Feathers, disappearing chickens..

[flygirl1973]

We have an automatic door for the coop. I only had 7 to begin with as were just starting out. They are 18 weeks old today. I had my original 3 cockerels and 4 hens. We were letting nature do it’s thing and let the head honcho choose his victims instead of picking them off ourselves. Anyway....with the automatic door I don’t always check to see if they’re all in there. But today I noticed only 5 chickens, 2 boys and 3 girls on their morning rounds . I thought maybe my King George killed off another rooster (we had 4 and 4) but it was odd I was missing a hen as well. I went to the coop to see if there was a body and there were only massive amounts of feathers, no blood and no footprints. We trooped around to see if we could find bodies where maybe the fight happened this morning and he got away when the door opened....but the hen still perplexed me as to why she would be missing too.
I read a post about how a fox will go in and steal birds one by one...so do you think a fox got in before the door closed and took them until he was cut off by the door closing? It closes at 8:30 approx. Pretty dark and I can’t get it to go any earlier...but I’ll be checking tonight for sure. Any ideas? Am I right?

 

[Criticalicious]

What does the OUTSIDE of your setup look like? Do birds free range or locked in a run? Is there a dig skirt or obvious place where fox could get in? Whatever is taking your birds, it will come back for the rest.

 

[flygirl1973]

It’s wooded and hilly. My husband just told me the trail of feathers led to a piece of “comb” in the creek. He’s out checking the hillside now. I have huge rocks around the bottom and no sign of digging. Raccoons I think used to move those around so I have bigger ones like you see now in the photo. None of those have moved. These photos are about a month old. We have a darn camera up but of course it’s not facing the door - duh. It still didn’t capture a thing. It’s being moved today as well.

 

[Soy Milano]

I donno, did you try using the poultry predator identification tool? http://www.poultrydvm.com/predator-identifier.php

 

[flygirl1973]

Um no, never heard of it, just read the posts on this site... Thanks!

 

[ButtonquailGirl14]

Ok, I'm just going to say... Is King George a rooster? If so it is totally unacceptable to have a rooster or cockerel that will kill of chickens! He should be dispatched, as much as I hate to say it. Also, letting extra Cockerels get picked off isn't going to work, they will get the pullets as well.. and besides the practical side, it seems pretty iresponsible to let cockerels get taken by predators.. it would be much more humane to dispatch him with an axe, then let him get torn to pieces while he fights for his life, by some wild animal... I know other may disagree with me, and I don't mean this to sound mean, but I just wanted to make sure you are aware of it.

 

[flygirl1973]

King George is a rooster, and I agree that it’s more humane if I dispose of his lesser pals. Are you saying that because he will kill another male bird of his flock he will also kill a hen? I’m new, but I’ve never read that or heard of it. But I dunno, any one else say the same?
I do agree that it is my responsibility to protect them from predators as much as I can, which is why there are huge rocks and a camera and good fencing on the coop itself.

 

[flygirl1973]

Chicken for dummies (raising and health) indicate that Fox hunt early morning to late evening, and one says one missing bird day = Dog or hawk, and at night = coyote, fox, or owl. It was inside the coop so aerial predators are nixed. My husband followed the trail of feathers up the hill and saw a mangled Roo corpse with head attached. Hen still missing. I haven’t heard from the community what they thought it could be. I did check the predator poultrydvm mentioned above and it came back with a list several long. Fox was included....but this is all academic knowledge.

 

[50-45-1]

I am curious what happend to rooster number 4?
I would make sure that the chickens are inside the coop each night. It is possible for some preditors (racoons) to open some auto doors. I would not continue to trust this auto door and go back to opening them in the morning and closing them at night. Something got inside somehow.
Maybe go back to only letting them out of their enclosure during the daY when you are home.
Good luck tonight. I hope your camera will tell you what is coming around.

 

[Criticalicious]

Please correct me if I am mistaken but your coop looks like a modified prefab and the outside has simple slide latches without a lock - the sort that a raccoon can easily open. Your setup doesn't look secure and being so close to the treeline, you're likely to keep losing birds until you fix it. I can't say enough positive things about electric fencing to prevent ground predators. That would be the quickest, easiest (but more expensive) route to fix your issue.