Darn it - it looks like it was my dog... *New suspect*

[bobbi-j]

Is your dog off the hook?

For now. Since we are now suspecting an owl, the chickens have been locked up and will remain so until the Snowys go back to where they came from.

 

[sourland]

The way this winter is going

, that may be a while.

 

[bobbi-j]

That's what I'm afraid of...

 

[Honey B]

Hate to do it but I have to second the bird of prey theory for your latest chicken death. The puncture wound on your rooster is very likely from the back hallux of a bird of prey. Often when attacking raptors go for the head to control their prey. The crime scene also sounds very typical of a bird of prey. I am sorry for your loss.

 

[bobbi-j]

Hate to do it but I have to second the bird of prey theory for your latest chicken death. The puncture wound on your rooster is very likely from the back hallux of a bird of prey. Often when attacking raptors go for the head to control their prey. The crime scene also sounds very typical of a bird of prey. I am sorry for your loss.

Actually, I'm glad to hear it since the other option was my dog... (I didn't think so, but DH was convinced it was him)

 

[Campine]

Hate to do it but I have to second the bird of prey theory for your latest chicken death. The puncture wound on your rooster is very likely from the back hallux of a bird of prey. Often when attacking raptors go for the head to control their prey. The crime scene also sounds very typical of a bird of prey. I am sorry for your loss.

I once had a Campine rooster put it's spur into another rooster's head, killed the other rooster almost immediately.

 

[Honey B]

@Campine

That sounds like a pretty brutal and definitive blow for your rooster. I have been around very few roosters so I am unfamiliar with their behavior. Is that typical or do you think it is a learned behavior? Has the rooster every tried to repeat that kind of behavior since it successfully ended a fight? How was the rooster's behavior around people? Hens? Any insights you would care to share are appreciated. I find animal behavior (nature vs nurture) fascinating.

 

[sourland]

@ Honey B - just a freak, lucky shot on the part of that rooster.

 

[Honey B]

@sourland

Thanks for the response. Birds are pretty unbelievable at times!

 

[Darnbunnies]

Everyone is guilty in my yard. Chickens have been lost to a hawk, a coyote and my dog. -DB