Hey guys, so a couple of weeks ago I lost two year-old roosters to what I believe to be a gray fox. I was gone until very late the night before they were killed; I got back from work at around 2am and didn't notice nothing out of the usual. Turns out my sister had forgotten to put the roosters in their coop for the night and didn't mention anything about it so I assumed they were already in when I got back. We just recently got a new hen, who was in quarantine in her own separate coop/caged-in area at the time, so the roosters stayed out all night next to her instead of going into their own coop.
It was around 6am when I went outside to let them out and feed them. What I found were feathers scattered all over the backyard and one body was found on the edge of the garden, behind which is dense forest and marshland. His entire head/neck area was gone. The other rooster's body was never found. There were separate distinguished piles of feathers from each rooster (I could tell because one rooster was white/orange and one was black/gray); one pile of feathers belonging to one rooster was on one side of the yard, the pile belonging to the other rooster was on the opposite side of the yard. Just based on the feathers scattered everywhere, you could pretty easily tell what had happened where. Like I said the body of the black/gray rooster was never found but I did find a spot in the grass near the garden with black/gray feathers and fresh blood on the grass. The blood appeared to be fresh so the incident had most likely happened around 4-5am, just before dawn. As for the hen, like I said she was in quarantine at the time so she was fine and there were no signs of attempted entry into her coop (such as digging, scratches, etc.)
I live in a suburban, small town with almost 3 acres of enclosed land, most of which is open lawn. Behind the house is mostly dense woods with marshland. A few people around me also own chickens, although I only just moved here recently so I don't know them well enough to ask if they've had any predator problems lately. We have a few cats who live around the neighborhood (not sure if they're feral or just live nearby), but I highly doubt any of them would be the culprit. The only other predators I've ever seen around here are skunks, occasionally possoms, and we have lots of broad-winged and red-tail hawks around here, none of which has ever been a problem. Those are the only predators I've seen in the 2 years that I've lived here. Of course, I know the story might be much different at night. I'm sure if I set up a night cam, I would see a lot more visiting the yard that I've never seen before. I don't think we have any coyotes because I've never heard or seen them, there's too many nearby houses, and there are a LOT of deer that visit the yard regularly (literally at least 5-10 deer stop by the garden every day).
I have a 5-year old indoor/outdoor cat; she mostly stays indoors but comes and goes whenever she wants. She's on the small side for an adult cat, but she's very smart when it comes to the outdoors and fending for herself. A couple days ago, I noticed that she had a small patch of fur pulled out on her neck. It was all stuck to her, likely because of dried saliva and/or blood. She had no apparent injuries and no bleeding whatsoever other than this small tuft of fur out of place (I inspected her over and found nothing else). Shortly after that, I noticed something about 10 feet away from the house; an area with tufts of gray fur. There was some of my cat's fur (not a lot), and a lot of something else's fur. I gathered some of it for inspection; there were light gray, somewhat course hairs mixed in with more thick/course, black hairs. My cat has gotten in quarrels with the neighborhood cats before but this looked nothing like cat fur. I did find some of my cat's own fur mixed in with this unknown fur, but like I said it was very little, there was a lot more of the unknown fur than hers, and she appears to be totally fine. Ever since all this happened, I've been making sure to keep her in during the night (to her disapproval, of course).
I think it's also important to note that both my dog (a large yellow lab) and my cat have recently gotten flees. They've never had flees before in their lives.
Furthermore, my boyfriend lives about 5 miles (not even) down the road from us. A few days ago, he said that he saw a gray fox standing nearby the tree line about 20 feet from his house out in broad daylight. After a few seconds, it took off back into the woods.
So, based on all this, I strongly believe that what killed my roosters is a gray fox. I live in northern New England and their habitat range definitely comes up here. I've been trying to get my hands on a night cam to try and catch it visiting the yard at night, especially because I still have that one hen and am planning on getting a couple more to keep her company.
