Help! Chicken missing! Nothing but a bunch of feathers...

[arwebb8419]

My hen squeaky who should have been name sneaky got out of the run area today while I was gone. I came home and noticed she was missing. She gets out sometimes so I went looking for her. I found a ton of her feathers in a small trail in my front yard, right in front of my patio. Our entire yard is fenced in and we have barb wire over the top, we have 6.8 acres. There is a lot of tall grass on the property that we need to have cut down. There was no blood or anything? I'm really upset and now I'm worried about my other girls?? What could have gotten her??

 

[barred2rock]

Perhaps a fox or coyote dug under your fence? I'd walk the boarder and check for holes.

 

[MartinsPoultry]

I'd say a hawk or even a fox.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Probably a hawk, they pluck before they eat. A fox would just carry it off to eat later.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I think hawk as well.

I would be fixing wherever squeaky got out pronto.

 

[barred2rock]

Probably a hawk, they pluck before they eat. A fox would just carry it off to eat later.

I think hawk as well.

I would be fixing wherever squeaky got out pronto.

When a fox or coyote attacks it will often leave a trail of feathers. Chickens will often drop feathers at an attempt at escape.

 

[arwebb8419]

We did more investigating and there was a really long trail of feathers...really spare but still her feathers and it lead all the way to our neighbors house that they are building?? We contacted our neighbors and they never replied. They have two dogs that run loose sometimes but we've never seen them in our yard. Also my cat of 6 years went missing maybe 4 months ago, and she never leaves the patio of our house. We never knew what happened? Never found any trace. So I'm wondering what is coming into our yard. I don't think it's a hawk?

 

[arwebb8419]

When a fox or coyote attacks it will often leave a trail of feathers. Chickens will often drop feathers at an attempt at escape.

We did more investigating and there was a really long trail of feathers...really spare but still her feathers and it lead all the way to our neighbors house that they are building?? We contacted our neighbors and they never replied. They have two dogs that run loose sometimes but we've never seen them in our yard. Also my cat of 6 years went missing maybe 4 months ago, and she never leavesthe patio of our house. We never knew what happened? Never found any trace. So I'm wondering what is coming into our yard. I don't think it's a hawk?

 

[arwebb8419]

I think hawk as well.

I would be fixing wherever squeaky got out pronto.

We did, we got a larger net that covered the top and sides of their run completely. They go into their coop at night.