Dogs or Coyotes?

[IndigoJaguar]

I was gone away for a funeral and while I was gone my family was letting my chickens out and shutting them in. When my dad came to shut them in last night, he found 7 dead and scattered around the pasture. I had 27. 7 to 10 were still around and 10 are completely missing....no bodies...nothing. I wasn't home until tonight so this was the first I was able to look. Any suggestions on wether my 10 missing could still be alive somewhere after two nights and how to figure out what killed them?

 

[drumstick diva]

You may want to have this moved to the predator threads. They could offer better advice than me. There is a chance though that your other birds survived and panicked, either flew away or are hiding. Try putting feed out for them to see if they can be coaxed back. Have your walked your ground, calling for them? If you have thick brush, they may be laying low there. Oftentimes people think they have lost them all, and one by one stranglers that escaped come back home. I hope that is what will happen with your birds.

 

[justplainbatty]

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lol...all is good. A mama and baby coyote? But would they kill and leave seven bodies uneaten?

I would think coyotes would keep retrieving and take everything back to the den. A dog/s would not bother, it was just for sport.
If yo go looking for chickens, check around foundations, under old equipment, someplace no bigger than a rabbit escape.I once found my pair of Millie
fleurs under the edge of my cow barn in a place so small, they needed help to get out.

 

[justplainbatty]

Well, you never know. Last fall, I had a fox attack. It took one bird but a few were missing. As I stayed out, calling to them, looking, finding, escorting back to coop, all but one came back. (excluding the taken one of course). I thought she been gotten had too. Well, she ran far and was either afraid to come home alone or forgot/didn't know her way home. As it turned out, my next door neighbor (an acre away) called the next night to inform me that my hen was roosting on their porch! I went and retrieved her. She was unharmed. So, you just never know. At that time, I had no rooster to call for her to guide her home.

 

[palomasfarm]

My husband is a wildlife specialist who deals with predators daily and he says most likely dogs. Coyotes have pups this time of year, but they are still in the den, not out hunting alongside mom.

Hope your missing chickens come back home.

 

[justplainbatty]

I was gone away for a funeral and while I was gone my family was letting my chickens out and shutting them in. When my dad came to shut them in last night, he found 7 dead and scattered around the pasture. I had 27. 7 to 10 were still around and 10 are completely missing....no bodies...nothing. I wasn't home until tonight so this was the first I was able to look. Any suggestions on wether my 10 missing could still be alive somewhere after two nights and how to figure out what killed them?

So sorry for your loss of the person and of your chickens.

I'm thinking either a dog or a couple of coons. Coyotes wouldn't have left food behind. It only takes one dog or a coon or two to leave that kind of waste and carnage. It might be possible that some birds are well hidden and may not come out for days. I wouldn't bet on it though because if it was coons, they would find the hidden ones most likely.

 

[drumstick diva]

Is there a trail of feathers to follow? Or any sign left by a predator, some fur maybe or pawprints on the ground. Are the wounds similar on the dead ones?

 

[IndigoJaguar]

I did walk all around my property calling for them but it was dusk and 24 hours later. I plan to walk it again tomorrow in the daylight.
Funny. I thought I was in the predator thread. Hmmm.

 

[IndigoJaguar]

There were large paw prints in the mud so raccoons are ruled out....in fact two sizes of paw prints, my dad said.

 

[IndigoJaguar]

I have such bad luck with chickens. I've now lost around 30 birds to dogs....and these were just starting to lay. Grrrrrrr. Time for a guardian dog.
Thanks for the sympathy wishes. Hard week. Husbands father died, lost our second baby two weeks ago and now this.