Middlesex farmer warns neighbors after chickens found dead
On a spring Friday morning April 29, Art King of Harvest Valley Farms in Middlesex Township went down to feed his chickens as he would on any other day.
But instead of a pen full of hungry birds, King found a ghastly sight. All 39 of his chickens were dead.
“I lost about $1,000 that night, if you talk about the retail value of the chickens, which were two days away from being butchered,” King said. “It was a lot of work and a lot of time wasted.”
King, who suspects a small carnivorous mammal called a fisher may be the culprit, now hopes to warn his neighbors about the dangers of animal attacks on livestock.
“People are not prepared,” he said after posting a warning on the NextDoor forum for Valencia that circulated on local Facebook groups. “(I wanted) to warn them so that they could reinforce their chicken containment areas better. If they just have chicken wire, it’s not enough. They need heavier wire to keep these animals out, and a 6-foot (high) fence is not enough. It has to be completely enclosed."
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