What got my rooster??

[mprivett]

I have a small flock of Dominiques with two roosters. One of the roos, Cori (beta roo), sleeps outside by himself on our back patio railing because he prefers it to being in the coop with the hens and the other Alpha roo. Yesterday when we got home from work he was missing. We don't know if it happened during the middle of the night or during the day. There were two clumps of feathers (but not huge clumps)--one on the patio with some sickle feathers, and one farther away in our yard with small lighter under-feathers. There is no other trace of him- we looked everywhere around our property and in our neighbors yard. We are so sad

He's a pretty good sized guy, with spurs and pretty strong, so I have a hard time believe something smaller could have done this. Plus there is a strong barbed wire fence behind our property that the predator would have had to cross unless he went to one of the other sides where he could have taken off in the woods. We have had problems with possums and raccoons in the past (and have killed several), but not anything larger. It has been a long time since we have seen any fox. We have never seen coyotes or larger predators and haven't had a problem with any dogs around before. It doesn't look like a hawk attack.

What could have done this? I'm assuming since he didn't come back this morning he is gone

 

[mprivett]

Here is a picture of him from last year in mid-crow. Now he is a little bigger and has spurs.

 

[shmccarthy]

Possibly a dog
Hawks will generally go after a smaller bird
I haven't seen much of possums attacking chickens but it could happen, they usually scavenge though
Raccoons will attack chickens commonly and will completely rip them apart, sometimes covering them with dirt, or rip the head off. I had raccoons get to my flock 3 years ago and they killed all of them, not eating a single one.
Coyotes will do the same thing basically, they'll usually eat though, or bring the animal with them.
I've heard a lot of cats attacking chickens but I wouldn't imagine a cat winning against a rooster. My Maine coon tried getting one of my hens and the rooster chased her off and she hasn't gone near them since.
Foxes will kill a chicken and carry it off.

I'm guessing by the information, either a fox or a dog, possibly a neighbor dog or a stray. Foxes and dogs will usually attack from behind, and clamp down.

 

[aart]

Barbed wire isn't much of a predator deterrent, unless the strands are very close together.
Sorry you lost your roo.

 

[loveckicks]

I was starting to have problems with coons digging around our coop luckily our dog is friendly around the chicken coop so i left the main gate open to our big pen the coop sets in . Amazing how a half pit half lab can detour coons . We have had no more problems with the coons at night or any other animals , thank goodness our dog likes our birds. very sorry for your loss.....

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Fox, coyote, or bobcat in that order maybe with a possibility is a hawk or other raptor like an owl coupled with one of the first three prediators mentioned acting in a scavenger role.

 

[malaryush]

From my experience, if you just see feathers and no body it's likely a coyote or fox. They usually grab & go. A pack of dogs killed about 35 of our chickens within a weeks time last year but left the carcasses behind. A hawk would've done the same especially with a rooster so large.

 

[Lulluby]

It may be a raccoon in the area, When they look my poor annebelle last year, all that was left of her was a small pile of feathers...

 

[mprivett]

Thanks, everyone. I have a hunch it was probably a fox or something similar. Not sure if a raccoon could have taken him off like that? We searched everywhere and no body. We are sad he's gone and miss him

We have one rooster left now to protect the rest of the flock.

 

[SD Bird Lady]

I would say a raccoon. We had a coon that took 6 ducks...one a night. No trace except for blood on the side of the coop where it drug it up over the fence. We caught it on a trail cam and then caught & killed it. They are incredibly strong and sneaky.