What killed 4 of my chickens?

[lmadeline146]

Today was supposed to be a good day, but that got ruined when I came home to find 2 of my chickens dead in the yard. Our rooster, Kujo, had feathers EVERYWHERE and had no visible wounds but he’s dead. My favorite Barred Rock Pippy was found a little later with no wounds except for a snapped neck. 9 hens survived and it’s starting to get dark and I don’t see a sign of any others. Barred rock feathers are everywhere and leading into the woods but I’d have to link that to my other girl Kai. No sign of her or Sadie whos feathers were in one area.

There’s no blood anywhere, no tracks, and two missing hens. This would’ve happened around 5pm. We’ve had problems with raccoons, but I doubt this was a raccoon. I found a foxhole a year ago and saw coyote tracks a while back so those are my two suspects.

I feel so guilty. I wasn’t even home to help or hear anything and my favorite girls are gone. And our boy Kujo is too but I hope he did his best to defend my girls.

 

[SmiYa0126]

I'm so sorry. It could have been a dog, they kill for fun, or it could have been a mock hunt of a fox and her kits.

 

[lmadeline146]

I'm so sorry. It could have been a dog, they kill for fun, or it could have been a mock hunt of a fox and her kits.

I don’t think dog just because there were feathers going into the woods in one area that was near an old foxhole. We also don’t live too close to other homes with dogs. If it helps, my rooster was in the middle of the yard and had his feathers everywhere as if he chased/fought off the predator and the other hen I found was closer to the woods with feathers scattered.

 

[blucoondawg]

I lean toward dog every time there's dead birds with nothing consumed. Even with a couple missing, they could be just out of sight into the woods dead or hurt and alive but hiding. Doesn't matter how close you live to others they wander a long ways

 

[TexasBlues]

Can you follow feathers? My wife tracked down one our pullets that a stray dog had caught and carried off. She found the bird alive and rescued it.

 

[lmadeline146]

Can you follow feathers? My wife tracked down one our pullets that a stray dog had caught and carried off. She found the bird alive and rescued it.

I followed a trail of feathers into the woods but they stopped near around 5 fox dens. I couldn’t find any bodies but I did find a ton of recent fox holes and a set of tracks so I’m leaning toward at least one fox, but I’m still unsure why they killed 2 more and left the bodies. We set out a trap and caught a raccoon, but the bodies were intact and it was daytime.

 

[Chick-in]

It's a fox or two.

Dogs are messy