What killed my girl?

[ihavechicks]

I came home tonight to find a rather large pile of feathers. Both of my bantam girls are missing. They always fly out of the chicken yard but stay right by the fence. I know we have both hawks and foxes around (we live in the woods). I think that it was a hawk. We had a near attack about a week ago while they were free ranging. I was able to scare it off & all the bantams were safe. Is there anything that I can do to protect the rest of them? I have read that fake owls work. Any suggestions?

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Somewhere on the web I remember seeing a video of a hawk killing and eating an owl. I can properly find one of a owl killing and eating a hawk.

 

[ihavechicks]

So both bantam girls are gone. I hoped one was just scared and would come back this morning. No such luck. It breaks my heart to think of how they suffered. I never seen so many feathers. It looks like they plucked every one of them. So now I have 3 bantam roosters and no girls.

 

[JanetS]

So sorry for your loss. We lost a hen to a bobcat about 2 weeks ago. We will no longer be letting our chickens free range. We're expanding their run so they have more room. You probably don't want to hear this but whatever killed your hens will probably be back. If possible I would keep your chickens in their pen. Good luck.