First Loss To A Predator

On Friday morning around 2:30 AM our hens were attacked by an unknown predator. We had four hens, two Buff Orpingtons and two Easter Eggers. I live in the middle of a suburban area in Memphis TN with a relatively large back yard. We have neighbors on every side (none of whom mind the chickens, and few have even noticed their presence). We do have dogs in the neighborhood, but our back gate was secured and whatever it was had to have escaped quickly.

The chickens shrieking woke me up around two-thirty AM. I ran to my window, which faces the back yard so you can see down into it, and I saw two hens, Sparkles the Easter Egger, and Ruffles the Buff Orpington, running across the yard from the direction of our back gate. I threw the window open and yelled, at which point the EE stopped running and fell to the lawn. I ran and awoke my aunt and maybe 30 seconds later we were in the back yard. We keep flashlights by the back door, and we had them in hand.

I did not see any movement at this point in the yard. Nothing going up a tree, over a fence or anything. We found the EE, Sparkles, first, as she was just laying in the lawn. Around her and stretching across the entire lawn (sizable) and to the front corner of our yard were pulled out feathers. Just laying everywhere. We examined the EE and she was exhausted and in shock and missing feathers, but she was ok and nothing appeared to be broken. She was gently relocated to the garage and two other hens were scoped out. The second hen had wedged herself in a corner where the fence meets the house. We examined her, besides large bald spot on her back and shock, she was ok. We put her in the garage as well, where she and Sparkles proceeded to hide in a corner together.

We moved across the yard to the direction we had seen them running from, the back gate and compost pile. There we found Buffy, our other BO. She was surrounded by feathers and her head had been pulled off. We examined the yard, and I think whatever had killed Buffy proceeded to attack the other hens AFTER doing so. There were no tracks that I could see, as that portion of the yard is covered in pine needles. I didn't sleep that night, and in the morning our other EE wandered into the yard. We think she went over into the neighbors yard away from the predator when trouble started. She is totally fine and is missing zero feathers.

*sigh* The one night we forget lock up the coop and this happens. Extra vigilance all around now, for sure. We looked up every tree for coons, but didn't spot any. We don't have any holes under our fences, but it would be possible for something fairly small to get through the back fence. We also have foxes and opossums in the area, and I don't think a dog could have gotten out of the yard so quickly without us seeing. Any ideas as to what this predator may have been?

 

Thanks for your sympathy and suggestions.