Sneaky Hawk?

[kmuchetti]

I lost another 3 month old chicken last night or during the day, I can't really be sure. We have a large 1 1/2 acre, fenced in backyard, two coops with runs that I left open yesterday while the chickens were out free ranging. First my soon was out with them playing in the backyard with his friends and then I joined them before dusk to give them some treats and lock them up for the night. I could have sworn that all chickens were accounted for and came over for some treats but an hour later I was missing the 3 month old. After closing the coop my son and I looked for her for a half an hour with flash lights, than I went out again when it started to rain an hour later to look again with no sign of her. However this morning we found her body torn apart in the yard. It is the weirdest thing and I don't know what more I can do to get rid of whatever is attacking my chickens; they are supervised, I have a chocolate lab out with them even when I do run in the house, the coops with attached runs are secure and they have access to them during the day if they need it, I have two Roosters, one of which is very pretective and a lot of low lying bushes and fruit trees for them to hide under. What else is there?

Here in North Carolina it is illegal to set a raptor trap but boy am I tempted.

 

[nchls school]

I lost another 3 month old chicken last night or during the day, I can't really be sure. We have a large 1 1/2 acre, fenced in backyard, two coops with runs that I left open yesterday while the chickens were out free ranging. First my soon was out with them playing in the backyard with his friends and then I joined them before dusk to give them some treats and lock them up for the night. I could have sworn that all chickens were accounted for and came over for some treats but an hour later I was missing the 3 month old. After closing the coop my son and I looked for her for a half an hour with flash lights, than I went out again when it started to rain an hour later to look again with no sign of her. However this morning we found her body torn apart in the yard. It is the weirdest thing and I don't know what more I can do to get rid of whatever is attacking my chickens; they are supervised, I have a chocolate lab out with them even when I do run in the house, the coops with attached runs are secure and they have access to them during the day if they need it, I have two Roosters, one of which is very pretective and a lot of low lying bushes and fruit trees for them to hide under. What else is there?

Here in North Carolina it is illegal to set a raptor trap but boy am I tempted.

A fence will not stop many predators. My backyard is fenced too, but a mink dug a hole under the fence in a flower bed where we could not see it. He killed a pullet and I found the body afterwards. I know it was a mink because we caught it in a live trap an hour later.