Disappearing chickens!! What predator would you guess it is?

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Generally a dog will grab a chicken and start tossing and shaking them, they generally treat them like a squeaky toy, and there are feathers everywhere. Sometimes fox or coyote can snatch birds without a single sign, but generally there are clumps of feathers here and there.

Have you lost anymore birds since the padlock?
 
oldhenlikesdogs said:
Generally a dog will grab a chicken and start tossing and shaking them, they generally treat them like a squeaky toy, and there are feathers everywhere. Sometimes fox or coyote can snatch birds without a single sign, but generally there are clumps of feathers here and there.

Have you lost anymore birds since the padlock?
Click to expand...

I haven't lost any since the padlocks were installed! But I also haven't had a chicken leave the safety of their new covered run.
There were a whole mess of feathers behind the coop when I returned from Thanksgiving vacation. All appeared to be from my one California White.
It also very well could have been a coyote. My brother in law (who works on the farm and comes and goes from our property and my father in law's) says he shot one about 300 yards behind the coop this week. A neighbor saw one crossing the highway towards our house a few weeks ago too. We live off a busy highway, but near a lake, open farm fields and horse and cattle pastures.

Brahma Chicken5000 said:
X2 Have you noticed anyone suspicious near your property? Or someone snooping near your property?
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Haven't seen a soul! Other than my brother in law ;) My father in law is my next door neighbor and I have really good friends who live across the highway. No one has seen anyone strange anywhere near our property.

One curiosity I initially had, was maybe the young pup was chasing the hens off when they used to free range and then they were getting snatched up from a predator while away from the safety of the coop. We may never know!!
 
It's good to hear your losses have stopped. Coyote are my worse enemy here. They will continue to return until the buffet is closed or you take care of them. They are extremely smart.
 
oldhenlikesdogs said:
It's good to hear your losses have stopped. Coyote are my worse enemy here. They will continue to return until the buffet is closed or you take care of them. They are extremely smart.
Click to expand...

They are awful! We have a ton of dogs free roaming on the farm and the coyotes don't seem to fear them anymore! We have been sitting out on haystacks in the evenings waiting to take a few out! For now, the problem is resolved and my poor dears will only be able to have supervised free range time.
 
We've had most of our flock disappear without a trace. The last one that disappeared left a trail a feathers though, which lead us to hiding spot under one of the outbuildings. Found a stash of feathers from most of the others that went missing. Tracked down the culprit too. It was a racoon. Found her in a tree nearby, still holding on to our beautiful Henrietta. :hit Needless to say, that raccoon took her last chicken.
 
matchead20 said:
We've had most of our flock disappear without a trace. The last one that disappeared left a trail a feathers though, which lead us to hiding spot under one of the outbuildings. Found a stash of feathers from most of the others that went missing. Tracked down the culprit too. It was a racoon. Found her in a tree nearby, still holding on to our beautiful Henrietta. :hit Needless to say, that raccoon took her last chicken.
Click to expand...

Glad you found your murderer. And glad you eliminated her. too bad it took a while to find her. Your avatar roo is stunning.
 

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