Predator help.

[MIHomestead4]

I would say very good chance it was a dog. My dog killed 4 of our ducks by shaking them and snapping their necks but you would never be able to tell, their wasn’t a single mark or feather out of place on them and he brought every single one of them to the back porch after he killed them. So sorry for your losses it’s always heart breaking losing a pet

 

[jsr5]

Looks like a largish dog. I should know about 3 weeks ago a neighbors dog killed 18 or more of mine in about 15 minutes. and several died of what I suspect were internal injuries from violently beigh crushed and shaken. and a couple the next day from injuries and shock. I had some return and survive that were gone overnight the attack happened just before I went to put them in for the evening. those that ran into the woods to hide found the the woods to be nice and dark like bed time. Some I know had to have died where they hid from either injuries or other varmints overnight. We hunted but hiding chickens can be very elusive.

Anyway my best guess would be a large softish mouthed dog like the black lab that attacked my girls and boys. I hope your other girl survives I would have my doubts. one way or the other she needs alot of warm gentle contact one because of the shock of the attack , another to keep a sharp eye out for symptoms that may arise from injuries. and lastly because she will be missing her flock and depressed hens don't bounce back they wither. IMHOPYMMV

 

[Willowspirit]

Trained hunting bird dogs are supposed to bring it to the owner and release when told to. The straight line thing is definitely what throws me. Maybe an obsessive herding breed, but IDK.

Also the majority of game bird hunters merely indicate or spring the bird for the hunter to shoot. Retrievers bring back birds the hunter has shot. Other dogs tree their game.

 

[bobbi-j]

I don't know what kind of predator that would not leave a single mark on a body. There is no wounds? Not even tiny bite marks?
Is it possible they could have been sick or ingested something?

Weasels can kill without leaving obvious marks. They will bite either in the neck or under the wing, and the only signs will be two tiny little bite marks that you won't see unless you look.

My dog can kill a chicken-sized animal in seconds by shaking it and breaking its neck and not leave a mark. He's a good raccoon and opossum killer, and I once witnessed him killing a tomcat. It was over in less than 10 seconds.

I appreciate all the feedback guys, it really is hitting our family hard at the moment. All your kind responses make us feel at ease a little. It'll nnever take away the loss, we all truly thought it was a bad dream, I can't explain it. I thought it was a sick joke. Just didn't want to accept it was real.

Anyhow I'll take everyones advice, for now we'll concentrate on the poor hen that's still with us.

However we will construct a new pen, and put up CCTV. But in my own opinion I feel the hen that's left should be rehomed, I have never seen a bird so mortified in my life. If you leave her side for a second she's very uncomfortable.

I will take in account of all the helpful posts on the forum to deture this never happens again.

I wouldn't recommend rehoming her. At least not anytime soon. Let her recover from her injuries first. It's hard to rehome one chicken. She's often the bottom of the pecking order, and she has to get used to a new place and new people. Maybe once you rebuild your setup, you can find her some new flock mates. She'd be in familiar territory, so that would be one less adjustment she'd have to make.

I've seen cats do that, although this certainly wasn't a house cat!
Mary

Maybe something like a bobcat or lynx? Possibly a mountain lion? (Big cat of some sort was my first thought.)

 

[JoCoKS]

I wish I found my 3 girls because there was no feather and nothing was disturbed except all my beautiful Rhode Island Reds were gone. Anyone have an idea besides the fact a human grabbed them. I have had no problems with my girls in 3.5 years, everyone was happy and laying eggs like crazy. I got them as chicks at a local hardware store and raised them to keep me company while my wife worked because I no longer could and they brighten my days a lot. I have been thru 6 surgeries to repair my damaged spine from a drunk caused by a drunk with a suspended license for drunken diving who rear end my SUV and destroyed it and my spine. In 7th surgery they put a pump in my back putting morphine into my spine so my girls were my "comfort chickens" keeping me going and not getting very depressed. My wife loved my girls because she could see they were keeping me from getting more depressed. I think the problem came about because of undocumented workers trimming a tree and they saw them and decided they wanted the chickens for eggs or a chicken dinner. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
I have been going crazy looking for pullets (young chickens?) that where close to my home in Kansas or Missouri without any luck. I did find Murray McMurray Hatchery had 4+ Week Old Buff Orpingtons hens and others (I did not want Rhode Island Reds again because they would remind of my lost hens) for $17.54 which I was going to see if we could afford them till they told me the shipping cost and I gave up.
I did find a young man (sounds young), Greg here in Kansas that had 3+ year old Buff Orpingtons hens (and many others) he was having to sell because his wife has stage 4 breast cancer. He had an egg business; he wants $10.00 for a hen and $6.00 for a rooster. I called Greg and found he is around 3.5 hours from my home and there is no way I can drive that far any more so he is going to see what it would cost to send them to me.

