I had a similar incident yesterday. We have started letting the chickens free roam in our yard during the daytime and only lock them inside their pen, in their secure coop, before dark. My fiance laughed at the great lengths I insisted we go to in building their fence and coop in order to keep them safe. I have (had) five orpington hens who are very tame and docile, and are approximately 4-5 months old, so they are getting fairly large. They follow us all over the yard begging for treats. Well, when we arrived home yesterday evening, we were sitting in the dining room eating dinner around 5:30 pm and my fiance could see out the window that four of the girls were huddled around what he assumed was a fallen limb outside our coop, frozen in place, but Henny was nowhere to be seen, and she is their "alpha hen". I got up to investigate, and from the porch could see it was not a limb, but very much resembled a pile of feathers...Henny's feathers.
I quickly went to investigate and did find two large piles of feathers, one just outside the gate to their run, and one around the side of the coop, outside the fence. No blood was found, except the bits in the ends of the feathers where the predator had pulled them out at the skin. We searched our entire yard, the road, the woods on the opposite side of the road, and all the other places in the vicinity. We didn't find any remaining trace of feathers or a struggle, and almost thankfully, no body parts. Our property is almost entirely wooded, and we have the typical raccoons, opossum, and even coyotes and a possible bobcat, but all of these only seen at night. Also, we believe it happened just before we arrived home, because the other four girls were still frozen in shock around the feathers, and there weren't any flies buzzing around the bits of blood on the feathers until shortly after we came to investigate.
So, my question is, could it have been a fox, during broad daylight? Or perhaps a hawk, though the area is heavily wooded and there are many obstructions? We do have a nest of red tailed hawks less than a mile from our house...I just don't know what to assume, as we've never had an attack and always thought if one were to happen, it would be after dark. It's our first time raising chickens, and we were anxious to let them free range, since many of our neighbors do it and seem to have no trouble in the daylight hours. We didn't want a noisy boisterous rooster, since we wanted the hens for egg laying, and were wary of keeping a rooster and it being aggressive. However, now I'm wondering if we should, indeed, get one to protect our hens. We do have a medium sized, mixed breed dog, who is completely friendly with the hens, but doesn't hesitate to let us know when there's a strange animal in our yard. But, she is kept in the house while we're gone because we're afraid of her getting hit by a passing car (this has happened to 2 dogs already) and she entangles herself if left out on her dog trolley too long.
I was hoping to find Henny last night, in one piece, just shaken and hiding in the underbrush someplace, but no such luck. And still no sign of her this morning. I left the remaining four hens in the coop, locked up tight today, and don't plan on letting them out until we return home so they can have constant supervision. If it is a fox, won't it keep returning for the all it can eat buffet of chicken dinner, now that it's had a taste? Should we look into electric fencing, trapping, or buy a rooster? I hate the idea of locking them all in their coop all the time, but the idea of coming home to find them missing or, gasp, dismembered is even worse!What should I do?? Sorry for the lengthy explanation, but any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!!
