Dead Hen in run

[Urbana Gardener]

hello!
Last night I found one of our hens dead in their run. It was open to the outside. She had no visible injuries except her neck was completely chewed on, all the way around. Her coop mates are completely freaked out. Who would do this and not eat her or take her away??? We are in Maryland, 40 miles north of DC. I have left them locked up today in the coop & run. Hoping someone might know who I should be watching for.
TIA!

 

[azygous]

Birds of prey might do that. Have you heard any great horned owls around your place?

No matter where you live or what sort of predators or lack of that you believe you have, no chickens are safe in open runs. Read this thread. Then watch this.

 

[Urbana Gardener]

Birds of prey might do that. Have you heard any great horned owls around your place?

No matter where you live or what sort of predators or lack of that you believe you have, no chickens are safe in open runs. Read this thread. Then watch this.

This is so sad. I have a huge fenced in area around their coop and attached run. We are home all day and have had chickens for almost 15 years and this is a first. I'm now down to 2 hens.

 

[Geena]

hello!
Last night I found one of our hens dead in their run. It was open to the outside. She had no visible injuries except her neck was completely chewed on, all the way around. Her coop mates are completely freaked out. Who would do this and not eat her or take her away??? We are in Maryland, 40 miles north of DC. I have left them locked up today in the coop & run. Hoping someone might know who I should be watching for.
TIA!

At night, if it was a fresh kill, it was most likely an owl. If she was killed sometime during the day, probably a hawk.
I'm just outside of Frederick too

 

[azygous]

We can go years without predators messing with our chickens, and then there is that first time, and everything changes.

 

[cmom]

I have also gone years with no incidents then it happens. I had an owl actually plow right through some crappy netting I had over a couple of my pens and killed some birds. I did replace it with some good netting and the owl tried again but got stuck in the netting. We managed to get it out and into a cage and a wildlife rescue came and got it. I have several game cameras up on my property and most nights see a predator on at least one camera. Good luck...