Chicken Little is dead

[Nuffy]

What type po e o

Came home last night around 10pm and realized Chicken Little wasn't in the coop. My chickens ALWAYS put themselves up before dark. Searched for about 30 minutes before I found her less than 15ft from the coop, dead in the thicket. Head was still attached, but all of the meat and flesh was eaten off of the head and neck. Whatever it was had started to eat the meat off of one wing and breast, but looks like it was mostly interested in the neck-up. Found a single puncture wound in the flesh left just below the neck, looks like a fairly small tooth (~1mm in diameter). I'm sure there were more puncture wounds, but it was dark and that was the only obvious one. No fur or scratch marks on the carcass that I could see. There were feathers scattered about 5ft from where her body lay, a sparse trail of feathers, and then another pile where she was. So it looks like there wasn't much of a chase once whatever it was got hold of her.

I've seen hawks on the gamecam going for my chickens, but her body was in some thick undergrowth (I wouldn't expect a hawk to hunt/eat down there). We have feral cats that hang around; I see them watching the chickens on gamecam pretty often, but we've never had trouble with them before. Plus the chickens (Cuckoo Marans) seem a bit hefty for these cats to take down. My 4 Pyrenees spend a good amount of time patrolling around the coop, and have killed a possum down the creek from it, but other than that I have not seen any predators on our property (7 acres surround by 4ft fence and patrolled by 4 LGDs). Last night I wondered if one of my Pyrenees had perhaps turned on her, but I think they would have drug her body back to their 'chew-toy' spot. Also, the way that the meat and flesh was removed from her head and neck seemed too intricate for a dog.

Any idea what might have killed my hen? I have read that raccoons will remove and eat the head, but whatever this was left the head & neck attached after removing the meat and flesh. Unfortunately my gamecam had no SD card in it at the time, so I was unable to catch the culprit on camera

Hi sounds like a hawk, look back but on your film and try to see if the size of the hawks are small. Sharp shinned hawk will eat the head and neck. Also is what the dogs are doing. Gld look for ground attacks takes time for them to look up. You may need to split the dogs into groups so they learn to work independently and as team. Wish I had 4 gld, I only have one and he over 2 before he was really good at looking up.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I must agree with Nuffy. You already have evidence of a hawk attack and there is nothing in your description of the kill sight that would rule out another hawk attack. There is feathers where the hawk first captured your chicken, feathers leading up to the body, and the hawk finally penned the chicken against an obstacle, where the hawk first began feeding in earnest. Lacking any definite testimony to the contrary I am assuming that there was a dough nut shaped pile of feathers laying around the body. Hawks like humans don't like feathers on their chicken dinner and so rip them out by the roots..