What the heck happened to my chickens?

[Potter farm]

I have a real head scratcher. I've been growing out my roosters to pick out the one I want. They are around 4 months old. I noticed about a week ago that at least two roosters (a black Australorp and a lavender Ameraucana) were chasing a buff rooster off. He'd come back but I realized I needed to make a decision quick. The next day I found the buff along with a RIR hen in the same spot that they were chasing the buff off to the days prior. They were both missing tail feathers. The rir was terrified and I could not get her to come out of the thicket. I decided to round up the roosters that I knew I didn't want so that they could be culled and processed the next day.

The next morning, we let the chickens out to free ranged at 6am like we always do. The cull roosters were confined and we began setting up the defeatherer and other materials needed to process. We decided to have breakfast first before processing. We were inside from about 7:30 - 9 (going in and out the entire time). We never heard anything but we live on a very large piece of property. When we got back to process, we noticed barred rock hen feathers in a pile with no obvious trail. I thought maybe a hawk? We went ahead and processed.

After processing we looked around the property for the rest of the chickens. We found a ton of lavender feathers that led to where that buff and rir were the previous day. As we got closer we saw a small pile of silkie feathers as well. The rir was still there, still terrified. I searched some more and found a Cochin hen hiding in the thicket. She seemed okay but scared. No missing feathers. She eventually came back. I found an Australorps rooster on a different part of the property and he couldn't walk and his back had a giant gaping hole in his back. Too precise for a large animal mouth. I keep looking and close to the Australorp I found a lavender Ameraucana rooster with pretty much identical injuries. They were so bad that they both had to be culled. I had to wait until night fall to find the rir in a tree and took her back to the coop. I noticed she got more agitated the closer we got to the coop. I searched and searched for more chickens with no luck.

The next morning I accessed the situation to see who I was missing. this included a barred rock, silkie, Cochin, and lavender Ameraucana. All hens. I searched all day. I just kept following those feathers and looking around those areas. I finally found my lavender Ameraucana (my favorite girl ) dead, with similar injuries to the roosters. Her head was buried so deep in the pine straw from fear. I still can't decide if she succumbed to injuries or if she suffocated.

It's been 4 days and still no signs of the other hens. So my question is what the heck do you theorized happened in the span of less than two hours with multiple missing/dead chickens with all similar injuries? We have had numerous dogs get on our property and kill chickens. This doesn't seem like a dog at all. Is it possible that a rooster harassed the hens and the other rooster fought it to the death? That seems kind of weird too. They are only 4 months, no spurs but I did see them chasing chickens off to that same exact area that the others were found.

I'm sorry that this post is so long, I just wanted to give everyone a clear picture of the events leading up to the massacre. Any and all theories are welcome and appreciated.

 

[azygous]

The first thing you need to do is provide us with your location on the planet. That just might get us started guessing what predator, a hyena, an ocelot, a coyote, etc. might have been a predator in your location to do this.

By the behavior of your survivors, this wasn't a rooster.

 

[Potter farm]

The first thing you need to do is provide us with your location on the planet. That just might get us started guessing what predator, a hyena, an ocelot, a coyote, etc. might have been a predator in your location to do this.

By the behavior of your survivors, this wasn't a rooster.

I am in south Alabama.

 

[Lor]

Some sort of predator for sure. Any remaining will be in danger of attack.

 

[mowin]

Dog, fox, coyote. Could be anyone of many.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

I believe the areas where you spotted the roosters chasing other chickens to is coincidental, but perhaps a predator (or more than one) were watching and plotting the attack. I'm thinking fox, or possibly a pack of coyotes. Your activities startled it/them and they left dinner behind (coyotes), or it killed as many as it could with intentions of coming back later to feed (fox). The hen with her head buried in the pine straw sounds like fox - they'll try to hide or bury a kill to save it for later. These animals are very active right now, teaching their kits or pups to hunt.
Edited to add: Dogs don't usually cause wounds like that - they kill for sport and often just break the neck. Fox and coyote hunt to survive. Different method, though I'm not an expert at what kind of injuries you'll find.

 

[Buckingham Palace]

I'm so sorry for your loss it must be very hard for you. I hope you manage to keep the rest save

 

[ashcons]

A friend of ours lost most of their flock (8ish) to their own dogs a couple weeks back. The injuries to the back sound a lot like yours. Some of the birds were left where they were killed, others the dogs must have moved elsewhere (2 weeks later, one of the dogs came trotting up carrying the head and neck of a ripe chicken) or the birds took flight and did not come back to the coop area. There were feathers everywhere without bodies and bodies in piles of feathers. They were able to locate a couple of scared birds far from their coop and get them back. One rooster healed up and one hen succumbed to her wounds (deep cuts to the back down to the bone). Other birds they simply never found.

I think with foxes and coyotes, more often than not, they'll secure a kill and take it to consume elsewhere rather than killing a bunch at once. The people posting here tend to lose birds in succession rather than all at once to these predators. I haven't had to deal with fox or coyote issues, just raccoons and rat snakes.

 

[Potter farm]

A friend of ours lost most of their flock (8ish) to their own dogs a couple weeks back. The injuries to the back sound a lot like yours. Some of the birds were left where they were killed, others the dogs must have moved elsewhere (2 weeks later, one of the dogs came trotting up carrying the head and neck of a ripe chicken) or the birds took flight and did not come back to the coop area. There were feathers everywhere without bodies and bodies in piles of feathers. They were able to locate a couple of scared birds far from their coop and get them back. One rooster healed up and one hen succumbed to her wounds (deep cuts to the back down to the bone). Other birds they simply never found.

I think with foxes and coyotes, more often than not, they'll secure a kill and take it to consume elsewhere rather than killing a bunch at once. The people posting here tend to lose birds in succession rather than all at once to these predators. I haven't had to deal with fox or coyote issues, just raccoons and rat snakes.

We had some dogs on our property a few years back and they left a huge mess. Feathers and bodies everywhere with minimal wounds because basically they were just playing and having a grand ol time killing my chickens. The weird thing about this is there would be a pile of feathers and then a light trail of feathers leading all to the same area like they got attacked and then ran (losing feathers along the way) to the same area. The wounds were all on their backs, like where the wings meet, and you could see a gaping hole all the way through the meat and bones. leg/broken leg injuries on the roosters. I should have thought to take pictures of the injuries but I didn't.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

I think with foxes and coyotes, more often than not, they'll secure a kill and take it to consume elsewhere rather than killing a bunch at once.

"So why would a fox kill chickens and leave them? The answer is quite simple. Foxes are opportunistic hunters and if they come across a large supply of prey it is not uncommon for them to kill as much prey as possible with the intention of storing it for later. Foxes will bury what food they cannot consume under leaves or within the snow to ensure they have a meal for a later time. This behavior is often seen in other meat-eating mammals, such as leopards. The unfortunate chickens that are left behind from the attack were likely unable to be carried off and stored for one reason or another."
https://petkeen.com/why-foxes-kill-chickens-and-leave-them/
Source material from Petkeen.com: "Our writing team includes practicing veterinarians and vet technicians, animal trainers specializing in animal psychology, and people who are passionate about the well-being of animals, big and small. We offer practical and helpful advice – backed by research and science – and we provide sources to the research data we find to ensure you are always getting the best and most accurate information and knowledge."