Hello,
Some kind of wild animal attacked and killed one of our 11 week old chickens in broad daylight yesterday. The chickens were hanging out in an open air pen next to our barn. We always practice caution and stay with the chickens when they are in the yard as they are young but I foolishly let my guard down and left them on their own only to come back to a pile of Buff Orpington feathers and a missing chicken. Needless to say, I feel terrible and really guilty. Here are some clues that might be helpful:
1) The attack happened in the afternoon
2) There was a pile of feathers and a beak left but no carcass and no blood.
3) There were no prints as the area is grassy
4) The other young chickens took refuge underneath the barn and had to be lured out after the attack
5) We live in Southern Oregon where there are coyotes, foxes, skunks, raccoons, opossums, red tailed hawks, domestic dogs and one stray cat in our neighborhood (we have seen all of the animals listed in our neighborhood over the past few months)
From what I have read, coyotes mostly hunt at night. Raccoons and possums don't generally drag carcasses off and there would be a decent amount of blood. The neighbor's dog couldnt have broken into the pen without it being super obvious. The cat would likely have left the carcass or brought it to our porch as a trophy (it has done this with field mice). This leaves a fox or a hawk.
My instinct says that it was likely a hawk as we have seen two of them on our acreage just recently. But I don't know much about how and when a fox will attack.
Does anyone have any thoughts/opinions?
Thank you in advance!
RIP Sally..
Some kind of wild animal attacked and killed one of our 11 week old chickens in broad daylight yesterday. The chickens were hanging out in an open air pen next to our barn. We always practice caution and stay with the chickens when they are in the yard as they are young but I foolishly let my guard down and left them on their own only to come back to a pile of Buff Orpington feathers and a missing chicken. Needless to say, I feel terrible and really guilty. Here are some clues that might be helpful:
1) The attack happened in the afternoon
2) There was a pile of feathers and a beak left but no carcass and no blood.
3) There were no prints as the area is grassy
4) The other young chickens took refuge underneath the barn and had to be lured out after the attack
5) We live in Southern Oregon where there are coyotes, foxes, skunks, raccoons, opossums, red tailed hawks, domestic dogs and one stray cat in our neighborhood (we have seen all of the animals listed in our neighborhood over the past few months)
From what I have read, coyotes mostly hunt at night. Raccoons and possums don't generally drag carcasses off and there would be a decent amount of blood. The neighbor's dog couldnt have broken into the pen without it being super obvious. The cat would likely have left the carcass or brought it to our porch as a trophy (it has done this with field mice). This leaves a fox or a hawk.
My instinct says that it was likely a hawk as we have seen two of them on our acreage just recently. But I don't know much about how and when a fox will attack.
Does anyone have any thoughts/opinions?
Thank you in advance!
RIP Sally..
