Rooster and 4 hens taken...what was it?

Yesterday...in the middle of the day, I had 5 chickens taken. I know it was during the day since we found some feathers from one of them in an open field with our horses near our house. It is a mowed down field with no cover, and no tall grass etc for a predator to hide in. Our rooster was so good! He would have those hens in the coop within seconds of an airplane coming over! But now he, as well as four of our larger hens are all gone. We have 6 hens left, and 3 of them are pretty tore up. They are missing entire areas of feathers only on their backs, and will not get up to roost. Does anyone know what would have done this? We have only lost one hen before this, and that was to a stray dog over a year ago. There were no tracks, and here are the options and explanations:

1. Fox...but we only have one, and he is smaller then our rooster was and I have seen him near the hens with no interest in taking one (let alone 5)
2. Turkey Vultures...since they are in groups, but they only eat carrion, and they are always here, but have never taken a chicken
3. Hawk...we have one, but I watch him catching mice nearly every morning, and including yesterday morning he had a mouse, and got a small rabbit today
4. Coyote...we have lots, but never seen them out during the day, the horses chase them off if they come in the pasture, and the rooster would have seen them well in advance
5. Wild Dogs...but again...horses attack them. They do run during the day occassionally, but the rooster would have seen them, and more of the hens would have made it back to the coop I think
6. Eagles...they are migrating now, and I have seen parents teaching the young to hunt. They like chickens, and that would explain the back injuries...but we havent seen they around here in a long time

HELP! Does anyone else have any ideas? We have set live traps, but I know that is useless since this was during the day. We found no tracks...but the ground is pretty solid, so even if it were a dog etc I probably wouldnt find tracks. We already killed our badger two years ago that killed our entire first flock. If I at least knew what I was looking for, it would help. I am just affraid of loosing the rest of my chickens, and Bob the duck. Plus we have a new baby chick that just hatched out of the blue.

Melissa

This smacks of domestic dogs - although you should have been able to recover the bodies of the chickens, since the dog kills I have witnessed they did not eat them. If coyotes are hungry, they would do the same except they would carry off the chickens into cover and eat them. Sorry you lost your livestock...

I am just so frustrated. I thought the same things. The one hen we lost to a dog, he did eat it. It was a wild dog, and we found pieces of the hen, and a large fresh pile of dog poo right next to it. But this time...only feathers of one hen, no pieces, and no feathers from the other four chickens. One of our neighbors witnessed the pack of wild dogs attacking a fawn last year that was with its mother. He was able to kill one of them, but said there were several...maybe 7? Although I have never even found prints from them on our land, and we have 20 open acres. There is lots of easy game out here for coyotes and the dogs...but we are really high elevation compared to the other chickens, etc...so I dont know.

we think badger or canine like fox or yote

Coyotes have been so bad this year, and BOLD, they have been on the news frequently. Steeling cats and other domestic animals. Looking for the easy meals! I am so sorry for your hens and roo! I understand your frustration. Something grabbed two of my dads chickens. One hen got away but died the next day. It is so hard to say what it was. There was so many feathers that marked where the attack happened. They do believe it was a coyote though. I am sorry! :(

I agree with silkie. It sounds like another badger has taken up residence or another canine suspect.

I am SO sorry for your loss. I can sympathize for your frustration. Its bad enough to lose them, but almost worse to not know what did it so you can protect the rest. :*-(

Sounds like whatever it was, took the kill back to it's young to feed them.

Mcamden: It makes me sick, and angry. Sorry for your great loss. Boy after all that you shared with us I would personally disagree with the coyote and wild dogs, also with the badger idea. It sounds much more like eagles, and not like hawks. If you found lots of feathers of one, it could be that an eagle would feed itself, and possible carry some off leaving no other evidence, especially if they are training their young. Not an expert but when you analyze the behavior of the alternatives, I still think Eagles. Haystack.

Are there a lot of Eagles in IA? I have seen only one bald eagle around here. But there are Golden eagles. So maybe that is what got my dads birds. He lives near rhe Montazuma wildlife refuge. Thanks Haystack.

I lost 3 full grown Jersey Giant roos the exact same way. I found white hair on the fence where he got in.. it was the neighbor's dog. I've seen him over here many times since. Only at night though. One night he got 11 chicks. Ate 6 and left 5. Again, white hair on the fence.
I swore a domestic dog wouldn't eat them, but I was wrong.. One of our well fed pets wouldn't.. but not everyone cares for their animals.
I'm so sorry for your loss. I know the horror of walking up on a murder scene all too well. I hope you find out and you and your birds get to heal and be safe.

Sorry to say this, but usually when any dog or cat gets a taste of eggs OR chickens, it's very hard to break them from eating them. Years ago, one of our neighbors' dogs kept stealing eggs out of our nests. These were expensive game eggs. DH talked to the neighbor, and he said his dog wouldn't do that. We kept our dogs tied up, as per the law. Dh poisoned an egg, to be sure to get the culprit. Sure enough, the dog was dead in our orchard. They still denied it. I told her the dog would still be alive if he hadn't stolen another egg. That was the end of it!

Wow! All kinds of stories. We do have lots of eagles here. We live near the Missouri river, that is home to most of the bald eagles in our country along with the mississippi river. We dont often see more then one, but if there was a family out hunting...it could make sence, especially since we only found feather of one hen, but no one else.

I am going to saddle up a little later this morning and go for a ride to see if I can find anything else. I will head down to the creek where the coyote den, and see if there is any evidence. If so...I have a brother who hunts coyote. I know I cant and wont kill them all, but maybe I can at least get him to scare them away from our land. If its the eagles then there is nothing I can do but keep the hens locked up. I do have bird bombs loaded here, so if I do see one, I will certainly scare it off.

My poor hens left are really stunned, and now will let me walk right up to them and pick them up. Surely if anything comes back, they will be taken. I collected the rest of the eggs, and put them until a broody hen. She agreed to sit on them. That will be our on ly chance to get a new rooster that is related, so far all of our roosters have been the son of the previous.

Good luck with your family! It's bad to have to lock them up, but better than dead, I guess! Happy Thanksgiving!

It wouldn't surprise me if you had bald eagle or some other eagle type problem. They used to appear in Oklahoma on the "borders" of civilization as soon as it got miserably cold.

They migrate here every winter starting in ealry November. We are at a higher altitude then any of Nebraska, and most of Iowa since we live on top of the Loess Hills...not sure how that affects the eagles, but no one has spotted any over here yet this year...but still my most likely suspect as of now.

Around here the eagles and other raptors prefer the hilly and foothill areas because of the updrafts. It does seem odd that an eagle would take out so many birds at one time. Don't they usually only raise one or two chicks per season?

ZZ's experience with the neighbor's dog was a real learning experience for me--they were huge birds and they just disappeared overnight with only a few feathers left. I think I would vote for a dog/coyote/badger.

It is so hard to lose animals that have become friends.

Since there are no body parts left around, is it possible that your chickens were nabbed by two footed hairless apes? Are your chickens visible from the road? Would someone looking for a free dinner be able to snatch them easily?

Poaching is a regular problem around some of the ranches around here. Fruit & veggie poaching also happens in the suburban areas. Folks leave for work with their backyard fruit trees abundant in fruit, then come home in the evening to find them stripped bare.

We wondered that as well. Our neighbor here sells his chickens to the hispanics for food, and they will eat anything. We joked that he told them were they could get some easy meals...but I guess it wouldnt explain the injured hens. And there is no way anyone could have cought our rooster without shooting him. Since I was home sick..I highly doubt it could have been a person.