cinnamon the chicken

[pionus]

so today I was sitting at the computer, and I heard one of our chickens, Jackie, shriek really loud.
well right when i went outside my mom yelled saying that a coyote had been really close to the house, and that it had run off when i came out. Jackie was fine, so I proceeded with checking on our other four chickens.

I found Ruby, Yolanda and Big Mama, but cinnamon was no where to be found.

well, I saw some feathers scattered around the pasture (by the way I live on a small farm with woods behind it) by the old cart with the tree growing out of it, a place they like to take dust bathes, but i found nothing else. no blood, prints, nothing

that was early this afternoon, but earlier tonight my dad said he saw a coyote in the far pasture, behind the old cart, but this one was bigger than the one mom had seen.

I am posting this because I have still not found Cinnamon, and I am starting to get worried. she was my favorite out of the five hens.
my question is has anyone ever had this happen to them? if so, did you chicken(s) return the next day? or should I except that Cinnamon is probably gone?

one more thing, I have seen a pack of coyotes (looked more like wolves since they were large and some were different colors like white and black as well as grey) as well as pups, so what is the likelihood that my Cinnamon could survive the night if she is even still alive?

I appreciate any in-put and kind thoughts. I am really going to miss her if indeed she is gone.

thanks,
Lily

[pionus]

ok, so cinnamon still hasn't shown up, and i saw a HUGE coyote in the pasture this morning. it didn't have anything, and I scared it off, but it looked like it had been checking out the coop. i left the gals locked up when i fed them, i didn't want them getting taken by that coyote.

I don't think Cinnamon is going to come back, there have just been to many coyotes. but i will still keep an eye out in case she roosted somewhere and tries to make her way back home.

so now, since i really want our chickens to be able to free range, I am thinking about a guard animal. has any one had any good experiences/results with a guard donkey or llama? I have heard that donkeys may actually go after the the chickens, but what about llamas? are they too aggressive?

I know this probably belongs on a farming forum, or something, but, i figured since it was bird related someone on here might have some advice for me.

thank you,
Jackie, Yolanda, Ruby, and Big Mama.

and in memory and hope for Cinnamon.

[liz]

I had one pet chicken named Chick Chick for a long time. She thought she was a dog. She had her own little chicken door to come into the sunroom where she stayed in a little coral. One night she did not come in. I went out and looked for her and called her but got no responce. The next morning she was trying to get up the steps to the sunroom with all the dogs around her trying to help.
A hawk had ripped her back off and she was in so much pain she did not try to come in that night.

I brought her in and kept her in a big dog carrier. Of course we prayed for the poor little girl. I watched a miracle. Skin and feathers grew out of the muscle she had left on her back. I used neosporin to stop infection.

There is always hope. Keep looking.

[pionus]

thank you Liz, I am happy you got your Chick Chick back!

I haven't given up yet, and will keep looking for Cinnamon. It is raining pretty bad today, if she is injured I hope she has found someplace dry to roost. I am going to go out to look again now, and also take a little shift of Coyote Watch (watchmen consist of me ).

again thank you for the story, you gave me some hope.

Lily

[Elizebird]

Funny you posted this, because I literally just went through something similar with our Cleopatra.

I was on night check, later than usual because I had forgotten, and went to check on the ladies and Saxon in their coop. For some reason, Cleopatra, one of our hens, was missing. Our chickens free range and generally put themselves away and I just go around to lock them up at night, and this was a first for Cleopatra. (It has happened before to our special needs hen, Petra, however.)

I got nervous and I went around looking for Cleopatra. I hear something heavy walking in the woods and I shined a flashlight to see a coyote /large dog run away. (I, too, live on a small farm adjacent to a few pastures, but the majority of the land around us is woods. The chicken coop backs up on the woods.

I next heard some rattling from the feed shed, and I was thinking, thank gosh, she's there, but sure enough when I opened the feed shed I saw a gigantic raccoon and screamed. I thought there was no hope for Clia at this point.

It was horrible and I was very shaken since we had lost both our ducks to a mysterious predator that we suspected to be a raccoon. (It had to be able to climb, not dig, over an extremely tall fence that went in ground and surrounded by rocks, and carry a huge aggressive duck over it, as well as open the simple latch to the duck house. The second duck was found dead with a broken neck in the house. No blood.)

However, next morning, there she was, scratching at the ground just outside the coop.

Best of luck, I hope Cinnamon shows up!

[pionus]

thank you Elizebird.

i hope cinnamon has as good of luck as your lady.

it has been a few days, and it poured for the last two, so i really hope she is dry; but thankfully it is nice out today.

maybe some good news, we found what looks like a chicken nest in the straw by the pig pen (their almost gone! ). it couldn't have been one of the other ladies because we had kept them in their run after cinnamon went missing since the coyotes have been unusually active during the day. i hope it was cinnamon, but after searching the barn and still no sign, i don't know what to think. i am going to go back out to check on the gals, as well as take another look at that nest and see if it has been used since we found it.

i appreciate the stories and good thoughts!

Lily

[pionus]

Well, we lost two more chickens. First Ruby, then Big Mamma last night. It was my fault that Big Mamma died, because I had heard the coyotes, and even went out onto the porch to try and see if the coop was shut, but I am really paranoid about going down there alone in the dark when there are coyotes close enough to be in our pasture, which is really near to our house. So i didn't do anything.

And, the coyote got her inside the coop, so if i had shut it that night, she would still be alive.

So now we are down to two chickens, Jackie and Yolanda. We also have plans to expand their run so that they can stay in their coop and still have plenty of room. We are also going to get more chickens, but Jackie and Yolanda are top hens to me. I just hope they live until then. "shuts coop".