farmmartin
Hatching
We are completely puzzled by what we found this morning.
Live in the rural Pacific NW. We have four adult ducks (1 F, 3 M) and eight mixed ducklings about 8 weeks old. They've been a pretty happy group. At night we put them in a closed shed but with open windows above four foot. The shed is situated in the middle of our animal fields and behind at least two runs of closed four foot wire fence. Hardware cloth underground 24" all around the shed, with no evidence of moles, mice, or rat activity inside.
This morning we found one of the ducklings dead inside with the other ducks. No signs of bites, ripping or tearing on the body, but the head had been severed and long with its neck, removed from the body and laying about six inches from the body, still oriented as though it had been pulled out of the body and then left. Just a spot of blood underneath the body. The tables under the windows are not particularly disturbed, as though something came in and out through a window. The ducks were excited when let out, but not really more than usual.
A raccoon is a possibility, though we've only so far had raccoon activity on a distance other part of the farm. But this doesn't seem bloody or messy enough in my experience.
What about the males in the group? Could they do something like this? There was an alpha duck that was going after the ducklings, who we think may have been reducing our original numbers, but he is gone and the others have not shown any aggressive tendencies.
Not sure where the danger is coming from, so not sure what to do to protect against it.
Martin
Live in the rural Pacific NW. We have four adult ducks (1 F, 3 M) and eight mixed ducklings about 8 weeks old. They've been a pretty happy group. At night we put them in a closed shed but with open windows above four foot. The shed is situated in the middle of our animal fields and behind at least two runs of closed four foot wire fence. Hardware cloth underground 24" all around the shed, with no evidence of moles, mice, or rat activity inside.
This morning we found one of the ducklings dead inside with the other ducks. No signs of bites, ripping or tearing on the body, but the head had been severed and long with its neck, removed from the body and laying about six inches from the body, still oriented as though it had been pulled out of the body and then left. Just a spot of blood underneath the body. The tables under the windows are not particularly disturbed, as though something came in and out through a window. The ducks were excited when let out, but not really more than usual.
A raccoon is a possibility, though we've only so far had raccoon activity on a distance other part of the farm. But this doesn't seem bloody or messy enough in my experience.
What about the males in the group? Could they do something like this? There was an alpha duck that was going after the ducklings, who we think may have been reducing our original numbers, but he is gone and the others have not shown any aggressive tendencies.
Not sure where the danger is coming from, so not sure what to do to protect against it.
Martin
