Dead Chickens... Untouched!!!

[Sunny Side Up]

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Not necessarily. Often there is little blood left after a dog's kill. Sometimes they'll just grab the bird & give it a shake to break its neck. You may not find any broken skin at all. I think if it were a hungry stray/feral dog it would carry the bird away to eat in seclusion. But a well-fed pet dog may either leave the bird there after it's done with its play, or stay for a while gnawing on the feathers like a chew toy. They seem to enjoy long tail feathers the best.

 

[tdgill]

yeah, human disease or poison...sounds more likely

 

[midwestmilkmaiden]

Welllll...

There's absoulutely no way they could've been poisoned!..

Human.. No, we live in country, neighbors like us and no known enemies.

Disease... Couldn't be, well, could be, but all signs point to someTHING.

Checked over chickens,

First hen that died .. the underside of her neck looked a little bruised, but no bleeding .. she had talon marks or atleast something that dug into her back, but that's it, no pecking or anything else visible. And I also had my poor little mama duck die from that same hawk??.. I'm thinking. She also had talon marks and she was pecked at pretty bad on her back.

But. these 2 birds in question.. my BIg Roo and his favorite hen..

The Roo had a little blood on his face .. little scratches on his face. He had all of his pretty tail feathers out.. they were floating around the chix yard

The hen.. nothing.. that I could see. ????

Sorry all.. that's all i can give ya!

Thank you, thank you!

 

[gsim]

Owls hunt at night as do mink and weasels. Owl would have eaten it's kill. Weasels and mink are blood suckers. Pull feathers and check for that type injury. Set traps and kill what you catch. Is your run electrified? Could be you should do a lockdown at dusk and let them out in AM. I do and have not yet lost one.

 

[Wildsky]

Quote:
A dog would leave little holes - I had a hen attacked and there were holes in her back. And a nice well fed dog wouldn't need to eat the chicken, just to kill it for fun.
I really think if it was an owl or anything else, you would have found some feathers and thats it.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I wonder if this is common with hawks/raptors to leave their kill after taking a few bites. Perhaps they kill something but find it too heavy to carry away, or perhaps they feel threatened while eating on the ground and just abandon their victim and fly away. Recently we lost 3 chickens, 1 bantam and 2 chicks. The hen was left on the ground with her neck eaten & some bites out of her back, the chicks disappeared completely. (I have since threaded clothesline over the run & hung old CDs to shine there.)

With your roo & hen, were their necks broken? Was there a trail of feathers anywhere in the run, indicating a chase? The missing tail feathers make me think it was a pet dog, they love to chew on them. And a 5' fence is easy for many dogs to jump/climb over.

 

[CMV]

Hawks will frequently leave the majority of their kill behind. They're picky eaters and very wasteful, but they will also return to the kill site to feast the next day. If the culprit is a raptor it will likely be seen hanging around the area.

 

[kk454]

Check for really small bite marks. A weasel can get under the wing immobilizing the chicken, make a bite into the neck, and lap up blood that is pumped out. If you have access to a small live trap, try baiting it with smelt. I used to catch weasels as a kid by accident when I was trapping raccoons and badgers.

 

[kennedyscochins]

Check for weasels or rats! When they kill, it appears that nothing has been done to the dead chicken, but if you check closely, under the feathers, there will be bite marks. They just suck their blood until they're dead!

 

[Miltonchix]

Quote:
That sounds more like the injury from weasels. BTW my barn cats never bother the chickens, and I have some pretty tuff cats. I would only worry about chicks around them.

I wonder if the OP is dealing with a weasel, or possibly more than one predator.

Not a weasel. I caught the cat red handed. That particular cat is now fertilizer for a beautiful new Red Maple tree. I live in the sticks and for years people have used this area as an unwanted pet, primarily cat, dumping ground. Though this particular cat was the neighbors "pet" that spent more time at my place harrassing/killing chickens than it did at home. Now its a permanent resident.