If anyone is interested in buying some of these chickens his Craigslist address is:

Original craigslist post:
https://wichita.craigslist.org/grd/6983711881.html
About craigslist mail:
https://craigslist.org/about/help/email-relay

Do not buy all of his Buff Orpingtons because I want 3 of the hens since they are gentle birds and want the hens if I can get them here. If anyone can transport the Buff Orpingtons to Johnson County, Kansas from central Kansas I would pay them for their time and gasoline if we could afford the service. The drunk not only destroyed my back and the SUV but our bank account since we have tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills now from the car accident. I was in perfect health before the accident but not any more, I was worried after the accident my life would go to hell and I considered hanging myself in our garage but I could not do that to my loving wife of 38 years so I did not. Now that I am getting stressed because I lost my girls I am definitely getting even more depressed and wishing I did because I am sick and tired of the pain and not being able to do anything except go to the hospital for help.

 

[Isay Willow]

If you add electric fencing, use a ig tail light bulb connection. wire your electric wire to one side of ig tail and the other side is inserted into hot side of plug ut in a 15w bulb pior to luging into electric. no electric is used untill something akes contac with wire and comletes the circuit. If no weather proof plug is available grt and install a fence charger. The electric system will require you to keep grass and weeds away from the wire. If you do not want to use electric you can use a garlic spray Take a gallon gug and fill with water, cut up 3 to 4 cloves ov garlic and put into water. let set for 3 days strain water int sprayer and spray around your pen and coop. All of these work great Always spray garlic again after a rain.

 

[I_Love_Ducks]

I'm so sorry for your loss, and the uncertainty. Just thinking/writing out loud...what if a good sized dog entered, then got stuck, and did more damage trying to get out? I agree with posters who say the wet feathers, looking like they have been worked over a little bit, look like a dog who has mouthed and carried a bird for awhile, like during hunt trial retrieves.
Forgive my presumption, but all the wood looks quite old and punky. The 4x4 has no fresh, splintered raw wood showing, so I think being punky all through, could have broken if a dog was struggled to get out.

As far as helping your remaining hen: DO NOT TRY THIS with her, I'm just repeating an anecdote.
Years ago I had a sickly brown leghorn poult, maybe 3 or 4 weeks old. My sister's dog got ahold of him and carried him around for a bit before we retrieved him. He immediately got better and was a strong rooster. The Mexican workers nearby said that in Mexico, a sickly chick is put into a steel 55 gallon drum and the drum is beaten to make a very loud noise. Now, this is pure speculation, but what if a huge adrenaline shot induces some sort of physiological response in the chick to start healing it?

We all have anecdotes just as crazy. I hope your little girl does OK, it's hell to see them traumatized.

 

[Jamited]

So last Friday at 5am I let all 6 of my brown layers out there house, and were in a secure pen. I woke up at 6.45am to pure devestaion. All 5 but 1 chicken were dead in the run, but what shocked us as a family more is they were lined up in a row, but the chicken who was alive was in the corner shaking.

Firstly we believed this was a fox, but my gut feeling was telling me it couldn't have been. The whole pen wire was cut from top to bottom and the wood which was solid In the ground was ripped up.

The top of the enclosure far right was snapped in half, I mean thick wood. I'm struggling to figure this one out.

While inspecting the birds there wasn't a mark on them.. No blood, no marks, no feathers what so ever... I took pictures as evidence also but I believe there necks could've been rung or am I wrong?? We don't have cats or dogs either.

We as a family have had chickens here for 5 -6 years, sadly our rooster passed away due to old age 4 weeks before this .And suddenly this has happened.

It's so hard because we have no answers, no feathers, no blood, no marks. Just lined up in a row, and a chicken run completely vandalised at the rear and nothing more.

What should I do with the one I have alive now? I've kept her in a shed under lock and key, but something inside me is telling me this wasn't a predator but could this have been a killing by hunters, people).???

