Something took one of my babies!!!

[Hezz]

My husband came inside this afternoon and told me that something killed one of my BO pullets. She would have been 3 months old this coming Tuesday.

I looked everywhere for her, didn't worry about whether she was alive or dead, I just wanted to find her. I found nothing but a big clump of feathers stuck together, but there was no blood anywhere.

My girls free range all day, every day. They even put themselves to bed when it starts getting dark. The only thing I have to do is take a head count to make sure they're all in, and lock the coops up.

Now I'm trying to figure out exactly WHAT it was that took her. I mean it was around 2 pm, so it was fairly early in the afternoon.
I have never had a problem like this before, and I have (well HAD) 45 hens, some are pullets. I'm thinking it was a fox, because there were a couple mornings, a few weeks ago, when I heard all the girls having a fit at around 5 a.m., and sure enough, as soon as I let my dogs out, we saw it run off.

Could it be a fox if there was no blood? I'm not sure what to think, fox, hawk, coyote..... We have all of them around here.

Does anyone know what has this pattern of killing hens in broad daylight, and without a big mess?

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks so much!

 

[sourland]

Fox, coyotes, bobcats are all snatch and run predators that can kill as you have described. The big problem is that whatever you are dealing with will be back. Come up with a plan for protecting the rest of your chickens. Good luck, predators can be persistant.