Chicken found with head missing

[OrpingtonAustin]

Twice in the last month I have went into my chicken coop to find a dead chicken with it's head gone. I have a secure coop and there is no sign of a predator. Not really any blood or scattered feathers, just missing it's head. Could the other chickens be doing this? It is a one year old hen. I don't have any neighbors that could be messing with me or anything like that. There isn't any other sign of trauma and I'm very confused. Does anybody have any ideas?

 

[etammy]

No. Instead of killing every animal that wants to eat, make the coop very secure.

 

[Sonya9]

No. Instead of killing every animal that wants to eat, make the coop very secure.

I completely agree. A secure coop will keep both the chickens and the wildlife alive, and traps don't guarantee chicken safety.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I very much agree that the best way to protect your chickens is to have a secure coop (or maybe coop and run) and managing them properly. By management I’m talking about locking them in a safe place at night and considering your predator pressure how much, if any, you allow them to range and forage.

Trying to remove any predator that visits is not a long term solution. There may be more than one, there are always more being born and eventually looking for hunting territory, or someone will abandon a dog or a pet is allowed to roam or maybe escape. Proper facilities and management is the best long term solution and works really well in the short term too. It is in your control.

What removing a threat will do is relieve predator pressure from a critter that is hunting your area. There is one less immediate threat. Whether you do that or not and how you do that will depend on your unique situation, locals laws and customs, and your personal desires and ethics. To me it is a personal decision, I respect that. But I am not going to force my morality on others.

I will point out that proper facilities and management is the best solution, your chickens will be more secure. And I’ll occasionally express my opinion that things like blasting away with a rifle especially but really any gun in suburbia is probably a really bad idea. I have and use a gun by the way. That comment is not anti-gun. It’s about improperly using a gun, which gives anti-gun people more ammunition. Whether people follow my suggestions or not is not in my control either. It’s all based on personal decisions.

 

[Kyzmette]

Coons and possums can get in through areas you wouldn't imagine they could fit through. Coons, as cute as they are, are terrible, foul predators and leave horrific messes behind. They will grab chicks through chicken wire barriers and take bites out of them while they're still alive, then leave the bodies behind. If you don't have the coop secured, a coon could lift a lid to get in, then let themselves back out.

 

[ocb50]

Do you have electric fencing around the coop? If not, it is most likely a possom. They're head eaters.

 

[OrpingtonAustin]

I have a six foot welded wire fence with electric wire top and bottom. I really dont see how anything could get in and never see any tracks around the pen.

 

[ocb50]

Do you have netting on top, if not, possible hawk attack. They sometimes bit off head before eating rest of bird. Maybe you surprised before it could finish? That's all I can think of.

 

[realsis]

this is awful! it scares me to death! I just got a electric fence myself! may I ask,? we're they in the hen house? when this happened? is it attached to your run? second question, did you wire net the bottom of your nest boxes? some times critters can get in through the bottom of the nest boxes if they are outside to collect eggs easily like mine are. if yours are like that then that's likely the place they got in. I read about another person having an attack through the bottom of the nest boxes. I put wire and stapled it to the bottom of mine. could this be a possibility? best of luck and I'm so sorry

 

[Tikkijane]

Racoons will scoop out one handful at a time. They like heads, too. Hope you get it sorted. I would post this on the predators section with pictures.