Disappeared without a trace

[mcdze]

whats the enclosure like .. a dead chicken can lay in an obscure spot unnoticed and hard to see .. not pronouncing doom on ya, just speaking from experience, if theres 'any' place a flat chicken could be check, it sucks to find it and have to deal with that several days later trust me ...

 

[Organic Gal]

When I lost a chicken to predators, the other chickens would run and hide in a corner in the coop. Do you see or hear hawks? My pullets can easily fly over a 4' fence.

I see hawks all the time and one attacked one of my barred rocks in the summer. She wasn't harmed because my neighbor next door scared the hawk away. Its a possibility that the hawk scared the chickens and the two went over the fence; however the Maran didn't have many wing feathers as she was molting. We will see tomorrow. I hope it wasn't a fox.

 

[Organic Gal]

whats the enclosure like .. a dead chicken can lay in an obscure spot unnoticed and hard to see .. not pronouncing doom on ya, just speaking from experience, if theres 'any' place a flat chicken could be check, it sucks to find it and have to deal with that several days later trust me ...

I looked everywhere. There are two large bushes in the enclosure that I looked very carefully under but will look again tomorrow as everything was wet today.

 

[Cee]

I would think 8 weeks old is a little too young. What about an aerial attack, Hawk owl etc?

OP posted ages as 8 months old.

 

[Organic Gal]

Sad news. I found both girls dead in the enclosure under a large rose bush this morning. I believe a hawk scared them under the rose bush yesterday afternoon and went in after them. Its happened before but no loss of chickens. They must have panicked and got stuck. A hawk flew away yesterday low overhead as I was looking around the enclosure for them. Probably waiting to get back to them. That's why I believe it was a hawk.

 

[Wallygators]

Sad news. I found both girls dead in the enclosure under a large rose bush this morning. I believe a hawk scared them under the rose bush yesterday afternoon and went in after them. Its happened before but no loss of chickens. They must have panicked and got stuck. A hawk flew away yesterday low overhead as I was looking around the enclosure for them. Probably waiting to get back to them. That's why I believe it was a hawk.

Sorry to hear that, How big is your enclosure? You must get a net or wire over the top! the Hawk will be back. I have Hawks by me, so I do not let the chickens free range unless we are close-by.

 

[MyChickCraze]

Most likely they got startled and something made them fly out. If they are not flighty birds then they wouldn't have flown out if nothing was bothering them. Did they have a roof on their enclosure?

 

[MyChickCraze]

So sorry to hear that I hope you will find the others. I have lost chicken before and it is devastating.

 

[Organic Gal]

So sorry to hear that I hope you will find the others. I have lost chicken before and it is devastating.

There were only two of the seven missing yesterday and as it turns out they were still in the enclosure(fenced area approx.50ftX 150ft) but dead under a large wild rose bush. This happened once before that one of my barred rocks ran under the rose to escape but my neighbor scared the hawk away. No injuries to the chicken that time.

 

[Organic Gal]

Sorry to hear that, How big is your enclosure? You must get a net or wire over the top! the Hawk will be back. I have Hawks by me, so I do not let the chickens free range unless we are close-by.

The enclosure is a fenced area approx. 50ftX150ft that they free range in all day. I haven't had a problem with hawks except one other time in the early summer. They need more places to hide under. The rose isn't good because they get stuck under it I think. The other five most likely ran under the huge hydrangea I have in their area. They spend most of the day under or around it. I see or hear hawks every day however I live in a rural area and there are lots of places a hawk can find prey. Not sure where the crows were yesterday. They definitely keep the hawks away. The remaining five are in the run today (24ftX8ft). Its plenty big enough for them. The weirdest thing is that the remaining five didn't seem to be impacted. But of course they were not together in the same place the hawk attacked the other two. I'll be more cautious going forward.