Mystery chicken killer on the loose in Richfield

I went to feed and water the chickens on Sunday afternoon and noticed feathers all over the pasture. Lots of feathers. More than one chicken’s worth of feathers.

I had not been shutting them up at night because they are about 200 yards away from the barn and I have an electric fence around them. They fly up into their pasture wagon at night and hit the ground running at first light.

A common misconception about farmers is that they are up at the crack of dawn. I am sure some are, but I am not in that demographic.

So, Sunday night, I started going over to the chickens and shutting them in for the night. Every night all week, when I would go to shut up the chickens, I noticed that my dad’s cows had moseyed into that section of pasture and were grazing at night all around the chicken wagon.

Most of these cows have calves and they are very protective. I don’t think they would have allowed dogs, coyotes or foxes to come into the pasture and get close to their calves.

I counted the chickens when I shut them up Sunday night and there were four missing.

I am clueless on what type of predator would leave nothing but feathers and two clumps of tail feathers, which was rather odd.

Or as Ellie and Levi like to say, “Another episode of ‘CSI – RICHFIELD.’ ”

This story was originally published October 23, 2015 at 4:14 PM with the headline "Mystery chicken killer on the loose in Richfield."