dead chicken in my pen only missing its head

[way2rockmyword]

This morning I let all my chickens out of the coop as I normally do into a half acre fenced in with 5foot tall chainlink. I checked on them several times. I went to the store in the middle of the afternoon only for about an hour. I came back and my silky hen was dead with a missing head. The other chickens were in their coop not comming out. What could do this in the middle of the afternoon? I just lost a entire flock Monday before last to a fox. We shot the fox. I have started over and a friend gave me the two silkys and 9 other hens that should start laying soon. It was devasting to lose that flock and then today loose a hen that has only been here for a few days and doing well. Don't know what would come out in the middle of the day and kill my chicken to just take the head. I have an electric wire fortress around my chicken coop that I turn on after closing them up at night. I set a live trap out in front of the electric wire surrounding the coop to see if what got my hen comes back. Any ideas what would do this in the middle of the day? I am really getting frustrated with the varments getting my chickens.

 

[krista74]

My cat catches adult rabbits and eats only their heads.

Are you 100% sure one of your cats is not to blame?

I understand you are under the impression that they don't show any interest in the chickens, but what they do when you aren't supervising might be a different matter.

Just something to consider....

- Krista

 

[way2rockmyword]

I don't own a cat

 

[Shan30]

There are at least a couple different predators that will do this. I have had a mink decapitate a broody right in the coop while she was on her eggs in the middle of the day. They are supposedly nocturnal but have attacked our flock during the day at least three times.

Raccoons have a tendency to just grab and take whatever they can reach through a fence or opening. Sometimes they will pull out a wing or leg. We don't have possum or skunk here so I have no idea if they will do the same.

If you own a live trap I recommend setting it with her body for bait. If you put it way at the back it has to be dragged over the trigger and even a small predator like a mink will set it off. I know it sounds a bit morbid to use your poor bird but its the one bait you know they want and we have gotten five mink this way this year.

Sorry for your loss and really hope you catch whatever got her.

 

[tigercreekfarm]

We had something similar happen. This past Tuesday morning, we checked on the chickens to find one rooster without a head. The body was lying in the middle of the coop. Another rooster's beak was split four ways. At first, we thought they had been fighting but couldn't account for the missing head until reading this post. We have a pretty secure coop and fenced yard. We have locks on the human door and on the sliding chicken door. The coop was securely locked. We now think it was a raccoon that pulled the head off through the wire on the door. We will be getting hardware cloth today. Thanks for that tip in your post, Tala.

 

[tigercreekfarm]

We had the same problem, it was possums, they got so they would eat the chickens and leave them alive, it was horrible. We got some Great Pyrenees dogs and it has never happened again. We still lose one or two chickens a year to a sly little female fox, she is really, really good. She carries them off though, and for some reason it does not bother me as much. Gotta love Great Pyrenees, though it takes about a year to train them not to pounce on the chickens (the females are worse about it, in my limited experience.)

Thanks for mentioning your dogs! We are getting two Great Pyrenees puppies (male & female) in the spring. I loved hearing about your experience with them.