We're in the countryside 2 miles from neighbours, so I'm stumped, at the time of this happening I let them out, fed them, changed water. Went back out to check on them and it was as if I was in a bad dream.

It's the not knowing bit which is hurting our family. Not a noise what so ever, not even a trail. Any answers would be appreciated. Completely stumped abousltely devasted. All our babies gone bar one did I disturb whoever it was?? Because the only one that's alive is petrified.

What on Earth went on, this is killing us as a family just not knowing. If it was a fox etc fine we'd accept that but this is just the oddest thing ever. And its really bothering us all.

All the years we've had chickens they had a rountine of always wanting to come out at 5am.

I feel I've let them and my whole family down,, it's the worst experience I've ever had to deal with.

So last Friday at 5am I let all 6 of my brown layers out there house, and were in a secure pen. I woke up at 6.45am to pure devestaion. All 5 but 1 chicken were dead in the run, but what shocked us as a family more is they were lined up in a row, but the chicken who was alive was in the corner shaking.

Firstly we believed this was a fox, but my gut feeling was telling me it couldn't have been. The whole pen wire was cut from top to bottom and the wood which was solid In the ground was ripped up.

The top of the enclosure far right was snapped in half, I mean thick wood. I'm struggling to figure this one out.

While inspecting the birds there wasn't a mark on them.. No blood, no marks, no feathers what so ever... I took pictures as evidence also but I believe there necks could've been rung or am I wrong?? We don't have cats or dogs either.

We as a family have had chickens here for 5 -6 years, sadly our rooster passed away due to old age 4 weeks before this .And suddenly this has happened.

It's so hard because we have no answers, no feathers, no blood, no marks. Just lined up in a row, and a chicken run completely vandalised at the rear and nothing more.

What should I do with the one I have alive now? I've kept her in a shed under lock and key, but something inside me is telling me this wasn't a predator but could this have been a killing by hunters, people).???

We're in the countryside 2 miles from neighbours, so I'm stumped, at the time of this happening I let them out, fed them, changed water. Went back out to check on them and it was as if I was in a bad dream.

It's the not knowing bit which is hurting our family. Not a noise what so ever, not even a trail. Any answers would be appreciated. Completely stumped abousltely devasted. All our babies gone bar one did I disturb whoever it was?? Because the only one that's alive is petrified.

What on Earth went on, this is killing us as a family just not knowing. If it was a fox etc fine we'd accept that but this is just the oddest thing ever. And its really bothering us all.

All the years we've had chickens they had a rountine of always wanting to come out at 5am.

I feel I've let them and my whole family down,, it's the worst experience I've ever had to deal with.

 

[MROO]

If I had to guess I’d say a dog.

I am SO sorry you have to deal with this; it's absolutely heart-breaking!
I'm with @roosterhavoc . Lots of things could have done this, but my gut says "dog." A wild animal would more likely have eaten or taken something. Dogs, especially well-fed pets, don't think of chickens as food. They're more like moving squeaky toys, They'll catch one, chew on it a bit, then move on to the next once the current "toy" isn't fun anymore ... aka "stops moving." They'll go through an entire flock like that, then trot away looking for more "fun." The fence damage also says "dog" - low, large scale, messy, spread-out chicken wire. I could well be wrong, but you can probably find out pretty easily, as your predator will likely return to see if there's any more entertainment to be had. You'll need to get your hands on a trail camera - even a little cheap one will do the trick. If you can't purchase one, maybe someone you know has one you can borrow.
So, post your camera then please, let us know what you find. Good Luck!

 

[Jamited]

Your story has been in my mind since I read it and saw the pictures. I'm so very sorry for your trauma, but feel this was definitely done by humans. Surely any animal predator would kill to eat and they certainly wouldn't line them up after dispatching them! I would feel very unsettled if it were me and would report it to the police. It's not "just four dead chickens" . It's trespassing on your land, causing deliberate pain and cruelty to living creatures and destruction to your property. I would feel very vulnerable that whomsoever did it would return to do more damage so the police really do need to be involved. Tell your neighbours what happened (I'm sure you've done that already) and maybe put it in the local paper. What's occurred here is by no means trivial, but a sinister act of cruelty and wanton violence and whoever did it needs to know they can't get away with it. Next time they may attack a child or elderly person. I apologise if I seem to be OTT, but this sort of thing really bothers me and shouldn't be ignored. I do hope you keep us informed of any outcome, but in the meantime, I'm sending you my best wishes and kind regards.