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dutchbunny83 said:
I don't know what happened??!!??

I came out to feed my chickens this morning and 3 of my Blue Isbar girls are missing. No sign of them, no feathers, no blood, nothing like they vanished into thin air!
Then I notice my barred rock is hobbling. Picked her up and examined her really well-- no external injuries, no feathers around the run, just a hobble on her one leg.
All the other chickens are perfectly fine. No sign of a struggle anywhere. I re-checked my netting all around the top of the run and it's all sealed. I checked around the walls of the coop and run and there aren't any opennings, no holes dug in, nothing.
My chickens never fight, they don't even do the normal pecking at one another, I guess because they're all young?

Our backyard has a privacy fence all around it, touching 3 other backyards one behind us and one on each side. We even checked all 3 yards in case the Isbars somehow squeezed out of our pen and went in someone else's yard. There is no sign of them anywhere.

I've been out there looking for almost 2 hours it's almost like something unlocked the pen, kicked my barred rock, picked up and carried out the 3 Isbars, then locked the gate behind them!

I am so baffled!!!
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This is why my coops have PADLOCKS on them. After two silkie hens in one pen disappeared with no animal predator sings and than my buff laced polish rooster came up missing his whole tail one night in a different pen (found it laying on the pen floor in a neat pile like whoever just dropped it after he got away) I put padlocks on and haven't had a problem since.
 
Padlocks is a good idea! I don't think a person came and took them, but I guess anything is possible. Better to be safe than sorry! And would keep kids from accidently leaving the gate open.

I hadn't thought of a snake. A snake probably would be able to creep in there where another predator wouldn't. However, I have NEVER seen a snake over by me (not to say there isn't one). We live in the city with no woods or water or anything close to our house. I went and looked for a snake pattern in the run since they've eaten all the grass down to sand and didn't see any marks, but that doesn't mean anything since it rained.

Possibly the barred rock could have been trampled by larger chickens if there was a snake causing her to hurt her leg? Though we never heard anything and they're right out our window.

The Isbars are only about 5 weeks old so they were small enough to be eaten. Though 3 disappeared and 3 chicks the same size (2 marans & another Isbar) were left behind. We had chickens for about a year before we started over and never had a snake come after the eggs or other chicks, so it could be a new one.

Is there a way to check for snakes or trap or something? If he got a good meal I don't want him coming back for more, especially since my exchequer leghorns & bredas are supposed to hatch this week!
 
I am so happy he is doing well... my little one misses him but I know I am a lot happier with no fear of kids being in the run and coop. Well I still have that broody hen. .. I guess I am going to have to try to break her of it...

Glad to hear all is well!



Banriona said:
Not that I know anything myself, but maybe remove all other potential nesting spots first?  I've read a lot on here about people isolating their broodies in their own space with just the one nesting box. 

Completely unrelated note:  "Raven" is doing great!  We've renamed him to "Captain Chook" - "Cap" for short.  After a day or two of "discussing" which of us was head roo he settled right in.  He's now pretty content when I come in to check on him or sit with him.  Quite a happy boy.  Eating well etc.  Will introduce him to the girls in a few more weeks.  Waiting for them to get a bit bigger in case there are any problems with the age difference.  My main concern is that one of my "pullets" is almost certainly a roo. 
Click to expand...
 
Tammy.. I break all the rules.. I don't even use chick starter or raiser. Straight to layer for all my birds, no problems here. So at 31/2 months old..go for the layer. LOL
AND the AM x white Legs are SUPER BLUE EGG LAYERS. They will be either smutty white colored or white with black spots. Odd pea combs and lay a nice big blue egg.
I was making them...but sold off all the breeders and just sold my last 2 hens this weekend. Ya know.....downsizing, to make room for the new breeds growing out.
lau.gif




Dutch...snake, rat or human. Anything else would have left a massacre behind.
hmm.png
 
I don't use DE either. There's no research on it's internal use, and since intestines are more tender than intestinal worms, if it was going to cut up worms it would do worse to the chicken. So, spring and fall worming here, too. Getting them all neatly divided up and staggering the worming means I still get usable eggs.

Padlocks here, too. I've had friends lose entire flocks to the two-legged beast. Expensive, specialty birds. Since my main henhouse is closer to the road than the house is, it's padlocked. And since I have expensive babies out back, it's padlocked there, too. Padlocks. Good for peace of mind.
 
tammyfarms said:
Did you monitor the size of the air cells? How big were they? Were the chicks big in relation to the shell, did they seem really squished in there? Sometimes if a chick gets too big, e.g. small air cell, they can't zip. What was your humidity during days 1 - 18? You might have mentioned this earlier but I can't remember (sorry old brain).

No matter your answer - it could have been nature. Sounds like you had a good hatch for shipped eggs. They are adorable.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I meant to weigh them before incubating them but in my excitement I forgot to so I didn't know how to make up for not knowing the original weight. I am not 100% on the humidity for the first 18 days it was between 20% & 50% first 18 days. Only added a little water once a day to keep the humidity from getting in the teens. They slipped out of the shells really easy once I zipped it around from the hole they started.

I am so proud of them. They figured out how to use the chicken nipples all by themselves!
 

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