Only a pile of feathers left-help ID predator?

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Hi All, we are fairly new to poultry ownership, with 2-5 mo old chickens, ducks, and guinea fowl. They are in a secure coop with a run surrounding it. We live in fairly rural Oklahoma with prairie and oak forest bordering the coop, so predators include hawks, raccoons, coyotes, foxes, bobcats, etc. we have been letting the poultry free range in afternoon/evenings with supervision for several months. OK summers are hot, so the birds prefer to hang out in the forest bordering their coop, which has made me nervous but after months with no issues, I had relaxed about it. We let the poultry out late yesterday afternoon, but only sporadically supervised them. By evening, I realized that I hadn’t seen our favorite black pullet, 8Ball, an enthusiastic forager in several hours. In the woods, 30 feet from the coop, we found a few black feathers. Another 30 feet deeper at a woods/prairie border, we found a huge, grisly line of black feathers, some with skin still attached but most cleanly plucked. I could find no blood, but did find very fresh scat, sticky tarry black (“squeezed like toothpaste”) that was about 1/2” in diameter and six inches long. There was a large oval depression in the tall grass (about 4 x 3 feet), too large to be the outline of a predator that would make 1/2” diameter scat. Maybe 8Ball temporarily escaped and the flattened grass is where she was chased and caught again? We looked around for her carcass but found nothing else. I’m trying to figure out the likely predator species to come up with a plan, probably involving tying my large dog at the woods behind the coop when we have the chickens out, combined with supervising more closely. The dog is not chicken safe so there are costs with this plan too, but I’m hoping that poultry will avoid the woods with our dog there, while discouraging predators from setting up another ambush. Fox and coyote that have been eating game seem most likely from my reading. Anyone have experience with something besides hawks that would cleanly pluck a bird and leave not a drop of blood behind? Any way to help poultry be more predator savvy? Those 2 mo guineas can’t stay in the run forever and will eventually need to free range during the day... Thanks for any help! Trying to be practical about this but devastated that we didn’t keep 8 Ball safe...

 

[happyfrenchman]

Sounds like fox or Coyote, but who can say with what little you were able to recover.

First, Welcome to Chickenry.... predators are a regular source of concern.

Your dog is your best bet, but if he is not chicken safe, I cannot imagine what kind of a headache it would be.... I would work on that dog to make him chicken safe. He or she is your best bet against coyotes and foxes.....Other than that, you have to leave them in or it is buffet time.

I am not saying it is easy or even possible with some dogs, but having a dog that you cannot trust around your livestock, would be a serious drawback to that particular dog.

 

[Chilly Lizard]

I'm sorry about your loss. I agree regarding having a great dog. Ours lays amidst the chickens when they free range and keeps everything away including squirrels.

It does sound like a coyote to me.

 

[BreanneRN]

I agree, sounds most like a coyote or fox, wild cats bury their poop, also cats don't usually pluck feathers like canine species do. Unless a dog did it, but it sounds like an experienced predator. And yeah, black tarry stool equals something eating blood.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Thanks all for weighing in. I had been just keeping the dogs away from the poultry so the poultry didn’t acclimate to the dogs, as I have seen a few neighbor dogs show up here. However, I guess at this point that acclimating the dogs and poultry to each other is the lesser evil. For the next week, I plan to keep the birds in the run and walk the dogs through the woods to make any canids feel unwelcome. I make stake my Doberman in the woods while I work a few feet away in the coop to give everyone the idea (the birds that the scary dog is in the woods, the dog that she can hang out quietly and get treats, the predator that the coop isn’t worth staking out). We had a recent random cougar sighting (maybe, one of those crossing the road things with no picture, two weeks ago) so I’ve been concerned about a big cat, but after reading and considering, I don’t think that a cougar could make that smallish scat, despite the alarmingly large depression in the grass. I wouldn’t leave the dog out there without staying nearby, and won’t be letting poultry out without staying near myself for awhile; guess we will see how this all goes. I’m afraid that we have a lot of potential predators, but we also have a lot of space so I’m still hoping to use it with minimal losses. I’m worried about the guineas being out alone when older, but I guess they are one experiment that will work or fail depending on predation. I had hoped that getting guineas into the coop every night would mostly prevent their loss, but feeling a lot less confident about that now. Last question: do coyotes/foxes routinely take the time to pluck every feather and leave no blood? Seems so odd...

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Went back to the scene of the crime after work today. Took pictures of what looks like the predator’s grassy bed (2x3 ft) and the pattern of feather plucking (most pulled intact, some sheared at base). Took both dogs to look for othe signs and found these tracks some distance away. Got the book “Mammal Tracks and Signs” by Mark Elbroch to compare tracks and feather plucking pattern to his descriptions. Based on these items, it looks like a coyote was the most likely culprit.