What killed Bubbles?

[skilove3]

Warning: graphic pics.

My flock of 9 were free ranging in our fenced in yard during broad daylight, as usual. When I came home from work Bubbles my favorite chicken was missing. We looked everywhere for her. She had vanished. The next morning I went out again looking for her and found her by a row of pines (she wasn't there the day before). There were feathers everywhere and no blood. We are devastated and can't figure out what happened to her. She was such a unique chicken - our girl. Any thoughts?

Warning: graphic pics below

 

[thisjed]

Hard to say - there are some prints that definitely look like fox / mink (paw prints) and others that look like raccoon (v shaped ends). See this pic - maybe it will help.

Foxes would typically take the chicken away whereas raccoons would eat nearby - but those paw prints are throwing me off from raccoon. We'll see what others say.

 

[skilove3]

Thank you. Yes we at first thought it was a fox, but then wondered why it left her there - the more I thought about it I figured if it was a fox it would have taken her. I am a new chicken mom - have had our girls since they were a week old - they are 10 months old now, and this is our first loss. I just wish it wasn't Bubbles - she was skinny with a crooked beak and full of personality. We held her all the time and she loved her back rubs. She'd run right over to us all the time - she was like a dog. Anyway, I'm interested to hear what people think because yes the tracks are throwing me, plus no blood, plus whatever it was left her there and seemed to drag her around - there are piles of feathers in two spots under the trees, then where her final resting place was

 

[pallas]

It could have been a raccoon they will sometimes kill just to get rid of a chicken or for fun. But they usually kill a lot of chickens so I can't say for sure. I am sorry for your loss, it's always hard to lose a good hen they are such sweet birds.

 

[Howard E]

Might be a hawk and maybe a big one. They pluck the feathers out with their beaks, and spit them out, so it sometimes looks like a pillow fight has happened. They also like to take kills to the seclusion of a pine tree to eat it in safety. Paw prints may be from a canine who could smell the kill and came to investigate.

If a hawk, it will be back for more. For that matter, whatever it was will be back for more.

 

[100chicklover]

It mite have been a coon because they leave parts of the animal they left a part of my ducks thst they killed it mite of not been a coon because you said there was no blood and there was alot of blood when a coon got my ducks because there was a bloody coon print on the coop

 

[100chicklover]

A coon would also kill alot or come rite back for more and some times they jusg kill the animal because they want to the coon killed one of my ducks anc just left it dead in the coop

 

[sourland]

Hard to say - there are some prints that definitely look like fox / mink (paw prints) and others that look like raccoon (v shaped ends). See this pic - maybe it will help.

Foxes would typically take the chicken away whereas raccoons would eat nearby - but those paw prints are throwing me off from raccoon. We'll see what others say.

Nothing there to reference the size of the tracks, but they do look like fox tracks. Scattered feathers and damage to the carcass look like a raptor kill. Perhaps a fox killed your bird was somehow scared away and a raptor later found and ate her ?