What on earth in happening in my chicken yard????

[mamaella]

Hi there. We have a small flock in an urban area. We started out with six pullets (3 Rhode Island Reds, 1 Ameracauna, 2 Barnevelders) and then one of the reds disappeared right before dusk. We are in an urban area, but are near 7 acres and I know there are large owls and hawks. I assumed a bird had flown off with my little girl, as there were no feathers or anything.
3 weeks have passed. Everyone is getting bigger and I believe the biggest one is actually a rooster, oops. He is not very aggressive, but big. So yesterday another chicken disappeared and there were a few feathers, the downy ones on the inside, in the chicken yard. The chicken yard is a 20 by 30 enclosure made of cedar posts and strong hardware cloth. The feathers were in the middle of the yard. I still thought it was a bird.
Then in the afternoon I found a dog turd full of feathers. We have two shepherd mixes who have not yet interacted with the flocks except they are in the backyard and the chicken yard is within the backyard. The gate was shut but I think a dog could wiggle through at the botttom.
To confuse things further, the chickies have been sleeping on their run and not going into their barn proper for the last week and I have been letting them. Now they are inside at night, which means I manually pluck them off the run and put them inside.
So what on earth is happening? I thought the dogs had become chicken-eaters, but maybe they are being opportunistic and just got a wing dropped by another predator.
Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. We are fortifying the gate and putting the chicks in at night.
The rooster is going back to the farm. He is apparently fairly useless and illegal.

 

[The Wise Little Hen]

I am sorry to hear about your dwindling flock. It could be a dog, especially if there is evidence in the poop. I haven't seen my dog eat plain feathers off the ground, only plain fresh chicken poop. When my dog ate a turtle, I didn't know for sure until I found pieces of the shell in her poop. I was hoping it was lost in the yard somewhere. I was so sad and I know you must be feeling awful too if it was a dog.

How old are the chickens? If they are still small, maybe a cat got one if it was in the middle of the daytime. I know a guy that almost lost a 6 week old chick to a neighborhood cat. It was caught it in the act of leaving the yard with it in its mouth.

If you think it was an attack from the air, bird netting or wires crossed over the top of the run might help with future attacks. There are some many predators that want our chickens, just prepare for everything.

 

[mediazeal]

Sounds like you have a coyote or fox from the 7 acres nearby. A dog would make a ruckus and kill all of them
a coyote or fox will keep coming back but take them to eat, hence the feathers in the poop.

up to you, but I would put them in the coop at night and I would run electric fence
good luck

 

[NotTheMomma]

Is the run covered? Sounds like if they are able to roost on the run edge, then it isn't covered. Perhaps the two that have come up missing flew over the run, and the dog got them. That's what I would figure happened. If the dog got into the run, most likely you wouldn't have any live chickens left. Plus there would have been evidence of digging, and fur left on the hardware cloth, or a hole in the hardware cloth if the dogs chewed there way in.

With finding feathers in the dog's stool, either it was another dog that came into your yard, or your dog did indeed kill a chicken. Also possible that one chicken flew out, was chased by the dogs, and fled into the neighboring 7 acres. At that point, anything could have gotten it, or it could have survived and be within the neighborhood.

Depending on the age, and size of your chickens, it's possible they'll soon be too heavy to fly out of the run. I have 31, and they haven't even attempted it, though I know they probably could because they fly up to roost in the coop. Heavy breeds are less likely to fly out of the run. Game birds, and bantams are smaller and can easily fly over.

I guess to prevent this from happening again, you really need to put either netting or criss cross wire and hang CDs from it (will keep the chickens IN, but won't keep a predator out, unless the predator is also a bird), or a heavy wire enclosure. If I understand your posts correctly, the backyard IS fenced in, with your two dogs allowed full access. Within that backyard is your chicken's run and coop. Your dogs have access to the coop, and run. Would another predator even be able to get into your yard without your dogs going nuts? Could a fox, coyote, possum, coon, or another dog get into the back yard? Do you dogs sleep outside at night? Are they completely outside dogs? Is it possible to keep the dogs inside while the chickens are out, and then out when the chickens are in?

I'm sorry for your loss. HUGS!

 

[NotTheMomma]

BTW, how old are these chickens? Is the rooster crowing? If not, what makes ya think it's a rooster? Some hens have larger combs and wattles, that's why I'm wondering.

 

[mamaella]

Oh, so many questions. I guess this is hard to describe. The chickens have a barn with a covered run attached to it. They are now spending the night inside and can come into the covered run in the morning if they like. The barn and run are inside a fenced area, but there is nothing above as it is a large area- 20 by 30 feet.
This is all in the backyard, which is also home to our two dogs, who are indoor/outdoor dogs. They sleep inside by choice and would not have noticed a nighttime predator unless the intruder was noisy enough to wake them.
This is still a mystery to me, but the fox/coyote theory is a good one, as the birds are gone and no remains are in the yard. There is a lot of heavy cover nearby, outside our yard, and I feel like a small predator could got in and out undetected.
But, how did the dog(s) get the feathers in their poop? I know it is dog poop, not fox or coyote. Maybe a predator dropped a wing or something?
There is no dog fur in the gate or pen, which is also suspicious, as they are heavy shedders.
I will keep an eye on the whole deal and am refraining from getting any more chickens for a while.
Also, we think that one is a rooster because it is the largest and most aggressive with a larger comb and tail. It hasn't crowed and was born April 1-5. Also, my husband is from Thailand and has experience with fighting roosters (I know, yuck.) He is convinced it's a boy. He can also massage the chickens to a near sleep-like state. It's weird.