Does anyone have any other ideas? Sorry that was so long and detailed, I just figured the more evidence the more it would help to identify the predator that killed my roosters and if there is indeed a gray fox roaming around the neighborhood.
Thanks for any input!
(ETA: I did get a picture of the unknown gray fur that I collected; I can put it up on here if that would help!)
It was around 6am when I went outside to let them out and feed them. What I found were feathers scattered all over the backyard and one body was found on the edge of the garden, behind which is dense forest and marshland. His entire head/neck area was gone. The other rooster's body was never found. There were separate distinguished piles of feathers from each rooster (I could tell because one rooster was white/orange and one was black/gray); one pile of feathers belonging to one rooster was on one side of the yard, the pile belonging to the other rooster was on the opposite side of the yard. Just based on the feathers scattered everywhere, you could pretty easily tell what had happened where. Like I said the body of the black/gray rooster was never found but I did find a spot in the grass near the garden with black/gray feathers and fresh blood on the grass. The blood appeared to be fresh so the incident had most likely happened around 4-5am, just before dawn. As for the hen, like I said she was in quarantine at the time so she was fine and there were no signs of attempted entry into her coop (such as digging, scratches, etc.)
I live in a suburban, small town with almost 3 acres of enclosed land, most of which is open lawn. Behind the house is mostly dense woods with marshland. A few people around me also own chickens, although I only just moved here recently so I don't know them well enough to ask if they've had any predator problems lately. We have a few cats who live around the neighborhood (not sure if they're feral or just live nearby), but I highly doubt any of them would be the culprit. The only other predators I've ever seen around here are skunks, occasionally possoms, and we have lots of broad-winged and red-tail hawks around here, none of which has ever been a problem. Those are the only predators I've seen in the 2 years that I've lived here. Of course, I know the story might be much different at night. I'm sure if I set up a night cam, I would see a lot more visiting the yard that I've never seen before. I don't think we have any coyotes because I've never heard or seen them, there's too many nearby houses, and there are a LOT of deer that visit the yard regularly (literally at least 5-10 deer stop by the garden every day).
I have a 5-year old indoor/outdoor cat; she mostly stays indoors but comes and goes whenever she wants. She's on the small side for an adult cat, but she's very smart when it comes to the outdoors and fending for herself. A couple days ago, I noticed that she had a small patch of fur pulled out on her neck. It was all stuck to her, likely because of dried saliva and/or blood. She had no apparent injuries and no bleeding whatsoever other than this small tuft of fur out of place (I inspected her over and found nothing else). Shortly after that, I noticed something about 10 feet away from the house; an area with tufts of gray fur. There was some of my cat's fur (not a lot), and a lot of something else's fur. I gathered some of it for inspection; there were light gray, somewhat course hairs mixed in with more thick/course, black hairs. My cat has gotten in quarrels with the neighborhood cats before but this looked nothing like cat fur. I did find some of my cat's own fur mixed in with this unknown fur, but like I said it was very little, there was a lot more of the unknown fur than hers, and she appears to be totally fine. Ever since all this happened, I've been making sure to keep her in during the night (to her disapproval, of course).
I think it's also important to note that both my dog (a large yellow lab) and my cat have recently gotten flees. They've never had flees before in their lives.
Furthermore, my boyfriend lives about 5 miles (not even) down the road from us. A few days ago, he said that he saw a gray fox standing nearby the tree line about 20 feet from his house out in broad daylight. After a few seconds, it took off back into the woods.
So, based on all this, I strongly believe that what killed my roosters is a gray fox. I live in northern New England and their habitat range definitely comes up here. I've been trying to get my hands on a night cam to try and catch it visiting the yard at night, especially because I still have that one hen and am planning on getting a couple more to keep her company.
Does anyone have any other ideas? Sorry that was so long and detailed, I just figured the more evidence the more it would help to identify the predator that killed my roosters and if there is indeed a gray fox roaming around the neighborhood.
Thanks for any input!
(ETA: I did get a picture of the unknown gray fur that I collected; I can put it up on here if that would help!)
