Only ate her head?

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medicmommy

medicmommy

In the Brooder
6 Years
May 9, 2013
30
0
22
We lost one of our full size barred rocks today. She had scraped her foot a few days ago and was favoring it a bit but had been hanging out in the run. Just found her about 40 FT from the run next to the house with her head/neck eaten. My husband thinks it was a dog but I don't think it looks vicious enough for a dog attack. We have two dogs who were inside that didn't alert us at all. Upset by that as well. We just moved from in the city where they were in a small fenced treed yard to a new place with lots of room but no actual trees on our land. We want to get some but obviously can't get full grown trees tomorrow. I hate the idea of them not being able to free range. Plus we just got 19 chicks earlier this week! What do I do? I can't stand the thought of losing another.
 
My first guess would be that she was attacked by a hawk or owl. They often just eat the head. Dogs tend to mutilate the chicken, without eating much of it, so I don't think that it was dogs. Another guess would be a raccoon-- like hawks, they may just eat the head.
 
Last edited:
medicmommy said:
During the day.
Click to expand...
Normally coons are nocturnal once in a while you will get one that will wonder during the day, Some weasels are nocturnal as well depending on were you live. I would say it was probably a hawk, any medium size predator such as fox or coyote would have taken the whole animal.
jumpy.gif
 
If it was a daytime hit, it was a hawk. That's the first thing they do is take off the head.
 
Sounds like a hawk to me, if it was in the daytime and the head is gone with a few plucked feathers lying around it definitely was a hawk. Seen my hawk do that countless times with the thawed quail I feed him. It probably would have eaten more but I bet it got scared off it's kill.

I wouldn't get too upset about your dogs not alerting either, I took the bells of my hawk once to replace the leather straps and had him jump up to the glove, barely a sound. Some hawks get really good at using their talons and dispatch their prey quickly. Sorry for your loss :(
 

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