Help! Several chickens disappeared at one time!!

[ataylor9812]

I am so bummed, eight out of my 18 chickens disappeared last night. I have never had this happen and cannot figure out what could've taken them. I let my chickens out when I get home from work and they put themselves up around dusk and I lock the coop up. I fed and watered them around 7:30pm and let them stay out for a bit longer. I went down to the coop about an hour later and noticed some feathers and one dead chicken. It had a puncture wound on its breast, but that is about the only injury I could find. I ran back to the house to grab a light and when I checked in on my other chickens, half of them were gone!! My husband went out searching with a flashlight because we have some woods and the chickens love to hang out there, but he didn't find a trace of any chickens. He did find another chicken of ours about 100 feet away from the coop and he scared a possum away from it. Therwcis no way a possum could take 8 chickens in an hour and a half is there? I am in Indiana so, we don't have bears or anything. Has anyone had any experience with several chickens being taken in a short time frame all at once? I am so beside myself as to what could have done this.

 

[JanetMarie]

Foxes will kill and take more than one chicken at a time. Right now is when foxes are raisng young, and looking for an easy meal. Better put up some fencing with electric around their area. The fox will be back for more.

Last year after the fox attack here, I put a radio out the entire time the chickens were out, and the fox stayed away as long as the radio was on. That was a solution until we could get the fencing done. It took a lot of time to do the fencing right, but now they have a wonderful protected area, probably an acre.

 

[SueT]

Yikes! That's quite a shock....maybe coyotes, as in a pack of them? Just because you don't see them, doesn't mean they aren't around. Dusk is a dangerous time to be out, but any nighttime predators can be out in the day as welll...
Good luck for your remaining birds!