Any idea who did this?

[balticbabe]

Who crawled into the hen house, took a hen and left the wings behind?

I have had my four hens for seven years now without any predator attacks. I live in town, in a subdivision with an undeveloped wooded 5 acre lot behind my fence. I have never seen any animal in my yard other than a squirrel. A racoon could fit through the hen house door but not anything larger.

Yesterday morning I found one of my hens floating in the koi pond like a duck. She was dead but did not appear injured. No birds has ever been in the pond. Inside the hen house I found the wings of another hen. My last two girls were in the yard. They know what happened but aren't sharing.

Something must of moved into the neighborhood. What could fit through the door, come at night and take all of a chicken except the wings? Racoon, possum, ferret, mink? What critter doesn't know that chicken wings are all the rage?

I'm guessing the the bird in the pond was running for her life and got stuck in the pond. Now my poor girls are confined to the run for their own safety. Of course the two best hens are the ones who died.

 

[Feathyr]

Feral cats? They don't always eat the wings of birds, and if they're hungry enough they'll go for chickens. I'm sorry to hear of your loss.

 

[balticbabe]

I forgot to mention skunks as a possibility. Skunks, racoon, possum, ferret, minks are common road kill within a mile of my house.

Don't think we have a cat problem in this area. Too many coyotes.

 

[balticbabe]

I also asked this question on my local community discussion board and the consensus is that this was a typical racoon kill.

 

[Torch404]

You need to secure your chickens, now that it knows where the food is it will be back. I was lucky enough to never have any predators for the first few years. When they finally figured it out I lost quite a few chickens. Keep em safe even in the city.