What takes a chicken without leaving a trace?

[smarsh2]

i disagree with the "by air" thought. most hawks would not carry a full grown chicken off, and most certainly wouldn't have done it with no feathers left behind. they hit their prey hard and feathers fly. a cooper's hawk can't even carry a pigeon off. a larger hawk could carry it off but wouldn't likely until it had eaten some first. most likely dog family predator that made an easy kill on a unspecting chicken used to dogs being around, thus the clean kill no feather result.

 

[hannakat]

Sadly, I'm not in this boat alone

So many of us have suffered loss.

We don't have eagles or bobcats but do have large hawks, owls, fox, and coyotes.

I kept them in the coop/run until noon today and then set up large shade umbrellas in a couple of the more open areas of the yard....just because.... guess I feel it will give them even more places to hide and maybe cause a bit of visual distraction to the predators. Might just be naive on my part!

 

[southerndesert]

Quote:
X2 canine likely....

 

[hannakat]

Another chicken gone

I started putting big shade umbrellas around the yard for protection but I didn't put them in the yard today and now another is gone. We now have the two 1-year olds and two 3-month-olds. I don't believe this.

We are not going to be able to leave them out now. This has obviously become some preditors buffet. I have no idea what to do since our coop/run was not designed to house them 24/7.

Oh I feel so terrible. Such a happy and funny chicken it was.

 

[gunnarmcc]

I completely feel you pain i lost two today

physically saw the bobcat this afternoon in my yard did a quick round up and realized my 11 week old GLW was gone poor poor bird

so i put them in the coop and locked it up, came back a couple hours later after running some errands and checked on them one of my 18 week old EE's was missing i had forgotten that i had put a 2x4 on the roof to prop it up for ventilation as its been hot lately so either the bird hopped out of the little gap or the bobcat got its paw in there and that was that well at least ive learned my lesson the hard way but i have forsure learned it well going to make the coop completely predator safe.
the two remaining girls are moved into the garage in their coop for the night

 

[briteday]

We watched a coyote snatch a full grown hen at 9:30 AM...broad daylight. He hopped a 6' fence, picked up the hen, turned and looked at us screaming at him, an hopped over the fence and down the ditch.

We live between the cattle ranches and the foothills. The coyotes get accustomed to coming down to feed on calf birthing remains during the spring, traveling up and down the ditch. As their coyote pups get older and need more food (and the calf season ends), the coyotes start taking anything in their path that looks like food. No one in our neighborhood leaves out cats or small dogs without realizing the consequences. We increased the height of our fence, moved the run farther from the ditch, and haven't had any problems since.

 

[hannakat]

Quote:
Oh my....I feel so bad for you! I realize everything has to eat but gosh darn it....not our chickens

Quote:
That would have done me in briteday

. I had no idea a coyote could jump a fence so you just taught me something really important.

Our coop and run are completely preditor proof...what it's not is adequate for lock up 24/7. It's too small and if I open the only door, they come running out so to give them grass or something, it's gonna be tricky pushing things in the fencing.

I need to find out how to care for cooped chickens now. Don't even have commercial grit cause they had access to whatever then needed on the property. I have meal worms growing for supplemental feeding in the winter but they are still too small for feeding cooped birds now. oh gosh....this is gonna be tough on all of us.

 

[chicken crazed 1o1]

Hawk was likely perched in a tree waiting for prey and it likely saw it pecking at bugs in the middle of the garden or trying to dance around the hens and then it flew straight to wards it and grabbed it and flew away personaly thats what i think happend.

 

[Tracyconte59]

We lost our little silky hen last week. They were a little group of six. She also just went missing, no traces of feathers or anything. We don't have foxes around here, but sometimes a certain type of small hawk hangs around here. Sure it was him!! Hope he gets a very bad heartburn!!

I lost one of polish laced girls today. No sign of anything! They free range around the field and yard during the day. Normal my dog or my Roo will let us know if something is out there but nothing. Not even a white feather to be found. And the other girls don’t want to leave the run today.

 

[cmom]

I lost one of polish laced girls today. No sign of anything! They free range around the field and yard during the day. Normal my dog or my Roo will let us know if something is out there but nothing. Not even a white feather to be found. And the other girls don’t want to leave the run today.

This thread is over 10 years old. Many predators will take a bird with no signs. Lessons learned the hard way. I personally have several game cameras up on my property. I was surprised of the number of predators that roam here especially at night. My land is mostly open pasture, no places to hide. They have nice large covered pens with electric wires around the pens and coops and concrete under the gates. Good luck...