Dead rooster with no head

[roosterhavoc]

I have over 100 birds with close to an acre of electric fenced run. I also have numerous fully enclosed pens, 3 coops with completely attached and covered runs within the electric. The occasional loss to a hawk is no big deal. Raccoons and foxes are a different story. Everybody’s area is different. I have great horned owls and screech owls. There’s always the possibility but the gho have never bothered them and the screech are too small. I catch 20-30 raccoons a year and at least 1 fox sometimes 2-3. All in my yard.

 

[EggWalrus]

Owls quite often start with the head and upper body. They will return night after night to finish off the carcass till its rotting. They usually will get a bird at a time from my experience.
Coons will kill as many as they can get their grubby little hands on and just eat the heads and leave bodies laying around. Like zombies, they love the taste of brains.

 

[roosterhavoc]

I’ve never seen a raccoon take a bird. They always kill it and eat usually just the head but sometimes a little more. When birds go missing it’s usually a fox or coyotes in some areas. I’ve also had a fox kill multiple birds and just eat the heads off a few while taking a bird for the road.

 

[roosterhavoc]

Foxes are so slick. They’ll climb a fence, dig under it, run down birds in the yard. They’ll climb trees to get roosted birds at night. They chase them out of the tree and then pick them off one by one at their leisure once they hit the ground. Some are so bold they’ll run by you in broad day light. Some will come every night, some will come once every 7-10 days. They are all different. Some foxes are so simple to catch others you may never catch.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Probably raccoons since two were killed in one night.... I’m in New Jersey... and we have a ton of raccoons, foxes etc.. I have an open top run and have never lost a bird to an owl and I have ducks and chickens that sleep outside all night.

Here in the Yellowhammer State we have these birds called Great Horned Owls. A GHO will eat a flock of chickens like movie goers eat popcorn.

A bird of prey that is an experienced hunter of large prey kills by opening the big arteries and veins in the neck. Now it might take the raptor an hour or more to nibble through the skin and kill a large struggling animal like an adult standard sized chicken but because this is where it started eating or got its first taste of your hen means that this is where it will begin pigging out. Therefor the head is often the first thing to go followed by the flesh on the neck and so forth on down to the breast.

 

[NJ_Tara]

Thanks everyone. I am in a fairly suburban neighborhood, but everyone has a decent amount of land. I have a perimeter fence and I've never seen a raccoon or a fox on my property. Of course, I also didn't have tasty little chickens in the past. I also have big dogs, so I am sort of mad at them for not barking (from inside the house) to alert me! And now the other little chickens won't even come out of the roost into the main coop they are so scared

 

[aart]

They only attack at night unless rabid.

Not true.
They'll hunt when they are hungry, most any predator will, can be especially active during the day if they have offspring to feed.

 

[roosterhavoc]

Thanks everyone. I am in a fairly suburban neighborhood, but everyone has a decent amount of land. I have a perimeter fence and I've never seen a raccoon or a fox on my property. Of course, I also didn't have tasty little chickens in the past. I also have big dogs, so I am sort of mad at them for not barking (from inside the house) to alert me! And now the other little chickens won't even come out of the roost into the main coop they are so scared

If it’s just a regular fence it may just be a fox. Dogs don’t do anything unless they are out there with them all the time. I have Dobermans and obviously their scent is all over the yard. Foxes don’t care. They’ll sit and survey the yard to make sure all is clear.
Chickens don’t always make much noise at night. Chickens go nuts when a hawk is seen but most remain quiet at night even when the one is being attacked.

 

[roosterhavoc]

Here in the Yellowhammer State we have these birds called Great Horned Owls. A GHO will eat a flock of chickens like movie goers eat popcorn.

A bird of prey that is an experienced hunter of large prey kills by opening the big arteries and veins in the neck. Now it might take the raptor an hour or more to nibble through the skin and kill a large struggling animal like an adult standard sized chicken but because this is where it started eating or got its first taste of your hen means that this is where it will begin pigging out. Therefor the head is often the first thing to go followed by the flesh on the neck and so forth on down to the breast.

I have great horned owls too. I know they eat chickens. Many people have them on camera killing them. Raccoons and foxes are fare more likely to kill more than one bird. Hawks and owls both usually kill one at a time.

 

[Ducksandchickens]

It was a raccoon