Missing Hen help

[mkhenderson17]

Ok so my Millie D'Uccles are coming up missing one at a time AND its during the day. BUT I found broken eggs hidden in my barn. So IDK. The hens free range, so could they be setting somewhere on eggs? I think Im just being hopeful :'( All I have left are the 3 Golden Sebrights and my D'Uccle Roo. Im thinking we may have rats in my barn stealing the eggs and maybe a hawk during the day. Someone may be steeling them but they are hard to get so maybe a hawk? Would a Turkey Vulture or Black vulture take them?

Does anyone have any ideas

 

[bryan99705]

Could be a bird or a fox. Hard to tell without more info but suggest you start trapping, set out some overhead cover like brush piles and consider a electric fence

 

[mkhenderson17]

Thats the weird think, there is not any sign of something getting captured. I know coons leave a "scene" behind. Do Fox's leave feathers and stuff behind? The chickens never leave my yard and the barn. We have fox's around but they stay way out in the cornfields.

 

[M.sue]

If their coming up missing during the day I'd say hawk. As for the eggs, some hens will lay in other spots besides their nesting boxes. If the eggs are found out in the open where they are visibly seen then some animal is nabbing the ones the hens are laying outside of the coop.

 

[BrattishTaz]

Hawks can snatch them during the day but there are usually feathers on the ground. Black vultures (not turkey vultures) will occasionally hunt live prey but it is not very common.....there should still be feathers. I'm not quite sure what you have going on there.

 

[mjuenem]

You have fox, so I would surmise that it/they have discovered your chickens and are no-longer staying out in the corn fields. When they have kits to feed they become much bolder. A chicken gone with no feathers is a calling card of fox and coyote.

 

[M.sue]

Black Vultures. Are you referring to crows?

 

[jjthink]

Sadly, every last one will be killed if you don't put them in lockdown right away and for awhile.
JJ

 

[mkhenderson17]

Thanks everyone for the help. I found one little hen sitting on the porch this morning. Catching her will be the challenge because she is our "special child" lol. Last night I put the sebrights and my millie roo in large pens I have in the barn until their new coop can be built, the run WILL have a roof. Thanks again for your help!


Mandy

 

[BrattishTaz]

M.sue :

Black Vultures. Are you referring to crows?

Nope. Big ugly black vultures. They usually feed on carrion but have been known to kill livestock on occasion.​