What kind of predator leaves no trace of chicken?

[ivan3]

Just to add to Jay262's info re: foxes. Had a Red Fox come right out of the woodline, grab up one of our Gold Sex Link Pullets, and take off. Pullet immediately went into shock (legs/head swinging limply from either side of fox's mouth). Was standing about 10ft. away from the grab and immediately rushed the culprit. Fox dropped what I thought was the dead pullet as it tried to find an escape through thick brush. Fox disappeared and the pullet had miraculously revived, from a pile of `lifeless' chook, by the time I got back from the chase. If I hadn't seen the rush, chomp and run, I'd never have found out what had happened (not a single feather dropped - pullet only required four stitches).

Hope your hen returns!

 

[darin367]

not tryin to burst your bubble on the broody thing... but i would start looking for the predator... he's now had free chicken dinner and will soon return..... coons, fox, coyote etc. will make a chicken vanish without a trace...... get the traps out, load the gun, re-enforce the coop. etc. etc....

 

[mama24]

probably a hawk, imo

 

[brownysfp]

It varies with raptors: sometimes they sit and pluck, sometime gone with not so much as a feather left behind. We lost six in a week, eventually traced to a buzzard's (buteo buteo, the European type) nest about a mile away. before finding feathers I seriously reckoned on human.

 

[LestersFlat]

My bubble is not burst, I believe she is gone, but would certainly be happy if she returned. It has been over a week that she's been missing. Even if she were hiding to raise chicks somewhere, something would have found her by now.

We have way too many predators, and no gun. I guess, as someone else pointed out, this is part of rural life. Even if I had a gun I could not shoot a fox, coyote and especially not a hawk or eagle, all of which I have seen here. The coop itself is very safe, and they all spend the night there. She was taken during the day, or in the early evening before she made her way back to the coop.

I have searched and searched, and literally did not find a single feather from her.

 

[featherz]

Had the same thing happen about a week ago. I am also assuming it was a fox, as my girls are pretty good about hiding from hawks. I free range, so unfortunately I realize I may lose one now and then, but they did spend a week locked up just incase Mr. Fox came back (as I am sure he did). They are also now locked up when I am not home, so hopefully he will find better places to hunt.

 

[Tracydr]

Bobcats will disappear with a chicken, no trace. I had one taking one chicken a night for awhile when I lived 40 miles outside of Tulsa. I finally saw him and was able to scare him of with a shotgun shot up above him. I also got better about closing the chickens in at roosting time because they were being taken at dusk.
Bantams can be swallowed by large snakes, I've lost large guinea keets and eggs to snakes before.
I had a hawk steal a peachick right out of its pen one time. It actually squeezed it through the bars on the ground. The chick weighed about 1 1/2 pounds and the hawk grabbed it and pulled it through the tiny gap in the bars. I wasn't home but my ex-husband took a picture of it. ( why he didn't scare the hawk off, I don't know)

 

[MEchickenfarmer33]

how big is the chicken. sometimes a hawk will take a chicken that is small and fly away with it without a trace.

 

[chicken farmer 1997]

fox

 

[roxyblue]

a hawk just tryed to get one of my chickens.....I ran out and said, "NO mam, uh-uh this is not gonna work." a captured it,got it REALLY mad and it flew off. Oh well lets get to the point, i don't think it was a hawk...they are pretty good at ripping the chickens to bits and the chicken(s) are likely to struggle.