Lost my first chickens

[moey13217]

Hello- last night my girls were free ranging, normally I only do supervised free range but this time I wasn't outside with them. I looked outside and a fox had one of my chickens in its mouth! I ran outside and scared it away but no chickens have come back. I have found different piles of feathers, do you think each pile represents a chicken? Or is there still hope? I only had six and now I don't have any, is this a lot of chickens for one fox?

 

[Caits Coop]

It's hard to tell with the feathers unless your chickens were different colors. My coop was attacked one night luckily we heard it and ran out, it must have dropped the chicken but we thought he got it for sure. About three days later my hen came back!

 

[Urlec]

Unless the piles are big I would guess the piles are places where the fox stopped to enjoy the meal before getting spooked and moving location to resume eating. From birds in my bait piles in the winter I'm able to find several feeding areas where they stopped to eat in cover before returning to grab a new carcass. By the time a full bird is basically "plucked" the feathers are scattered everywhere.

 

[moey13217]

Thanks everyone. We found two girls 24 hrs later pretty spooked Grateful that we at least have two

 

[Caits Coop]

I'm happy to hear that you found them! Two is better than none!

 

[drumstick diva]

sorry it was only two you find but, still great to hear they are okay

 

[lil lulu]

It's hard to tell with the feathers unless your chickens were different colors. My coop was attacked one night luckily we heard it and ran out, it must have dropped the chicken but we thought he got it for sure. About three days later my hen came back!

This makes me feel so much better. Our neighbors dog got on our land today and my flock had ventured out of the yard onto our lot beside it. My husband heard one of the chickens freaking out and went to see what was going on only to find their full size poodle out where the noise was coming from. I haven't been able to find her or any feathers anywhere and the other 8 have returned. They normally come when I call them but it took a long time to coax them out. I'm hoping she is still just hiding. I thought I heard her in a thicket tonight but she is a speckled sussex so if she was in there she blended well. One of the chickens that returned is missing almost all of her tail so she may have been the one making so much noise.

 

[Caits Coop]

Oh my gosh! I hope your neighbor apologized for not watching their dog! I'm happy to hear most of them came back hopefully your speckle will too!

 

[lil lulu]

Where we live it is pretty common for people to leave their dogs loose. I just had gotten to lax because they normally don't come into our yard and rarely get on our lot any more either because of our dog. I'm hoping my babies stay more alert now. Since the incident they won't let our dog anywhere near them even though he has never been aggressive toward them.