Hen mysteriously left for the day, came back with no tail!!!???

[77horses]

OK so Raven, my black Ameraucana hen, mysteriously left for the day when the whole flock was let out to free range...She was acting normal (well, her version of "normal" anyway!

She's always been a bit of a "cooky" hen...A very funny personality

) and I thought, whatever, she must be off somewhere behind the house foraging like she sometimes does. No biggy. I never really thought about it...Went to the beach for a little while, came back, and she wasn't back yet. But the thought never really crossed my mind.

Until finally, I saw her on our neighbor's lawn!

I guess she wandered a little too far and lost track of where she was...Again, no biggy. But when I saw her, for a minute I thought she was a different chicken because she had no tail!!!!???

I thought she was one of those rumpless chicken breeds for a minute, but then when I got closer I knew it was really her. I looked at where her tail used to be and it was just completely, well, GONE!

The feathers seemed to be pulled out clean, leaving no blood or any other apparent injuries.

Whatever she got into on her little adventure today, I'm just glad she made it back safely! In fact I couldn't help but laugh at her because she looks even more silly than she usually does now!

I have no idea what could have happened to her, either. Maybe something tried to catch her? She's a REALLY fast runner so maybe something chased her (like a cat, fox, etc.?) and only managed to pull out all of her tail feathers? Our neighbor's chickens were out at the time and it's possible that they could have pecked all of her tail feathers out, but there's no bleeding or peck marks whatsoever, so I don't think that's it.

After going up to the woods out back of the neighbor's house, I found a bunch (and I mean HUGE clumps) of light animal fur that we have no idea where it came from.

But overall, whatever happened, I'm just glad Raven made it back unharmed...without her dignity, but nevertheless, unharmed!

 

[theoldchick]

What a story she has to tell!

 

[zazouse]

Glad she is ok,

i bet some one tried to catch her and got left with a hand full of tail feathers.

 

[heatherindeskies]

that is exactly how she would look if a human tried to grab her by the tail and the feathers were ready to come out anyway...

 

[77horses]

That's what I was thinking...but why would anyone want to catch her? None of the neighbors tried to catch her.

And I think there may be something else going on in the woods around here, but I have no idea. Last month our neighbors lost a normal, healthy chicken to something and there was millions of the chicken's feathers spread out all over our lawn, like it had just blown up in a big puff of feathers in the middle of the lawn. No blood, and no remains of the chicken. She had just disappeared, leaving all of her feathers behind. And then this happens to Raven, but her feathers aren't anywhere to be found and then we found the huge clumps of unidentified fur up in the woods that weren't there until recently.

And guess what happened today? It was a normal morning and our neighbors were about to leave to their camp for the day, when all the sudden we all here a loud screaming up in the woods that sounds like a cat. We also heard some strange dog-like barking noises. It sounded like a cat and some other animal were fighting, and then we realized it must be the neighbor's cat, Muffin. So we go to see what happened but can't find him or anything else where the sound had come from.

It was just weird...But whatever happened it sounded like something attacked him. Maybe whatever attacked him is what tried to get Raven, too? I don't know, but it just seems strange...The first thing I thought was maybe there's a fox around here, since there are some fox dens in the woods pretty nearby, but we've never actually spotted a fox here before. In a nearby town we saw one wandering in a parking lot. But that's it. If there was a fox around in the woods, I think we would have lost some chickens to it by now since they're always free ranging outside where any fox could attack them if it wanted to. But we've never lost a chicken to a predator like that since 2007, when a weasel killed 3 of our chickens.

Other than that, we've had skunks around here and even a pack of bobcats passes by annually but never causes any problems with us...So whatever is out there right now, if it's anything that can harm our chickens, I just hope it hasn't figured out that they're down here and it can get them if it really wanted to...

Thankfully we live in an area where there's lots of other alternatives for wild animals to live on. I think that's why bobcats haven't bothered us at all, because in the woods there's a lot of other things for them to eat instead of our chickens. Now if there wasn't, of course they might go after the chickens instead once they figured out where they were and if there wasn't anything else in the woods to eat...But there is, so I think that whatever is out there right now won't cause any problems with us as long as there's other things to eat in the woods...at least that's what I hope.

 

[77horses]

Oh and vote for me if ya want to in the funniest pic contest:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=361463


My entry: (post #4)
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=355890

Thanks! After what Raven went through yesterday, I think she deserves to have her picture win a contest!

If only I had a current picture of her without a tail...

 

[Alice EG]

Quote:
I don't know about the rest of the stuff, but this sounds a lot like a hawk attack.

 

[77horses]

Quote:
I don't know about the rest of the stuff, but this sounds a lot like a hawk attack.

That's what we thought, too. Only it wasn't a hawk because it was during the night. So it must have been an owl (we have a lot around here) or something else.


UPDATE: Another one of our chickens went missing this morning. She was in her coop last night, and not there this morning. No traces of anything. All the others were there. About a half hour later, she finally showed up. We found her wandering around behind the garage.

No idea how she got out...The coop is inside the garage, the doors and windows were shut...The only way she got out is if she somehow jumped out the window in the coop, which has a loose screen over it, but the screen was still intact this morning.

It's just kinda strange IMO...