What killed them?

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Sustained

Sustained

Songster
6 Years
Sep 17, 2014
979
71
161
Oregon
my grandparents lost almost their entire flock this morning. 8 hens dead. 4 were still there but are not chewed. They just have tiny sores on their back from claws maybe? The other 4 are gone and there are feathers everywhere. Would a hawk do this? Even a pair? There's no sign of any predators at all other than the obvious chicken massacre. I just find it odd that a hawk would leave corpses. Any time I have ever lost chickens to Hawks they carried them off and anyone left behind was terrified but unhurt. We live in Oregon.
 
Acording to "Storey's guied to raising chickens" The cuplprit can either be a Mink, Dog, Weasel, Skunks, or Racoons. Can you describe how they found the chickens? Heads gone, bodies in a pile, bodys torn apart.
 
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A lady down the road from me lost almost 40 chickens to a family of raccoons that got into her coop. They are thrill killers. They may have carried away 4 or the 4 might have escaped and be hiding somewhere. Have you looked for survivors? Sorry for your loss, I hope you find survivors......
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Thank you for the chart! No dismantled dead bodies. Just scratched up pretty bad so maybe died of blood loss or fright? I just can't tell. The odd thing is the scratch marks on their backs. There's a lot of them. And they were dead laying on their backs. They don't even look chewed on. So the tons of feathers everywhere didn't come from them. Or at least most of them didn't. We looked for survivors but didn't find any. Their wings were clipped and the fence is about 5 ft tall so I don't know how they would get out. The fence is undisturbed. No signs of tracks but it's awfully sandy in the run.
 
Sustained said:
Thank you for the chart! No dismantled dead bodies. Just scratched up pretty bad so maybe died of blood loss or fright? I just can't tell. The odd thing is the scratch marks on their backs. There's a lot of them. And they were dead laying on their backs. They don't even look chewed on. So the tons of feathers everywhere didn't come from them. Or at least most of them didn't. We looked for survivors but didn't find any. Their wings were clipped and the fence is about 5 ft tall so I don't know how they would get out. The fence is undisturbed. No signs of tracks but it's awfully sandy in the run.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry
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In a panic, I believe they may have made the fence but...unless a neighbor calls.... One of my birds went missing in an attack. I looked everywhere. The next night the neighbor called to tell me my hen was roosting on her porch. I guess she was too afraid to come home alone. I went and got her, she was ok.
idunno.gif
 
Sustained said:
my grandparents lost almost their entire flock this morning. 8 hens dead. 4 were still there but are not chewed. They just have tiny sores on their back from claws maybe? The other 4 are gone and there are feathers everywhere. Would a hawk do this? Even a pair? There's no sign of any predators at all other than the obvious chicken massacre. I just find it odd that a hawk would leave corpses. Any time I have ever lost chickens to Hawks they carried them off and anyone left behind was terrified but unhurt. We live in Oregon.
Click to expand...

It sounds like a wild member of the K9 family. Sometimes foxes and coyotes will forget their table manners and go on a blind dog in a meat house killing spree.

Something like the killing spree that this coyote embarked on.

http://video.search.yahoo.com/video...ge=1375249632&fr2=p:s,v:v&fr=yhs-invalid&tt=b

The video won't load properly for me.
 
Thank you for the chart! No dismantled dead bodies. Just scratched up pretty bad so maybe died of blood loss or fright? I just can't tell. The odd thing is the scratch marks on their backs. There's a lot of them. And they were dead laying on their backs. They don't even look chewed on. So the tons of feathers everywhere didn't come from them. Or at least most of them didn't. We looked for survivors but didn't find any. Their wings were clipped and the fence is about 5 ft tall so I don't know how they would get out. The fence is undisturbed. No signs of tracks but it's awfully sandy in the run.

Now all I can think of would be a young owl. let me see.
*Deep marks all over body, espesialy on the heads and necks.
*Feathers scaterd around.

A young owl might not know where the most effective spot is to kill the chicken and might go for the bigest spot, their back. Thats my new thaught.








 
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