Missing chicken

[bontadeltirolo]

Hi, I just signed up so I'm totally new to this. I live in Fukuoka, Japan and have recently started raising chicken. My chicken run and coop will be ready in a week and until finished I keep my 7 chicken (now 6 weeks old) in a fenced off area in our garden. This morning all 7 were there and at lunchtime one was missing. Almost no feathers in the run (just 5 or 6 very small ones), no blood, no trace whatsoever. I'm totally flabbergasted to what could have happened. We do get the occasional cat around here but when I was a kid we had chicken and as far as I remember when a cat killed a chicken she left a total mess. Does anyone have any suggestions? The area was fenced on the sides and on top. the top part was not really predator proof but if a predator went in wouldn't there be a big mess? Thanks for any suggestions/help. I'M pretty depressed cause I love my girls.... have to tell it to my daughter when she'll come back from school...

 

[Outpost JWB]

So sorry. Unfortunately, this is part of keeping chickens. Not the part that any of us like. If the chicken could get out, maybe it was a hawk or owl. Not really sure what type of predators you have in your area. We have raccoons, hawks, owls, weasel, mink, feral cats. If it were a cat, they don't always leave a mess. If it was an easy catch, the cat would have caught it and ran off to eat it.

My main concern would be trying to figure out what predator got it and preventing it from happening again because once they find a good chicken dinner, they will be back for more! Good luck and keep us posted please.