Help, please!! I have no idea what to think...!

[scottsangeloflove]

Can someone help me solve this mystery please... I have no idea what to think about this (we're kinda newbies to chicken care!). We have (should say 'had') 6 chickens (laying hens, white leghorns) in a 4x8 movable coop - have had them for over a year without any incident, but just this morning, found one of them lying dead, *IN*side the coop, feathers strewn around, head completely chewed off!!! The body was just laying there, totally intact, INside the coop. The other 5 chickens were totally fine!! My little daughter said last night she heard chickens squawking very loudly (out past her bedroom, other side of the house) & some commotion. (FYI, we live in North Florida in the woods, so a fox or raccoon is a possibility but we haven't seen any & wouldn't they just take the whole chicken or even all of them??). Could it have been a cat?? We do have a couple that have just showed up (we've never fed them but they've just been hanging around for 6 months eating frogs, cockroaches, & lizards). Could it have been the other chickens???They've gotten along all this time! except maybe a couple weeks ago we did notice a bit of confrontation between a couple of the chickens & one other chicken... so I don't know... (Also, they're mainly in the coop but we do let them out some days to free range more)... Any thoughts or ideas what could have caused this??? :-O. TIA!!

 

[Rich386]

Can someone help me solve this mystery please... I have no idea what to think about this (we're kinda newbies to chicken care!). We have (should say 'had') 6 chickens (laying hens, white leghorns) in a 4x8 movable coop - have had them for over a year without any incident, but just this morning, found one of them lying dead, *IN*side the coop, feathers strewn around, head completely chewed off!!! The body was just laying there, totally intact, INside the coop. The other 5 chickens were totally fine!! My little daughter said last night she heard chickens squawking very loudly (out past her bedroom, other side of the house) & some commotion. (FYI, we live in North Florida in the woods, so a fox or raccoon is a possibility but we haven't seen any & wouldn't they just take the whole chicken or even all of them??). Could it have been a cat?? We do have a couple that have just showed up (we've never fed them but they've just been hanging around for 6 months eating frogs, cockroaches, & lizards). Could it have been the other chickens???They've gotten along all this time! except maybe a couple weeks ago we did notice a bit of confrontation between a couple of the chickens & one other chicken... so I don't know... (Also, they're mainly in the coop but we do let them out some days to free range more)... Any thoughts or ideas what could have caused this??? :-O. TIA!!

I am in Live Oak, FL and have had the same thing happen. Never caught the animal that did it but it very well could be a possum, coon, coyote or dog. I don't think a cat could pull the head off. I secured my coop with electric fence no problem since.

 

[TheChickenCameFirst]

Raccoons WILL reach inside chicken wire and pull/chew chickens heads off Caught one in the act once. This might be what happened.

 

[LibertyChick]

You might want to secure the windows with "hardware cloth" that is 1/2" by 1/2" because chicken wire is not secure. You can get the hardware cloth at Lowes or Home Depot.

I hope this helps.

LibertyChick

 

[Haunted55]

An electric fence around the coop will take care of it as well. You can get the step in posts for the wire so you can easily move the fencing when you move their chicken tractor. I keep chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys and peafowl. I use electric fencing and haven't lost one yet, even though ducks quacking are the dinner bell to all kinds of predators. You can even get a solar powered fence charger so no electricity involved. I won't say it's cheap to start, but once it's there, your birds are safe from pretty much everything except snakes.

 

[Rich386]

I agree with Haunted55 I found my electric fence charger for about $12.00. You don't need one that will handle 20 miles of fence If you have 100 or 200 ft. of wire to charge.

 

[scottsangeloflove]

Thanks so much, everyone!!! Yeah, I agree, it probably was a raccoon (fox?) reaching inside to get one. I don't know why he wouldn't eat the rest of the chicken - what I mean is, I wonder if raccoons dig under?? I have no idea on that. But anyway, yeah... I moved them closer to the house. I do have NiteGuard on their coop but interestingly enough *this* occasion was the first and *one* occasion we took it off to use on another new coop - didn't have any more nite-guards!! Crazy!! So.. I think this experience makes me vouch for NiteGuard even more.... Thanks so much too for the info about the electric fence & charger. That sounds really great, & I would go this route except we have little kids.

 

[scottsangeloflove]

Thanks again SO much to everyone who responded!!

 

[scottsangeloflove]

& thanks LibertyChick - I didn't know about the hardware cloth & will definitely check into it!!

 

[LibertyChick]

It's not really cloth but wire fencing. It is 1/2" by 1/2" squares so it's very safe and still allows you to keep the windows open. You can get it at Lowes or Home Depot. Make sure you get U nails because that us how you will attach it to your coop. It's easy to cut with wire cutters.

LibertyChick