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Show WHAT KILLS FARM CHICKENS Character of Animal May Be Pretty Well Determined by Condition of , Fowl When Found. We may pretty well determine the character of the animal that visited our hen house by the condition of the fowls as found. A mink will slaughter a dozen or more birds in a night, biting them in the neck and sucking the blood. Both the mink and the opossum leave the carcasses In the coop or house where they found them. Eats drag their prey into the holes or runways. Rats, however, very seldom sel-dom attack a half-grown chicken or a fowl. Their appetite is more for the youngsters, so the front of each coop should be closed with a wire-covered frame, which keeps out the rats and permits ventilation. Cats and foxes carry their victims away with them ; the cat, like the rat, cares only for the baby chicks, seldom doing damage to birds that weigh more than a pound. The skunk seems to select poultry for his diet only as a last resort. He prefers refuse meat or scrap. If any of the latter is found he will fill up with it and then retire to his den. The next night he will return, and in case the refuse meat or scrap is insufficient insuf-ficient to satisfy his appetite, he will top off on poultry. The weasel crawls on the roost, selects se-lects his victim, taps a vein and sucks the blood. The weasel is a regular contortionist, and Is able to so contract con-tract his body that he can wedge through the smallest opening. |