What can make a baby chick disappear with no trace?

[GoldenGoober2009]

One of our baby chicks disappeared. We recently adopted six, but after a few days of testing how they interact with our adult chickens, one of them went missing with no trace. Our coop has ten adult chickens and now 5 baby chicks. There is a steel fence around the sides, the walls are secure as well. They live in a separate area, with about an 8x4 foot run for the day, and a 4x4 area for them to sleep in. there is two doors, both were shut. What could have caused this?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Eaten by a snake? Killed and covered or eaten by a hen? Chased into a hidden corner and trapped?

 

[GoldenGoober2009]

Eaten by a snake? Killed and covered or eaten by a hen? Chased into a hidden corner and trapped?

Me and my family (Me, mom, and 6 siblings) searched the entire yard for about an hour, and found not a drop of blood, as well as heard nothing, and none of our hens had a trace of blood on them, and the hens barely acknowledged them.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Is the entire area covered? If not completely covered or if there are gaps something could fly through, I would suspect a bird (hawks obviously but corvids will take chicks as well). If covered, what is the largest gap you have that something could fit through?

 

[StinkyAcres]

Rat?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

We probably need a bit more information. How old are the chicks? Where are you located? A snake won't leave any trace. They'll just grab, swallow whole and crawl off. Depending on the age of the chicks, there are lots of things that could abscond with one with no trace. What is the size of openings in the pen? There are also many predators that can climb any height or type of fencing/walls. Not to mention aerial predators.

 

[GoldenGoober2009]

Is the entire area covered? If not completely covered or if there are gaps something could fly through, I would suspect a bird (hawks obviously but corvids will take chicks as well). If covered, what is the largest gap you have that something could fit through?

The largest gap is a tiny hole under the outer walls, largest thing that could get through is probably a gopher or small mouse, maybe a rat, but even so, there is no way they could have gotten into their sleeping area, as it is a completely shut coop with no holes.

 

[BDutch]

Rat?

I had this once. One chick dead, one disappeared.
Also had small chicks on the grass in a fenced area and one disappeared. I didn’t understand until I saw another chick that went through the fence with 5cm maze chicken wire.

 

[GoldenGoober2009]

We probably need a bit more information. How old are the chicks? Where are you located? A snake won't leave any trace. They'll just grab, swallow whole and crawl off. Depending on the age of the chicks, there are lots of things that could abscond with one with no trace. What is the size of openings in the pen? There are also many predators that can climb any height or type of fencing/walls. Not to mention aerial predators.

Thank you for the detailed response. The chicks were about six days old at the incident. There are no predatory snakes or snakes in general I know of that could have caught them since we live in a suburban environment in the Central Valley. There is also a roof over the coop, so they are safe from the sun.

 

[StinkyAcres]

Six days old is much too young to be introducing them to adult chickens.