What took my entire flock at once?

[MaineChick]

Perhaps airborne predators? owls? We lost 5 pullets in a day to Cooper's Hawks. Two explosions of feathers left, nothing more. We would never have known what got them but the hawks came back for more a few days later when we were home, so we saw them when they tried for the remaining 5.

 

[ptochsva]

Some good news - the rooster, two hens, and the guinea turned up this morning. So I am guessing a fox or two came through real fast and the rest of the flock went and hid. Today when I came home they were all waiting in the coop for me to shut them up, much earlier than usual!! There were hours of daylight left.
To answer Mark's question, I keep some roosters for breeding (lost the last of those to a dog) and some because I end up with them whether I want them or not. Some of those have turned out to be the best roosters, though, and really protected the flock. A leftover Cornish cross once fought off a raccoon that had reached through chicken wire and grabbed a hen. I was SERIOUSLY impressed with him.
I like how my eggs taste when my hens can go anywhere and eat anything, but I am thinking I may try expanding the pens and reducing their time truly free-ranging. We used to only have trouble in late summer, when the vixens had kits, which we managed by tying our dogs out. This hit was not typical of our local foxes, but this winter was unusually harsh for this area and the spring has been late and extra cold, or maybe some new ones are around.

Cheers,
Pam

 

[dchickenman]

Quote:
Do not underestimate Red Foxes. These preds (unless you are dealing with a population near the artic circle, in the Great White North of this continent) are imported, invasives - like Snakeheads and Multifloral Rose. They usually work in pairs at this time of year. If they are maintaining a den, they'll usually strip down the birds at a cache location (just as far from the grab as is safe) and carry the food back to the den (usually within a couple hundred yards of the cache). The den will usually be on a South facing hillside, at the base of a big snag, or in the bank itself. They will also setup under unused/abandoned buildings.

Unless one is dealing with an inexperienced fox, or truly wiley chooks, there is usually little or no evidence remaining. Frightened poultry will take off running and then (like Adams put it in Watership Down, they go `tharn') freeze. Foxes pick up `tharn' chooks like kids grabbing up easter eggs. They will attack at whatever time of day is favorable for a kill. As a pred. that can make a flock vanish in a short space of time, I'd have to say that only humans with net traps are as efficient at as rapid a removal from the `range'.

SLW disappearance and winter fox habit: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=31544&p=1

ed: clarity

Imported? From where? Red fox are native to most of North America. Like the coyote, if they show up somewhere you've never seen them before, it would be due to natural expansion, not from being "imported". Unless you live in Australia

 

[NarutoTn]

a groupe of homosapiens

 

[ivan3]

dchickenman wrote: Imported? From where? Red fox are native to most of North America. Like the coyote, if they show up somewhere you've never seen them before, it would be due to natural expansion, not from being "imported". Unless you live in Australia

Actually, I'll continue to treat them just like the Australians are trying to do, and for the same reasons: http://www.columbia.edu/itc/cerc/danoff-burg/invasion_bio/inv_spp_summ/Vulpes_vulpes.htm

(didn't hit the Aussies until the Mid-19th Cent., arrived NA in the early 17th).​