Animal or neighbor?

[nutmeg259]

A month ago, three of my 5 free range gals were taken during the middle of the day (no one was home.) The only evidence of foul play was feathers, no bodies, not even a drop of blood. So we expanded their coop and only let them free range when I'm outside with them. I ended up getting a few new birds and one was an escape artist. They were in a temporary pen with 6 foot walls (no roof...until last night) and she would fly out during the day when my original gals were ranging. Yesterday, I left at 11:30 and all the birds were in so I didn't think she would fly out. Wrong. Husband came home three hours later and she was gone. A pile of feathers several hundred feet away.... We live in Maine, in the woods, I realize there are lots of predators but the fact that there isn't a drop of blood left behind makes me wonder if my psychotic/angry/hateful neighbor is to blame? We set up a game camera after the last attack and haven't gotten a picture of anything. Thoughts?

 

[Peep_Show]

IMHO, sounds like a predator and not human. Why leave a pile of feathers? Could be a hawk, a bobcat (big fence jumpers). But the MO doesn't sound human.

 

[bobbi-j]

Add to that list fox, raccoon or coyote (yes, any of those will grab a chicken during the day if the opportunity presents itself).

 

[donrae]

Agree it's an animal. Lots of things will kill prey without obvious blood, and carry the corpse away to eat at leisure. The pile of feathers is proof of the prey's struggle. Something like a coyote would just shake it, I'm guessing, then carry it away. I'm just going off when I had a pup kill several pullets by "playing with the squeaky toy". I had a pile of dead birds, no blood. He hadn't punctured the skin much, just shook and tossed them around.