- Jun 10, 2013
- 494
- 78
- 121
Hi everyone,
We had only two bantam chickens and a small flock of ducks until yesterday when we noticed our little Black Widow (cochin bantam) was missing. Zero blood, just feathers. We looked for tracks could not find any.
They are in a large fenced pen with houses and trees above. Our yard is privacy fenced, so usually we do not have any wild animals in our yard besides birds. We have lived here since 2006 and we have only ever seen two squirrels. We have never had raccoons or possums or anything like that. We have seen a hawk during the summer, but it was spooked by our goats and we never saw it again.
We tracked feathers on the other side of our privacy fence in the neighbors yard, but still no tracks or blood.
Our other little dutch bantam (Busta) is coming in at night for the rest of the winter, because she does not have her snuggle buddy to stay warm. But, our entire duck flock is scared. This morning, we checked on them and everyone was there, but we noticed blood spots on the ground. It could be totally unrelated to a predator because we cannot find the source of the blood, so we are thinking someone broke a nail.
We are fairly new to this stuff, so any help is appreciated.
Our ducks used to be in the same pen with the goats, but we moved them this past fall. Should we put them back with the goats? We have had poultry uncovered for three years and have never had anything come up missing or killed until now.
Sorry about the length of this post. We are devastated about this. My 12 year old daughter is the main care giver and she balled all afternoon and could not sleep. She said she kept waking up praying for the ducks safety. She collected some of black Widow's feathers to make something to remember her by.
PLEASE HELP! THANKS!
We had only two bantam chickens and a small flock of ducks until yesterday when we noticed our little Black Widow (cochin bantam) was missing. Zero blood, just feathers. We looked for tracks could not find any.
They are in a large fenced pen with houses and trees above. Our yard is privacy fenced, so usually we do not have any wild animals in our yard besides birds. We have lived here since 2006 and we have only ever seen two squirrels. We have never had raccoons or possums or anything like that. We have seen a hawk during the summer, but it was spooked by our goats and we never saw it again.
We tracked feathers on the other side of our privacy fence in the neighbors yard, but still no tracks or blood.
Our other little dutch bantam (Busta) is coming in at night for the rest of the winter, because she does not have her snuggle buddy to stay warm. But, our entire duck flock is scared. This morning, we checked on them and everyone was there, but we noticed blood spots on the ground. It could be totally unrelated to a predator because we cannot find the source of the blood, so we are thinking someone broke a nail.
We are fairly new to this stuff, so any help is appreciated.
Our ducks used to be in the same pen with the goats, but we moved them this past fall. Should we put them back with the goats? We have had poultry uncovered for three years and have never had anything come up missing or killed until now.
Sorry about the length of this post. We are devastated about this. My 12 year old daughter is the main care giver and she balled all afternoon and could not sleep. She said she kept waking up praying for the ducks safety. She collected some of black Widow's feathers to make something to remember her by.
PLEASE HELP! THANKS!