Gone without a trace??

[MaratManor]

Ok so I let my chickens out for about 30-45 minutes every morning and every evening. I live in a neighborhood with a very secure chain link fence. This morning when I came to put the birds back in their coop, I realized one was missing (black sex link @ almost a year old). I looked EVERYWHERE over and over and there's no sign of feathers or anything. I live in South Georgia so I know we have coyotes and foxes, coons and opossums, but the coyotes and foxes are in the country areas...Could a hawk pick up a chicken and fly away? We've had hawk issues before. I have a rooster but nor him or the other hens seemed to be bothered today after the one hen disappeared. Also she was just getting over fowlpox and was molting (either because of pox or not). My hen has never gone broody before either. I'm hoping she's around somewhere, but like I said I searched everywhere for her and couldn't find a thing...

 

[MaratManor]

Ok so I let my chickens out for about 30-45 minutes every morning and every evening. I live in a neighborhood with a very secure chain link fence. This morning when I came to put the birds back in their coop, I realized one was missing (black sex link @ almost a year old). I looked EVERYWHERE over and over and there's no sign of feathers or anything. I live in South Georgia so I know we have coyotes and foxes, coons and opossums, but the coyotes and foxes are in the country areas...Could a hawk pick up a chicken and fly away? We've had hawk issues before. I have a rooster but nor him or the other hens seemed to be bothered today after the one hen disappeared. Also she was just getting over fowlpox and was molting (either because of pox or not). My hen has never gone broody before either. I'm hoping she's around somewhere, but like I said I searched everywhere for her and couldn't find a thing...

I FOUND HER! Why would she be sitting in one spot all day though? She hasn't been laying.

 

[Zoomie]

I would say, probably not a hawk... how much did this chicken weigh? A goshawk, which is a type of hawk that specializes in hunting birds, only weighs 1.5 to 3 pounds. Picking up a 5 pound chicken and then flying off with no trace, is not physically possible. A red-tailed hawk, even though they look really big (and they are) only weighs about 2.5 pounds, so again, not at all likely. Typically if they killed a bird as big as a chicken, then you would find at least part of the dead chicken with feathers everywhere and your other chickens would be freaked out.

I would be more inclined to suspect something like a fox or a dog. I've seen both foxes and dogs climb chain-link fence plus both can jump well, and are big enough to carry off a bird.

I really hope your hen shows up... it is very hard to lose one like that with not even a trace! Keep a close eye on the others; if this *was* a dog, or a fox, it will be back.

 

[Zoomie]

HA! YES! We posted at the same time. HOORAY! Very glad she is OK.