Vanished Peep mystery

[Chickerdeedoo]

Here's one from the cold case files. Over five years ago our Mottled Cochin bantam hen Peep disappeared without a trace. This happened in the afternoon. We searched our two and a half acre property thoroughly for two days (at the time our chickens had free range of the whole place) and found nothing, not even one feather. The only clues we have are that Peep's companion, Bullet, a black Silkie bantam, was also missing for a while on the day of the disappearance. But she showed up at lockdown time and never told us what, if anything, she knew about Peep. (Bullet died last month, taking any knowledge she had to her grave.) Also, a neighbor's dog, a basset hound, was spotted on the property on the day of the incident (and the day after).
Possible predators in our area: dogs, foxes, coyotes, raccoons, feral cats, hawks, bobcats.
Any ideas?

CD

 

[Msbear]

When chickens are frieghtened because of an attack, they will hide. I suspect that is what happened. The two were meandering around and the mottled got picked off. The other, using its tiny little brain, thought this may be a good time to lay low ...and that's exactly what he did. They'll come out when the coast is clear... or it's bedtime.

eta: Bassets are super sweet dogs but hounds all the same. They are difficult to train, very stubborn and love to chase! We had them growing up as well has rottweilers. The rotts never touched the chickens but it was an ongoing battle with the basset

 

[wannabe_goatmom]

My neighbors chickens used to love to come and eat the fallen seed from under my bird feeders. I liked watching them so I would always pour a little extra on the ground for them when filling the feeder. One day last summer my husband came home for lunch and the chickens were eating the sunflower seeds off the ground. While he was sitting in his truck about 20 feet away a hawk swooped out of our plum tree and grabbed one of the chickens. Then it proceeded to eat the chicken right there in the mulch beside our house. My husband let the hawk eat figuring there was nothing he could do for the chicken now and the hawk must be hungry (hey we all gotta make a living somehow right?) When he got out of the truck to go in and have his lunch he picked up the carcass, we had feathers there for weeks. Needless to say I stopped pouring out extra seed for them after that. So I would say you can rule out a hawk since you didn't find any feathers because they make a huge mess.

All my neighbors chickens were finally killed be raccoons so that's why I decided to get some of my own. Our chickens will be in a hawk proof run. Hopefully it will also be raccoon proof.

 

[MaiaA]

My guess would be coyote. I say this only because I spent hours today reviewing security camera footage after we had a hen come up missing and found a bunch of feathers in the yard (ours was also during the middle of the day). Turns out that the feathers are from one of the hens I still have (the coyote went after her first and she got away). After seeing where the snatched hen was taken from, I went out to look . . .and not a single feather. We have lost a hen before and searched all the property around us without ever uncovering a single trace. I always thought a coyote would leave more feathers. But, after watching it today, I will say that I think that it was a coyote both times.