Dead royal palm?

[joojy]

Hi,

I only had 1 royal palm female and 1 male. She kept wandering off, I think to sit, but not consistently. Last night she didn't come home, this morning I finally found her nest, it was outside of our fence, then I see white feathers across the street and all over the neighbors yard. What can kill a full grown royal palm? Should I look for her, I'm afraid to, or is there a chance she survived?

I have guard dogs, but because she was outside the fence, they couldn't help.

I took her eggs, she hasn't been sitting consistently, but I have an incubator. I've never used it, but Id like to hatch her eggs.. She was much loved.

I hand raised her, she was so friendly. I have 30 other ducks and chickens, but that one was special. What do I do with the male?
Sorry, I'm really upset.
thanks

 

[KayHartZZ]

I'm so sorry I lost a hen last year because she too insisted on building her nest outside the fence line. In my case there was a trail of feathers for about a quarter of a mile and then a def. kill sight. with the majority of feathers and some blood splash. I'm pretty sure coyotes were to blame. But on the other hand when I was just learning about turkeys I thought a hen had been killed by neighbors' dogs by the amount of feathers and though she had most of her feathers pulled out along her back, she recovered quickly with some careful tending. So if you have the time I would track a bit further if possible. She didn't come back to the barn I had to search for her and found her hiding and quite traumatized.

Please keep us posted. I hope at the very least you can get her eggs to hatch as some consolation if she is truly gone

 

[joojy]

thanks,

I'll go out and look. It helps to know others understand. I am having real trouble setting up the incubator. Brinsea octagon 20 advance. I hope it works.

 

[joojy]

well the feathers stop in an open clearing. no blood, but no place to hide. All the bushes are 100 feet away, but I did look. She had wings. Whatever got her, knew where her nest was and chased her out of it. What is big enough to kill an adult royal palm and take it?

 

[jopheso]

coyotes for sure could do it. Any decent sized dog could do it. Raccoon possibly, but unlikely IMO.

 

[KayHartZZ]

Oh I'm so sorry! It sounds like coyotes. This may be cold comfort but it sounds like she was eaten for food, a purposeful death- on this website I've read about owners losing birds to predators like skunks that remove their heads but don't eat them or dogs that kill for sport but again don't eat them.

We here do all understand,. I hope you can feel better knowing that being well loved is a well lived life. I think your tom will be lonely but ok. Maybe at a later date you can get him (and you) another hen.

I'm sorry I wish I could help with incubator but I've never used one before.

 

[joojy]

thanks for your kind words. I'm just going to spend the day being sad. The dog couldn't stand that I was crying, she had to comfort. Its just odd, that the same night something got her, a possum was killed trying to get a nesting chicken, by my dog. Im sure a possum couldn't catch her, and definitely something was hungry.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

My very large Tom was killed by a raccoon and my hen was killed by a fox while laying.