3 chickens gone, one dead

[KBoR92]

Something got in to one of my coops last night, 1 of the bantams was dead in the coop, no blood and head attached. Rhode Island Red missing, 1 New Hampshire red missing and another bantam. There was 3 different lots of feathers around the garden but no bodies. Do foxes come back for bodies in one night?

The Rhode Island Red and New Hampshire Red were fully grown and very large birds

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I'm guessing fox or coyote. Few other things carry the bird very far away.

 

[chickencheeper]

https://pin.it/vfp3wmg7e6hyjo

 

[KBoR92]

I'm guessing fox or coyote. Few other things carry the bird very far away.

We don't have Coyotes in Wales. It happened at around 3am in the morning. I wasn't home so I don't know what happened. Everything I've read about foxes say they kill as much as they can and leave with one body

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Sorry, I didn't know where you were.
Sometimes they'll kill lots, sometimes just one.
The lime eliminates hawks.
We have gobs of different predators here. The worst are tiny mink and raccoons. I lost a rooster to a pair of coyotes last year.
The closest bears and mountain lions are about 40 miles away.

 

[KBoR92]

We think it was a fox, can't be sure but must have been big to carry away a full grown RIR and New Hampshire Red. One bantam was dead in the coop, no blood or feathers so maybe she was trampled on in the chaos or died of shock? And then 3 individual piles of feathers in different parts of the garden but no bodies. Now we only have 1 bantam and 1 new hampshire red left

 

[lazy gardener]

The piles of feathers in your garden are the MO of a fox. He will kill a bird and go a ways with it, then stop and thrash it for a bit to be sure it is "not only merely dead, but most sincerely dead". He will then take it to his cache spot, and return for an other one. So sorry for your loss. Have you figured how it got in, and corrected that? And do you have a plan in place to deal with him? He will be back.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It could have easily been multiple predators. The dead bantam is the M O of a weasel.
I once had a raccoon pull the siding off the corner of a coop, got in, killed and partially ate two chickens. Then a mink got in and killed every other bird in the building, eating nothing.

 

[KBoR92]

The piles of feathers in your garden are the MO of a fox. He will kill a bird and go a ways with it, then stop and thrash it for a bit to be sure it is "not only merely dead, but most sincerely dead". He will then take it to his cache spot, and return for an other one. So sorry for your loss. Have you figured how it got in, and corrected that? And do you have a plan in place to deal with him? He will be back.

My mother got them a year ago, I was looking after them until recently and would make sure they were locked in for the night. I'm not home much anymore and my mother started getting confident with leaving the run door open all night so they didn't have to wait to be let out in the morning. I think we are rehoming the remaining 2, but for now they're getting locked in again when it gets dark