Four chickens missing in three days!

[flockmomma]

I have come up missing four chickens total in the last three days, including my favorite mystery chicken. They were all between the ages of 9-11 weeks old. One Red sex link (11 week old pullet), one Amberlink Roo (9.5 weeks old), one Black Australorp (9.5 weeks old), and my mystery chicken, 9 weeks old. Mystery chicken was heavier, and significantly bigger than, my female sex link. Mystery chicken was also bigger and heavier than my turkey poult (who is about eight weeks old). A 4-5 week old turkey went missing about three weeks ago from a pen with a gap in the lid that was in our garage. I accidentally left our walk-in door to the garage open that night. No feathers, no blood, nothing with the turkey.


With the chicks, they are going missing during the day, not at night. I see some feathers, but no blood, and no bodies. Whatever happened, they were toted off prior to consumption. I found a bit of feathers about 100 yards from our house (we live in southeast wyoming, btw, and no big trees on our ten acres, though some small stands are about 300 yards away). Ground right there looked disturbed, but again, no blood. Have not seen any big birds around when I am home, but all raids have happened when we were not around. Yesterday's attack happened between 10am-4pm. Either I missed the Australorp in yesterday's count, or it went missing while I was gone for about 30 minutes this morning. The sex link went missing while in the late afternoon, while we were over at my parents' house.


Their first fence was too weak, and yesterday's raid resulted in the fence being torn from the top down off a post. Their run, for right now, is smack up against our house. My husband is about 2-3 weeks from having our barn and coop completed. I put up field fencing we have for when we get our goats this summer, and replaced their fencing. If that black australorp got out through the field fencing, she could have been taken this morning. I have since put plastic mesh over the field fencing to keep them from wandering. Our eventual plan will have a seven or so acre pasture in field fencing, and the rest of our property in tight strung barb wire along the perimeter. Other folks are free ranging chickens without issue about 1/4-1/2 mile from us (as the crow flies) without problems. Their full grown birds look to be no bigger than my birds.

I don't know what is getting them, though. I have an outdoor dog, but she is very much not the guard dog, and has no interest in the chickens whatsoever. Good thing she has other redeeming qualities. She is also almost a ten year old bloodhound, btw. Old, arthritic, and just doesn't care about messing with the chickens at all. Our indoor dog is an indoor dog because she would mess with chickens. She is never out except to go to the bathroom or to be put out near her people on a tether. She is a five year old Lab/Basset mix. She hasn't barked or indicated something was around when I have been home.

We used to have an active fox den, until a guy near us probably took care of them because he has geese and turkeys. Den appears unused. I have only seen one coyote, a dying baby that had sought shade in my garden during last year's drought conditions. I have seen a pair of dogs from time to time. A Heeler/border Collie mix (i think), and a short-haired female that had pups earlier this year. They have raided my trash and may be hassling some animals around here. I have friends on the road behind ours that have had a pair hassling their goats, and chasing one of their neighbor's horses. Not sure if it is the same pair of dogs though. I do suspect them. I took a drive around yesterday and finally figured out which house is theirs. They were in a fence at that time, but it could have been hours since the raid on my chickens. Maggie is not assertive with other dogs, btw. She makes a B personality look assertive. She is a homebody, only wandering around our property to find piles of poop to eat (yeah, gross dog, her redeeming quality is being awesome with a six year old hellion).


Any thoughts on what could be getting my flock?

 

[thebanthams]

depending what kind of creatures you have in your area can get them ! Racoons, skunks, rats ,weasels, snakes. etc. You will have to fix your area tigher to keep them out, why not video tape them at night, that way you will know whats getting them

 

[renardsubtil]

Hard to make a suggestion for what's attacking your flock unless you find out what it is that coming to take them.

I suggest maybe a hunting game trail camera. Or for a few bucks less, a motion sensor alarm. The alarm is very easy to setup and you can set the sensitivity low so that you're not getting random branch/leaves setting it off. I plugged the console part into a cheap wall timer so that it only tracks stuff at night when I expect the predators to come out.

