What is killing my hens?

[NYChicks345]

Something got two of our chickens today... I let my chickens free range and have not had a problem with predetors until today.. Whatever it was all that was left was feathers....a black silkie Roo named cuddles ( because he loved to cuddle) and one of our giant blue cochins... My two boys are devestated. I guess for the most part my two labs chase everything away. They were inside the house today.. Like I said nothing but feathers... My oldest boy said he say a cat running away when he went out to check on the chickens... Will a cat eat everything but feathers ... I only found two little clumps of the blue cochins feathers... No bodies found. Very upsetting.... Seems like it is always your favorites that get killed. This happened between 8 and 4... Daylight hours... Was it the cat or something else?

 

[NYChicks345]

Something got two of our chickens today... I let my chickens free range and have not had a problem with predetors until today.. Whatever it was all that was left was feathers....a black silkie Roo named cuddles ( because he loved to cuddle) and one of our giant blue cochins... My two boys are devestated. I guess for the most part my two labs chase everything away. They were inside the house today.. Like I said nothing but feathers... My oldest boy said he say a cat running away when he went out to check on the chickens... Will a cat eat everything but feathers ... I only found two little clumps of the blue cochins feathers... No bodies found. Very upsetting.... Seems like it is always your favorites that get killed. This happened between 8 and 4... Daylight hours... Was it the cat or something else?

 

[mrpekinduck]

Sorry I'm not posting something super long but it seems like a skunk to me. set a havahart trap and see when you catch it throw a tarp over the trap so you can't get sprayed.

 

[tjrex]

my chickens are getting their heads cut off and i believe this shouldn't be happening so i'm going to find out what it is

 

[tjrex]

my hens are getting their heads cut off and I want to figure out what it is

 

[tjrex]

my hens are getting their heads cut off and I want to figure out what it is

 

[centrarchid]

Consider possibility of great-horned owl. Strikes at night, does not move victim very far, usually consumes head and neck first, and finally usually takes only one per night but is pretty regular customer when it has found a honeywhole.

 

[Zootopia]

Last summer we started finding a dead hen in the hen house head and neck and part of the breast gone. The door was 3ft wide and open floor to ceiling to help keep the coop cool. We closed the bottom 5 feet off and ran electric wire around the bottom of the coop at night. All good for several days then another dead hen. I started leaving the carcass on the coop floor and would come in to find it had been eaten on but no new kill. Hung a light and placed a game camera because we couldn't figure out what could get into the coop. The camera showed a GHO come in and spend 3 hrs eating on the carcass two nights in a row. We placed a trap door on the coop so when it flew in it could not get back out, intending to catch it and turn it over to the Game Warden. That same day about 10 am the GHO returned and removed the carcass now light enough for her to carry from the coop. She flew to the top of the power pole out front and fried herself and the chicken. Too Bad, she was a beautiful bird.
Now the top of the door is covered with 2"x4" wire so it is still open for ventilation but no more night visitors. We have never had problems with ground based predators due to our guard dogs. We had trouble with hawks when we first moved out here, we had a couple of banties and some pigeons. We don't keep banties or pigeons anymore and don't turn chicks out till they are at least half grown. We rarely even see the hawks around but the roos do alarm if they see one.
I know it is gross to keep the carcass and put it back down after your chickens are at roost but it may well save a few extra lives while you figure out what is doing the killing and what to do about it.

 

[sujichan]

What if you find all your adult birds dead at once, all 18. In a coop, in varying stages of... remains. Some just bloody and nearly intact, some with a few parts missing, some nearly only feathers left, and some mush. Seriously, it looked like a horror movie was filmed in our coop. The chicks, in the adjacent connected building were untouched.

 

[Marigolds]

I was having a terrible time with hawks and foxes killing my chickens UNTIL I received (as a gift, believe it or not) a three year old, trained Great Pyrenees Livestock Protection Guard Dog.
She really did the trick. She is gentle and sweet natured and very protective. It is fascinating to watch her work her "area" which is my property and my chickens.
She does bark at night as she goes about her DNA programmed business but since I live out in the country, no one is around to complain.
Before she came into my life, I was losing about 6 chickens a week....sometimes more....to awful hawk and fox strikes. Since getting her, I've lost only one and that was when a hen wandered off the "reservation".....up the lane and out of sight. Her bad :-(