Help please chickens are getting heads taken off

[CATNMAINE]

So I am totally new to raising chickens....We have 21 well 22 now chickens and 2 roosters . Something took the head off of one of my sweet silkies last night. We have been trying to get rid of the roosters because they are so aggressive to the hens and to me with no luck . We don't know if the roosters could have taken the head off the silkie or something else. Our coop is very secure(at least we thought so) and we lock it up tight at night.

Any help would be awesome. And any help on how to get rid of the lovely roosters would be great as well . They truly are pretty.......

 

[HEChicken]

though I'm sorry it is under difficult circumstances for you.

Removing the head sounds most like a raccoon, though there are other predator potentials. What type of wire do you have for the sides of your coop/run? If it is anything larger than 1/2" hardware cloth, what will sometimes happen is that a raccoon, who can reach a paw through, will entice a chicken over, and then grab it by the head and pull it through that way.

Do you have some pictures of your set up that you can post, that will make it easier to give you answers?

 

[Hangtown Farms]

I agree sounds like a racoon. maybe a fence ( no climb) or something like that around the coop with poultry wire around the bottom as well up 18
' to 2 feet

 

[Cooper Farms]

my friend with chickens came home one day and found every chicken dead laying on the ground by the coop fence with there heads off. later he watched the neighbor dog go up to the last chicken when it stuck its head through the fence to eat grass on the other side, and it bit the head right off....

 

[HSCMorgans]

I had a chick have its head taken off... Enclosed securely in its coop.. Determined it was either a rat or small weezle of some sort as there was rat type hole dug up into the coop along the wall....

 

[Peepsicle]

Definetly a raccoon. If your using poultry wire/fencing, don't. The holes are to big. Use hardware cloth. It works really well for us. Then, so things don't dig under your coop, slip a 16-inch-wide-and-however-long-your-coop-wall-is-long piece of the hardware cloth under your walls. Use a really long nail to nail it to the ground. Cover that with dirt. GOOD LUCK!!!

 

[jbirds2012]

sorry about your loss. i agree with everyone else, dog, racoon or both

 

[sumi]

Hello and welcome to BYC

Sorry to hear about your problems. Best of luck!

 

[aaabirdman]

Welcome to BYC....Sorry about your loss

 

[weimarmama]

& from Alabama. Glad you joined us. So sorry to hear about your predator problems