Where did my two babies go?

[307151]

Does anyone have any ideas what happen to my 2 baby birds? I have birds outside 5-7 weeks old. One polish chick disappeared on me a few days ago, never showed up. Today, I counted all my chicks today and found that my white bantam was missing, I know I saw her earlier today.

I would think if a hawk got them, wouldn't there be any evidence? Feathers? I was outside all day with my large dog and rooster, I heard and saw nothing. Althought I did find feathers in both my yard and the neighbors, but it doesn't belong to any of my birds, I'm thinking if belongs to this one bird because I see them nesting in one of our trees and that's where I found the feathers, by the tree.

Last year in Sept I raised 9 babies. I let them outside when they were about 6 weeks old. They were out in the field by themselves only with goats. I found one baby bird had been eaten by what I can only assume a hawk. I only found feathers, blood, entrails, and left over food. At that time, my babies also roosted outside instead of in their coop, we have owls here but none of the owls ever got any of them even though they were out in the open, easy to grab.

So what could have happen to my two babies? We don't have foxes here, the coyotes can't get into our yard, no rats, no snakes besides garden snakes that are very harmless and skittish.

 

[WildWestChick]

Yes if had the same thing happen last year with some of my chicks that were about the same age. We had problems free ranging them because of hawks, an eagle, and a couple of angry crows. My hubby and I never saw it happen but our neighbor (about 5 acres away) saw it happen and would call me. We also had foxes, raccoons, and skunks, and even an owl (one of our ducks used to sleep on the roof) raid our poor coop before we fixed it. Now we've moved and haven't had any problems yet...fingers crossed lol

 

[1001Cochins]

Sounds like a hawk to me. We had chicks being raised by a broody, and they would go through our chicken wire fence into our open front yard. We wouldn't hear anything, but almost every other night, the broody would be missing another chick. We have 2 hawks that will take a chicken every so often. It is very frustrating because they are protected and so there are major fines for shooting them.

 

[JanetS]

We thought our yard was safe with our 6 ft wood fence until the day a bobcat jumped over and grabbed one of our chickens right in front of our teenage daughter. Predators can come from all directions. One thing I have learned since owning chickens is that keeping them safe is a 24/7 job.

Sorry to hear about your missing chicks. It does sound like maybe a hawk.

 

[duckmanjim]

Daytime its likely a hawk! They are a silent predator!