A couple of days ago, tragedy struck the ranch. I had returned to the ranch after teaching at the Guahan Academy Charter School in the afternoon. Normally, all my chickens would be rushing to see me as I walked into the ranch area with their feed. I didn't think much of it, at that moment. I just figured they were foraging further south, on the south side. As I came around the first fly pen, that's when I discovered the first hen. The remnants of what was left of her, mostly feathers and other parts. At the next fly pen, I was startled as I had almost stepped on a long brown tree snake on the path. I jumped back waiting for it to move. After I few seconds I prodded it. Then I realized it was dead. I decided that I was going to leave it where it laid and come back to dispose of it later. After I had finished feeding the animals. I discovered that hen #2 was 10 feet away from the dead snake by the water trough, same condition as the first hen. Further down the trail underneath the wind fallen Annonas tree, the loud buzzing of the huge black flies showed me where hen #3 was hidden. It was still intact but just as dead. At the root ball of the wind fallen tree were only feathers of hen #4, nothing else. I found hen #5 on top of the breeding pen.
At first, I started to blame the puppies as I fed the two egg laying hens I had left. I grabbed the white hen and put her in with the White Leghorn Rooster. The hybrid RIR hen, I caught and put her with the RIR/White Leghorn Cross Rooster. I'm going to have to start from square one to rebuild my egg laying flock. I'm definitely going to have to order some chicks from Hawaii or CONUS.
After I had finished feeding the pig and the surviving chickens. I went to rotate the goat buck to another paddock. From a distance, I saw him laying on the ground as if he was still sleeping. I kept calling to him. As I got closer, I noticed a large amount of flies on him. Fly strike came to mind at first. But as I go right up to him and noticed his condition. He was gone too. Looking him over a couple of times, I noticed that his right rear leg just above his hoof was really swollen. I suspected a Saligao (Guam Centipede) might of bitten him.
In one day, we had lost 5 hens and 1 buck. I suspected the puppies and saligao were the cause of our loss. When I went to dispose of the snake. I noticed a deep cut to the top of the head of that snake. the snake was approximately 5 feet long and 2 inches in diameter and the thickest part of it's body. It's tail was pointed making it, a male. After sitting and thinking about what may have happened, I may have figured it out.
