Chickens killed with only heads eat

So I just had this happen....
About a month ago we had a hen hatch her nest. Six little babies running around and a very overprotective mama. Now mind u she made her nest in the middle of a round bale away from the coop. No worries since we have never had any issues and my birds free range all day and go to the coop at night.
So 2 weeks ago a neighbor complained about my hound dog-u know their noses and how they roam- so I started bringing all 3 dogs in at night. Suddenly 2 babies disappered after that and we chalked it up to hawks. Moved mama and babies into coop for a few days until they went in on their own every night. Since then some of the hens had started laying in the hay bale again and now in these last 2 weeks we have noticed eggs busted open and drained, even put back together at times, empty.
Tonight I was going out to check our horse at about 8 pm and shut door to coop and almost stepped on one of the little black babies-they r a month old, as soon as I walked out the back door. I thought maybe it had gotten seperated from mama so I caught it and started heading to the coop. Walking past my front deck I suddenly noticed Rudy my big Brahma rooster and one of the Austrolop hens on my deck under my dining room window-weird it's dark! I didn't think anything of it till I got halfway to my coopand decided to call my father tolet him know something was off. He comes out with a flashlight so we can see and I keep telling him something is wrong as those 2 chickens still had not moved from my deck-they ALWAYS coop themselves. Get into the coop and my other 2 roosters and red hen are roosted on the backs of our nesting boxes right near the door. Normally they are way up on the rafter near the roof, like 7 ft in the air, even mama and babies can make it up there, 2 foot difference between the box and rafter. Right there in the middle nest boxes, right below where they all roost are 2 dead babies. One plucked relatively clean, guts and all but legs gone, the other just the head gone, no blood anywhere-not even dripping from headless chick. Head is clean off, no chunks or strands, no mess, looks almost how a whole chicken u buy to roast does. Neck gone too. Just a bunch of feathers and warm bodies. Looked all over and found nothing. Gonna have to pred proof now. Wondering if a weasel would do this and if my dogs made that much of a difference? -honestly door was wide open so it could have just come right in. We have cats, skunks, possums, coons, armadillos, bobcats, hawks, coyotes, owls , u name it I live in the mid west. Worried cause we went ahead and locked em back up for the night since we think it came through the front door. Also found mama with 1 baby so got 2 little ones left.

Coons, possums aand weasels have human like hands. They will reach thru chickinwire and pull thru any part that thei can. Small legs, wings and oh yeah heads. Chew off the parts and reach in and get a new one. Half inch cloth around bottom and sides of pen will deter

Pretty sure owls do that

Julie's Silkies said:

what kind of animal bites the head off and leaves the body.

Had 2 dead in the pen last week and this morning 3 in the house dead, I left the dogs run at night and it still came back.
any ideal what kind of animal does it.

Click to expand...

Racoons....just lost one this week as well. It wasn't a hawk or owl for us--I have an aviary net. I've seen coons do awful things to chickens.

Well, crud. MM Jr. discovered four dead and three MIA chickens this morning. So we are down to 12 from 19, and one of the RSLs was found outside the run, and she appears to be injured. She might not survive the night.

Two interesting points - 1) two of the chickens had their heads removed; 2) MM Jr. located one of the Wyandottes buried along the fencline to the adjacent property. I'm pretty sure I recall reading that raccoons will kill chickens for sport, and will take the heads off. But I don't know if they're inclined to bury prey for later retrieval.

Oh no I'm so sorry. I would guess a weasel or mink. What we did was install a wilderness camera and got a clear photo of what we were dealing with. We lost turkeys that looked like that and it was a mink.

Update: the injured RSL is moving around a bit better. Earlier, she was standing still and had a wobble - much the way small chicks do right before they fall asleep and face-plant. She drank some water, and came running to the fence with the others when I went out with this evening's kitchen-scrap treats. She's still poofed-out like she's cold, so it's clear something is wrong.

Photos of the perp ...