Seven Chickens Dissapeared without a trace.

[kgalgerud]

Over the past two weeks we have had seven chickens disappear without a trace. No sound, no feathers, no blood. There is no way they can escape their coop. I've checked. Two nights ago we lost three. We put a fifty pound blog in front of the door to their coop and it was moved. We sleep with our windows open and we have a dog that sleeps inside the garage with windows open near coop. I have had chickens in the past and I have not had one time I didn't wake up for a critter as I am a light sleeper. Also we bend over the two layers of wire over itself and clip it with high pressure clamps. It's kind of a temporary coop while we are building a bigger one. The coop itself is made of solid blocks. Our chickens free range during the day and stay close. I have combed over our property and the fields near our house looking for signs. No blood, no feathers, no sound. I heard what sounded like a chicken dying one night about a half mile away. We had one evening (early) where I was in the shower and heard dogs barking (ours was inside and she doesn't hurt chickens, she'll even let them snuggle wih her. After getting out of the shower I went outside to go check and after an hour of looking I had found all of our chickens including one in the ditch halfway down our long driveway with a dog bite mark on her leg. I'm sure it was a dog that night but no sign of dogs. My husband said he has seen two dogs run through our property a couple of times, I have not seen them. I don't know of many animals that could lift the fifty pound block out of the way and get wire open and silently take three chickens without any trace. I'm starting to think someone is taking at least some of them? Am I losing my mind? Our chicken that free ranges the furthest is still alive! I stay up pretty late and keep an eye on the coop lately and have seen nothing. Any ideas? I just can't believe critters could get 7 chickens without leaving ANY evidence.

 

[kgalgerud]

block* not blog***

 

[bobbi-j]

Well, I know coyotes and fox will snatch a chicken and run and leave no evidence, but I'm quite sure they will not move a 50lb block to do so. Nor do I think they're intelligent enough to unclip your wire to get at them. I'm thinking you have some two-legged predators to deal with.

 

[kgalgerud]

One and one more addition, our inlaws live like 100 yards away from us they have chickens too and they haven't had ANY problems this year! We've seen a fox that we scared off (couldn't shoot because neighbor's horses were too close) and we shot a porcupine that we heard before it could even get over to the coop. Other than that we've seen no critters. It's VERY rare that mountain lions come down this low or bigger critters. And haven't heard coyotes at all this year.

 

[roosterhavoc]

Are you positive you are losing them at night? Did you count them? If not it's probably a fox during the day when they are free ranging. Might want to post a pic or two of your set up.

 

[tridentk9]

A game cam might be useful

 

[kgalgerud]

One during the day possibly, or evening. But I'm sure thy are stealing them from the coop as I put them in and count them multiple times to be sure. The coop is solid stacked 12x8x16 concrete blocks and the run is a small but double layer wire, one layer of 4x4 fencing with a layer of chicken wire wrapped around it. We have steel fence posts in the corners with 2x6's wrapped around the bottom and as the frame. No wholes in the wire. Also we had a few spare blocks so we put them around the edge of the base board just in case. The 50 pound block in front of the coop gate is being moved 6 inches to a foot away from it and the wire is being opened to the coop. I've recently been shutting the door to the coop itself as well, but usually allow them to go out into the yard if they want as it is warmer at night. We've had three times were the door/gate into the yard itself was moved. One morning I woke up and they all but one were out and the gate was shut. I thoroughly inspected everything and am 100% sure they could not have go out, especially that early in the morning when it was cold and they were all huddled near the coop. they don't go out when it's cold. This is a temporary coop obviously while we are building a bigger one. My dog is outside most of the time with us working in the garden and whatnot during the day, she has not once noticed anything. I have looked through all the nearby fields and spent probably over 12 hours searching the past two weeks and I have found not a single thing. They are disappearing at night. Our in laws coop is not far from ours, they don't shut their chickens in the coop at night either, they are allowed to go out into their run, and they have had absolutely no issues. So it's just odd to me we would be having issues. They have just a wood door on their gate with an old fashioned metal hook the bent nail into the hole type deal. Pretty sure that'd be easier to open then our redneck rigged gate. So it's making me think it might be someone?

 

[roosterhavoc]

How does your gate close? Latch? Or just pushed shut with a block in front of it. A fox could easily grab the wire in his mouth and pull with all four feet to slide the block out of the way enough for him to get in. Unless you have extremely valuable chickens I doubt someone would be stealing them. If they were they would close the gate behind them and put the block back.

 

[kgalgerud]

Also note the morning I found them out and locked out of their coop. None of them went missing. So however long they were out all of them survived that time.

 

[tlb625]

you need to put a camera up and do a head count before you go to bed or you can find a hiding spot and stay there the whole night