 

[flockmomma]

I may have my own answer, and it is NOT one I wanted. First of all, the fence is fixed now so that any non-flying animals cannot get to them. They are locked up at night to boot, and the raids have happened during the day.

Anyway, I was outside most of today, and only saw a distant hawk being hassled by local birds. No interest in my flock. However, the current (temporary) chicken run is right under two of my kids' bedroom windows. They spotted Maggie, our dog I would have sworn had no interest in the birds (she is old, arthritic, and has never shown interest of any kind in them when i have been around) trying to paw at the fencing and following the chickens up and down the length of the run. I had already fixed up problem #2 with the fence (field fencing gaps too big, so I overlapped some mesh and the field fence to fix that).

I found an Australorp wing no more than 50 feet from the house, separated at each joint. Not bitten through. No other signs of any bird carcasses. Maggie is a homebody, so that is the only odd part if she did have anything to do with this. She has been known to paw at doors/windows when she is hungry, and the kids were in their rooms, so she may have been more interested in getting them to feed her than the chickens. It was time to feed her when they saw her near the chicken pen, pacing around.

I will be checking to see if Maggie leaves behind any poo with evidence of messing with my chickens.

FYI, with few trees around here, it is not likely to be raccoons. I have only seen skunks closer to cheyenne, not out here. There probably are a few, but I have never seen or smelled any. They used to have mountain lion issues on the property behind us thanks to some jerks that decided it was a great pasture to stack up wooden pallets, railroad ties, and other junk (near the stand of trees). Some folks had their horses getting hassled by them. It was only here from time to time, but they think it died/moved on close to the time we moved out here. We have found a dead weasel type critter before, when we first moved out here, only time we have seen one. Our property is mostly open, with clusters of Yucca plants. Very much short prairie land type area, where the only trees have been aadded by humans. Jackrabbits are our most common visitors, much to my frustration (big garden here). we saw foxes when we first moved out here, but the fox den appears to be vacant, and we did not see them lasat year (we assume that neighbor shot them for messign with his poultry). Angel has not barked, which I would expect from her if any non-dog was around. Both my dogs don't really bark at much.

 

[JacP]

When the chicken is just gone.... It's a bird of pray, always!
Everything else leaves a trail of feathers... Coons pluck as they go, wheasel type critters usually go in at night, kill the entire flock.. Draining them of blood ripping heads off & pitting them in straight lines.
I'm dealing with a serious eagle problem right now... I hate seeing my girls hurt!!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Not much useful information to go on here. I would guess a Coyote, Fox, Bobcat or Lynx in that order. All these vermin can catch a chicken fast and then leave quickly with their trophy. Since it is fox and coyote pup rearing season, on your next walk about use the wind to your advantage. You can usually smell fox or coyote dens before you can see them from the smell of the rotting prey they have laying around.

Domestic dogs like to play catch with the chickens they catch, resulting in the ground becoming littered with feathers and dogs don't typically eat their victims, they just play catch with them. I guess a wolf or mountain would also qualify but I don't know if you live in wolf or mountain lion territory. An eagle can fly off with a chicken like yours. A large hawk could perhaps make off with a whole chicken as young as yours without to much problem.

I don't know what kind of fence your "first" fence is but the "first fence being pulled down from the top off a post" is strange, like maybe something big and heavy climbed over it. You got any bears? Forget about field fencing (hog wire) and barbed wire if you want to keep vermin away from your turkeys and chickens. These fences are only useful for keeping cows confined on your land, and only then if the livestock truly doesn't want to be someplace else. Barbed wire installed on electric fence insulators and then hooked up to an electric fence charger is one exception. Good luck.

 

[flockmomma]

So far, after installing the taller, sturdier fence, no more missing chickens.

We have seen coyotes and fox before, but our fox den is empty, and the only coyote I have seen is a baby (last year). With so few trees around, that limits some of the predators.

I have seen a second pair of dogs running around. A beagle and an Australian Shepherd. And the first pair I mentioned had an Australian Shepherd too, the one that I thought was a mix.