What the heck happened to my chickens?

[Potter farm]

That is very interesting and I didn't realize that. The strange thing is that I have never spotted a fox once in all my time living here. I know they are here, I've just never seen one. Same with coyote. I know they are here. I can hear them off in the distance sometimes at night, but I have never spotted one on or near my property. It's just strange. Do you know if they are likely to hunt at that time? Between 7:30-9am? At that time it's already upper 80s in south Alabama.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

As far as I'm aware (no expert at all here, just from what I've read), no, it's not common. Foxes usually hunt at dawn or dusk, or during the night. They will come out in broad daylight if they're confident of the surroundings and opportunity presents itself, or if they're very hungry.
We've been here 8 years. I spotted a pair early one morning near the goat pen about 2 years ago. There, and gone. And none since. Until I let the chickens out of their run last week to range, and nearly collided with a fox rounding the corner of the run. at 3:00 in the afternoon. I'd noticed some piles of feathers near that spot. He or she was coming back for the afternoon buffet. So I scanned through our security footage, and found this from a week previous:

He caught that hen, by the way. Spent a moment in the shady area at far right putting her down, then raced away with the carcass to the back pasture, trees and stream.

 

[Potter farm]

Oh wow. That's nuts. We are going to put cameras up. That would solve all my mysteries. Tired of the guessing game when one comes up missing. Why I haven't done it by now is beyond me

 

[BarnyardChaos]

We have cameras trained on all of our livestock pens, and can sit at the kitchen table and watch them anytime. Invaluable. LOL - I even spotted the grandkids playing hide-and-seek, and about to go into a patch where I've known bees to be quite aggressive and lots of poison ivy and poison oak, probably snakes, too. I was able to call to them over the camera DO NOT GO IN THERE!
... adding that to my to-do list when cool weather arrives.... Clean out behind that barn!

 

[Potter farm]

We have cameras trained on all of our livestock pens, and can sit at the kitchen table and watch them anytime. Invaluable. LOL - I even spotted the grandkids playing hide-and-seek, and about to go into a patch where I've known bees to be quite aggressive and lots of poison ivy and poison oak, probably snakes, too. I was able to call to them over the camera DO NOT GO IN THERE!
... adding that to my to-do list when cool weather arrives.... Clean out behind that barn!

what kind of camera system do you use/recommend?

 

[BarnyardChaos]

This is the system we use:
https://www.lowes.com/pdl/CasaCam-4...tent=PLA_Sos-Cameras-Devices-and-Security_PLA

This is our starter system. I wanted something inexpensive, easy to install, and decent video.
We added two more cameras to the system to cover a couple more key areas (it can accommodate 8). It's wireless to the monitor, and can be linked to your WiFi and smart phone. We don't; it's off network for a reason. A very BASIC simple system, with absolutely zero knowledge, it took us 2 hours to install all 6 cameras and calibrate them.

In hindsight: I don't like the flood-light cameras. The night-vision cameras have far better picture, more details. We run the flood-light cameras without the light option because even on the lowest sensitivity, it still picks up bugs attracted to the red LED and triggers the light on and off all night long. We already had a few cheap solar-rechargeable motion detector lights installed in key areas. Those work GREAT and trigger light only if something bigger than a rat moves. (Varmints are used to them now, though - does not deter them one bit. Still, good for security and spotting the thieves at night, furry or not.)

We had planned to learn on this system, then graduate to something better quality. That was 2 years ago. Still like this system just fine.