I just lost 2 9-12 week old Bantams. I've lost around 10 pullets/hens over the last 1.5 years (all Bantam/Silkies/Seramas) and, except for 2, I never know what happens to them. No blood, feathers, carcasses, parts of chickens, etc. They just ---- disappear. They're there one day and gone the next (all losses happen at night and/or when I'm gone on vacation).
These last 2 were in a separate run partitioned off from my main run. There were 4 pullets in there yesterday afternoon. Now there are 2. The gate was secure. The top tarp covering and then plastic netting over the top was still intact and didn't look like it had been bothered/moved. The bottom that is outside the main run had no gaps or digging under it. Nothing was disturbed/out of place inside the run. No feathers inside the run. The 2 left are uninjured and eating/drinking just fine.
I walk all around, down to the creek, etc. when one disappears. I never find anything amiss. It's always just a mystery.
The 2 I mentioned knowing what happened to them -- my dogs' yard shares a common fence with the chicken run. They were somehow luring the chickens over and pulling them through the 2x4" livestock fencing. This happened twice -- I found TONS of feathers and part of a chicken in the dog yard. I put chicken wire against the livestock fencing and haven't lost another to my dogs.
These last 2 were in a separate run partitioned off from my main run. There were 4 pullets in there yesterday afternoon. Now there are 2. The gate was secure. The top tarp covering and then plastic netting over the top was still intact and didn't look like it had been bothered/moved. The bottom that is outside the main run had no gaps or digging under it. Nothing was disturbed/out of place inside the run. No feathers inside the run. The 2 left are uninjured and eating/drinking just fine.
I walk all around, down to the creek, etc. when one disappears. I never find anything amiss. It's always just a mystery.
The 2 I mentioned knowing what happened to them -- my dogs' yard shares a common fence with the chicken run. They were somehow luring the chickens over and pulling them through the 2x4" livestock fencing. This happened twice -- I found TONS of feathers and part of a chicken in the dog yard. I put chicken wire against the livestock fencing and haven't lost another to my dogs.
