ChristinLewin
Chirping
- Jun 25, 2020
- 220
- 305
- 80
Actually now that I think about it, owls eat heads off as well. . . So wasteful.
ANYWHO - a little over a week ago we had a nighttime attack, 3 chicks were maimed enough to be culled, 2 went completely missing and we found feathers about 50 yards away, near the base of the tree and 2 additional chicks were injured but treated and put back into the flock. At the time, we set 2 traps baited with 2 of the Culled chicks and sure enough, that night we caught a great horned owl on the trail cam around 2:30am. He was perched on top of the trap, checking out the live choices in the tractor
nothing went missing that night, the culled bait chicken sat out another night and then we had to remove it (what was left, at least).
the owl very well could have been at the wrong place at the wrong time and the actual predator was a fox or raccoon, especially with the injuries I noted before culling the chicks
It’s worth noting that the night the owl was caught on camera, one of the bait chicks was missing but the trap not triggered. Can an owl do that?
It has been a quiet week until yesterday morning. Woke up to a neighbor at my door telling me there’s a dead headless chicken and a pile of feathers. He said when he walked out of his house, “a huge grey bird flew out of the fence” and up in the tree. By the time I got outside to see the damage, the predator had left and flown up to a tree above us so we tried to make out what type of bird it was (owl or hawk) But we couldn’t get a good visual on the bird and it flew off.
Options :
1. Raccoon killed it, ripped off head and left it there, and hawk came to Steal the carcass. I don’t know when the killing happened but we opened the tractor at 8am and the neighbor rang the bell at 9:50am. We have a mama raccoon with 7-8 babies nearby, so perhaps?
2. Hawk, plain and simple. Not related to the other deaths at the same spot last week. Worth noting that I’ve raised hundreds of chickens in the same spot every year and never lost a chick to a hawk up near the house. Lost plenty to hawks in the back 40 but those are much bigger chickens and that was before we had massive roosters as protectors.
3. Owl. But, do owls ever hunt at night and wouldn’t the owl just swoop it up and take it somewhere else to pick feathers off and eat?
We put the trap and camera out last night in case it’s the raccoon but nothing came to investigate. Nothing on camera.
Here is a picture of the decapitated chicken in case someone else can get other clues from the injuries. It looks very “clean” without any noticeable blood which also left me wondering.
anyone have any ideas?
ANYWHO - a little over a week ago we had a nighttime attack, 3 chicks were maimed enough to be culled, 2 went completely missing and we found feathers about 50 yards away, near the base of the tree and 2 additional chicks were injured but treated and put back into the flock. At the time, we set 2 traps baited with 2 of the Culled chicks and sure enough, that night we caught a great horned owl on the trail cam around 2:30am. He was perched on top of the trap, checking out the live choices in the tractor
nothing went missing that night, the culled bait chicken sat out another night and then we had to remove it (what was left, at least).
the owl very well could have been at the wrong place at the wrong time and the actual predator was a fox or raccoon, especially with the injuries I noted before culling the chicks
It’s worth noting that the night the owl was caught on camera, one of the bait chicks was missing but the trap not triggered. Can an owl do that?
It has been a quiet week until yesterday morning. Woke up to a neighbor at my door telling me there’s a dead headless chicken and a pile of feathers. He said when he walked out of his house, “a huge grey bird flew out of the fence” and up in the tree. By the time I got outside to see the damage, the predator had left and flown up to a tree above us so we tried to make out what type of bird it was (owl or hawk) But we couldn’t get a good visual on the bird and it flew off.
Options :
1. Raccoon killed it, ripped off head and left it there, and hawk came to Steal the carcass. I don’t know when the killing happened but we opened the tractor at 8am and the neighbor rang the bell at 9:50am. We have a mama raccoon with 7-8 babies nearby, so perhaps?
2. Hawk, plain and simple. Not related to the other deaths at the same spot last week. Worth noting that I’ve raised hundreds of chickens in the same spot every year and never lost a chick to a hawk up near the house. Lost plenty to hawks in the back 40 but those are much bigger chickens and that was before we had massive roosters as protectors.
3. Owl. But, do owls ever hunt at night and wouldn’t the owl just swoop it up and take it somewhere else to pick feathers off and eat?
We put the trap and camera out last night in case it’s the raccoon but nothing came to investigate. Nothing on camera.
Here is a picture of the decapitated chicken in case someone else can get other clues from the injuries. It looks very “clean” without any noticeable blood which also left me wondering.
anyone have any ideas?
