I'm thinking coon??

[happybooker1]

In April, I Started out with 26+ pullets about 4-5 weeks old when I moved into this house. It already had a coop/run built -- although the run needs some work. I also have almost an acre cleared (2.5 acres total) that the pullets wandered in.

First several nights in the coop I lost 3 pullets -- you all helped me figure out it was a snake. Later I saw it & "relocated it" to the ditch outside the property. No more losses out of coop, ever.

Lost 5 in a horrible storm that blew through one afternoon while I was at work. Gusts of 40+ mph. Flock was free-ranging and 5 didn't return.

The rest: if I wasn't back by 6:30-7:00 to shut them in the coop (they were already in there) I would loose 1. One time I didn't get back until 11 (family emergency) I lost 2.

Lots of feathers, no blood -- just gone. A couple of weeks ago, I got home & opened the car door and heard a ruckus from the coop. Found one chicken 1/2 pulled through the bottom of the fence with her head/neck gone.

I have 2 left. I have started being RELIGIOUS about getting back to shut the coop door (it's a full size door), & have had these 2 for a steady month now.

Have seen dead possums in my yard (dogs killed them), but nothing else but squirrels and snakes.

So..... does it sound like a coon? I live out in the country and the rest of my property is not cleared but fenced from the road on 3 sides. We don't have stray dogs getting in the yard. Plus my dogs would kill them.

 

[DuckMom2017]

Def coon. I let my ducks out at 7am one morning...hubs left at 8...I went out at 9 and 1 was missing. Dern thing pulled her into the woods and ripped her head off, barely ate anything and left her dead. Apparently coons are notorious for grabbing birds by the neck and either eating the head or ripping it off.
Oatmeal cookies are good coon bait....fyi. Put some vanilla flavoring on it and good to go. (Of course follow all of your local laws and regulations )

 

[centrarchid]

Multiple predators. Racoon may be your current player. You need to evaluate your setup and how it is managed to prevent these losses. Storms that take anything other than chicks typically cause damage to home and other structures as well.

 

[happybooker1]

I have made an extensive effort to shut the coop between 6-6:30 for 3 weeks now. I still have the 2 hens. Good so far.

And yes, during the storm we lost 3 big trees. But not on the house thankfully!

 

[Folly's place]

Consider more up grades to your setup! Electrified poultry netting (premier1supplies.com) for your daytime 'free range' time, and shrubs and low shelters in that area as shade and hiding places from hawks. Chickens are jungle animals who prefer that environment to pasture anyway.
A very safe coop and run, so they can be 'on lockdown' comfortably when it's too dangerous for them to be out.
Live traps, at least at night, if you will shoot 'varmits' caught rather than relocating them.
Loses happen to all of us, especially with free ranging flocks, and it's a learning curve keeping our birds safe. All the best, Mary