Predator took all 5 hens last night! I feel horrible!

[kwaple001]

Hi Everyone, thank you to everyone at this forum as you have all been so helpful! Every night I have a routine which includes checking on my 5 hens and closing their hutch door. I have done this for 5 years. Last night I am assuming I forgot as I noted the main door open this AM. All of my chickens are gone. There are no bodies, bones, etc. - just piles of feathers. I live in town with 2 sides of 8 foot fence and 2 sides of 4 foot fence. Hawks have been my daytime issues in the past as I lost one of my birds two years ago to a hawk in the daylight. I feel horribly guilty. Does anyone know what predator, in a southeastern PA town would just leave feathers overnight, be able to kill 5 birds, and leave nothing more? There are no gaps in the fence bottom and I have 3 dogs who use my yard to run and play....thank you for any information. I truly appreciate it!

 

[kwaple001]

Hi Everyone, thank you to everyone at this forum as you have all been so helpful! Every night I have a routine which includes checking on my 5 hens and closing their hutch door. I have done this for 5 years. Last night I am assuming I forgot as I noted the main door open this AM. All of my chickens are gone. There are no bodies, bones, etc. - just piles of feathers. I live in town with 2 sides of 8 foot fence and 2 sides of 4 foot fence. Hawks have been my daytime issues in the past as I lost one of my birds two years ago to a hawk in the daylight. I feel horribly guilty. Does anyone know what predator, in a southeastern PA town would just leave feathers overnight, be able to kill 5 birds, and leave nothing more? There are no gaps in the fence bottom and I have 3 dogs who use my yard to run and play....thank you for any information. I truly appreciate it!

[Do you think a pack of coyotes may have gotten in and carried them off? It’s their mating season.

 

[Cluckminster Fuller]

The feathers look like when the chickens are riled up and running around. Is it possible they ran and flew over the 4 foot fence so the predator could finish the hunt outside your enclosure? If not, agree it had to be something that could get over the fence and carry them away. I'm always suspicious of hawks and such when there are feathers but no blood, prints or gouges in the ground.
So sorry for your loss. We had several hens butchered by raccoons when our guard dog died. They were able to pry a gap in the chicken wire roof with their paws, climb down a supporting 4x4, kill the hens, but not get them out of the hole. That was quite different in appearance.

 

[ZaHen]

Something popped in my head as I was reading through threads. If you can bring yourself to get chickens again which in my opinion I really think you should. But have you ever thought of maybe adopting rescue hens. It would be giving them a good life again. Do you already have the set up and the heart which are the two main things that those chickens need. Just throwing that out there as a suggestion. And definitely understand healing time being needed

Yes! Came back to say this! All of my girls, over the years, I’ve adopted as adults. They needed rehoming, or in some cases, they were going to be culled, and I was allowed to give them a forever home instead. 5 of my girls are from a factory egg farm. They are the girls who would be “retiring” (still very young!), and would become dog food, basically. They are charming and wonderful. My rescue group is called Second-Hen’d, and there is a Facebook public page as well as private FB group. I’ve attached some pix.
Also, something to keep in mind as you work through your grief and healing, is that your girls had 5 years of happinesses and a great chicken life. “Everybody likes chicken” is a mantra of mine, as I ever continue the “arms race” with our environment’s predators (which can also include loose dogs, feral or loose pet cats, and even humans). Part of keeping chickens is that it is also hard to keep chickens, because, “everybody likes chicken!”. There is also illness. Nothing worthwhile is without risk. And love always means grief one day ~ but life is always more beautiful for it. I lost 2 belovèd girls to a raccoon, and another adored wee friend to a hawk. I lost another beautiful sweetheart to a ruptured oviduct. No new hens replace these others, as they’re all unique individuals; I’ll never not miss them. But, the girls (and Ezra the rescued ) who grace my coops & yard this day, bring me their own unique joy and beauty into my world and life. The pix are of some of my Second-Hen’d girls ~ at release, and then, after blossoming like little, white roses into their new life.

 

[Sheila Weldon]

Hi Everyone, thank you to everyone at this forum as you have all been so helpful! Every night I have a routine which includes checking on my 5 hens and closing their hutch door. I have done this for 5 years. Last night I am assuming I forgot as I noted the main door open this AM. All of my chickens are gone. There are no bodies, bones, etc. - just piles of feathers. I live in town with 2 sides of 8 foot fence and 2 sides of 4 foot fence. Hawks have been my daytime issues in the past as I lost one of my birds two years ago to a hawk in the daylight. I feel horribly guilty. Does anyone know what predator, in a southeastern PA town would just leave feathers overnight, be able to kill 5 birds, and leave nothing more? There are no gaps in the fence bottom and I have 3 dogs who use my yard to run and play....thank you for any information. I truly appreciate it!

 

[ZaHen]

“You apply knowledge that their lives bestowed on you.”.
Now, that’s a quotable quote

 

[the old rooster]

So Sorry for the Loss , I am looking forward to my first flock and im looking at ring spotlight cam for security and video, you can even talk ( or Yell) to any thing that comes near . I live in unincorporated area use the cams for my home and the lights go on when anyone drives near or close to the house . just a thought to give answers to tragic situations

 

[Debby R]

Thank you all for the advice and input. No tracks and no bones or bodies, the ground was frozen last night, just clumps of feathers around the yard. My neighbors nor I heard nothing. Would a fox climb a fence and be able to take the dead chickens over? Do you guys presume that whatever killed each chicken, pulled each one out and ate them there or killed them and took them away? I am just wondering if they suffered as we heard no yelling and there are nothing but feathers left....and how a predator got all 5 at once....I am still in shock....

Search chicken kill forensics. The sites describe exactly what you will find with each different predator. It's not dogs. It's not an owl. I am so sorry. I have cried myself sick over similar losses. Mine no longer free range.

 

[sdsg420]

Don’t know if you have horned owls but they are viscous I had one flying through a 1’ x2’ hole above the gate

 

[kathytales]

Hi Everyone, thank you to everyone at this forum as you have all been so helpful! Every night I have a routine which includes checking on my 5 hens and closing their hutch door. I have done this for 5 years. Last night I am assuming I forgot as I noted the main door open this AM. All of my chickens are gone. There are no bodies, bones, etc. - just piles of feathers. I live in town with 2 sides of 8 foot fence and 2 sides of 4 foot fence. Hawks have been my daytime issues in the past as I lost one of my birds two years ago to a hawk in the daylight. I feel horribly guilty. Does anyone know what predator, in a southeastern PA town would just leave feathers overnight, be able to kill 5 birds, and leave nothing more? There are no gaps in the fence bottom and I have 3 dogs who use my yard to run and play....thank you for any information. I truly appreciate it!

Everything loves to eat chickens! I am near the wilderness and plagued with skunks, raccoons, coyotes and weasels. The worst of these are domestic dogs who kill for sport and leave injured hens behind, or weasels that only suck blood from heads and necks and leave a whole, dead chicken. Weasels can fit through a tiny hole. Raccoons have been known to pull chicken parts through chickenwire. Coyotes with pups will come at mid day right into my yard. Please don’t blame yourself and understand that these bad things happen periodically no matter how careful you are!