All chickens vanished!

[brittani543]

We have 9 7 week old chickens who have been free ranging for the week and doing great. They have been tucking themselves at night and we close the gate to the coop and all is well. Tonight we got home hours after dark and hoped to see them all in their coop, but instead we found nothing. No chickens, no feathers, nothing in the area disturbed, nothing. We walked our entire half acre or so (all fenced in) with flashlights and found no sign of them.

I know there are all sorts of critters who would like a young chicken, but 9? And with no trace at all? Does anyone have any hopeful wisdom they can share?

 

[sassysarah]

Could they be roosting in the trees? Our neighbors chickens sleep in the trees at night.

 

[sassysarah]

They all probably all found a spot to sleep for the night, Hopefully they will be back in the morning free ranging again.

 

[bobbi-j]

Fox or coyotes would be my guess... Hopefully they'll turn up in the morning, but usually if they're "homed" to a coop for the night, they'll go there.

 

[sassysarah]

Fox or coyotes would be my guess... Hopefully they'll turn up in the morning, but usually if they're "homed" to a coop for the night, they'll go there. 

That would be my guess too, but they said that they did not see any feathers.

 

[brittani543]

I'm hopeful I'll find them out in the morning, but have a bad feeling they're gone. I'm still perplexed by the fact that we found NO sign of any disturbance or struggle. Not 1 single feather after walking our entire yard over and over, nothing in the coop was moved or out of place. But I do thank you all for your hopeful posts.

I'm on Amazon searching for raccoon traps now, that seems to be a likely culprit.

 

[Ravynscroft]

At 7 weeks old, I wouldn't expect to see any feathers if a predator came through and grabbed them... those wouldn't be of any substantial size to try to put up a fight...

Hopefully, they got startled first and found cover or went up in a tree and will show up in morn, but be prepared for the worst, sorry...

 

[Ridgerunner]

Did they show up this morning? If they decided to sleep somewhere else they probably tried to hide. It can be difficult searching in the dark with a flashlight, especially if you have bushes and trees. It can also be a bit challenging finding evidence in the dark. Give us an update about anything you can see this morning. Here’s hoping for the best.

 

[Cluckcluck1215]

I've had three chickens(diffrent times)And Ive come home or walk outside.No feathers, No blood, No body.Not even tracks.Fox is my guess.
Or they went and rooster in trees.
But prepare yourself
I'm so so sorry

 

[brittani543]

GOOD NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!! All 9 are HOME! My husband went out this morning hoping to find them, he came in excited saying he could hear them on the other side of the fence! I ran out and he lifted me up (8 foot privacy fence) and I counted ALL 9! They were all there huddled together! Rather than waking our neighbors and chasing chickens around their yard, we broke off two boards showed them their waterer and they all filed through very quickly! They were all very happy to be back in their own yard, running, flying and chasing each other around. I am elated and so relieved to have them home! I suspected the worse but I am so grateful that now I only need to replace some boards in our fence rather than all of our chickies! Not to mention how excited our 6 year old will be when she wakes up to find all of her chicks are home safe!

Now the mystery of how they managed to get themselves stuck on the other side of the fence. But we've learned our lesson and will be locking them up anytime we leave. Thank you all for your concern and helpful posts!!!