What killed this hen? Graphic pic attached.

[centrarchid]

Option 1: Leave carcass in place and setup a trap if practical.


Option 2: Leave carcass in place to occupy racoon until you get chickens to stay away from pen walls at night and your housing otherwise raccoon proof.

 

[oceansunset73]

Option 1: Leave carcass in place and setup a trap if practical.


Option 2: Leave carcass in place to occupy racoon until you get chickens to stay away from pen walls at night and your housing otherwise raccoon proof.

Thank you.

They all actually go inside the coup at night. Their door is on a timer.

So I’m confused what happened with this one, only thing I can think of was that the raccoon was out just prior to sundown or was out soon after sun up. Either that ,or this hen just didn’t go inside the coup that night for reason.

It’s my mother in laws chickens, she’s out of town so I’ve been looking in on them a few times a week.

 

[Banana01]

I will throw in a vote that it was a hawk. Hawks remove heads from the birds where i live, not chickens, but birds. I assume it may be some instinctive trait. They also open up animals like that and eat. Their beak is sharp and would slice very precise, and they would pick clean whatever organs are missing. Also the way the feathers are spread around outside the fence looks like hawk kill to me similar to when i find a dead bird around the hawks. Sorry for your loss.

If it was killed at night, that rules out a hawk though.