DurangoChickens
In the Brooder
When I went out to close up the chickens tonight, and 4 of my very favorite hens were missing.
I took the flashlight out an looked around anywhere that I could think of as to where they would have gone to roost instead of in the coop. We have a 3 acre field that they are able to free range in, we have been letting them free-range in the field since we got our guardian llama in march, and have only lost a few birds since then but only about 1 per month since we began letting them free range... all of which have just disappeared without any sign or missing feathers.
But we have lost 5 within the past 2 days and have only found the feathers of one tonight. After seeing those feathers leading through the fence I decided to walk the perimeter of the field to see if I could find anything else... I found my one silkie hen dead near the fence with her abdominal cavity ripped open and all of her intestines ripped out and spread around her, about 100 feet from the coop. And no other signs of any of the other missing chickens around. We have never had any issue with arial predators and have had chickens for about 7 years.
We are in Southwestern Colorado in a very dry and flat area... does anyone have any idea what it could be and possibly how to keep it from coming back.
I took the flashlight out an looked around anywhere that I could think of as to where they would have gone to roost instead of in the coop. We have a 3 acre field that they are able to free range in, we have been letting them free-range in the field since we got our guardian llama in march, and have only lost a few birds since then but only about 1 per month since we began letting them free range... all of which have just disappeared without any sign or missing feathers.
But we have lost 5 within the past 2 days and have only found the feathers of one tonight. After seeing those feathers leading through the fence I decided to walk the perimeter of the field to see if I could find anything else... I found my one silkie hen dead near the fence with her abdominal cavity ripped open and all of her intestines ripped out and spread around her, about 100 feet from the coop. And no other signs of any of the other missing chickens around. We have never had any issue with arial predators and have had chickens for about 7 years.
We are in Southwestern Colorado in a very dry and flat area... does anyone have any idea what it could be and possibly how to keep it from coming back.
