Pine Marten

[Airborne9 4]

Just taken a phone call from a family friend in southern Ireland, to say the chicken coop has been raided and are trying to narrow down what exactly it is that's responsible.

 

None of the chickens have been taken however all are headless. theres a 15 foot high wall that surrounds the perimeter, & a high fence around the coop, so trying to rule out fox !! theres no water course near by so possibly not mink !! However Pine marten have been seen, can anyone shed any light on what sign a Pine Marten would leave if it got in a coop ???

 

Regards.

[wayneinthepub 1]

A good friend of mine that was a keeper for 30 years told me that he had a simular situation with his pheasant poults and it turned out to be a tawney owl. Since he told me I have heard a few other keepers say the same.

 

Regards

 

Wayne

[Lab 10,979]

A good friend of mine that was a keeper for 30 years told me that he had a simular situation with his pheasant poults and it turned out to be a tawney owl. Since he told me I have heard a few other keepers say the same.

 

Regards

 

Wayne

Bang on the money.....

[Bobba_fett 117]

aye a tawney takes the heads off anyway

[Steve McHardy 2]

aye a tawney takes the heads off anyway

deos sound like an owl mate was any of the birds eaten or just the heads taken off.

[foxdropper 17,092]

If the birds were fully grown then it wasnt a tawney .

[neil cooney 10,415]

There's no Tawny owls in Ireland.

Pine Martins are becoming a bigger and bigger problem in Ireland as they are being released by the forestry dept. to control the grey squirrel.

Road casualties in towns are not uncommon and if you have trees nearby for a lot of people poultry keeping is out of the question.