming back, I would camp out and wait for them. If they didn't come back, I would put up some cheap security cameras to catch them.

[naturewoman]

If it's a human thief, I'd not use a white material to catch prints in...it might be noticed and avoided, even in the dark...

And, since you aren't sure it's a human, I'd use whatever you use, all around the chicken coop to see if there is some other access point a predator can get in that you are not seeing. If you leave loose soil or sand several feet wide, in a path all around, unless it flies, it will leave tracks of some kind.