I think it was a bird of prey. I am having trouble with this right now too. It's the bird without the head that clues me in. A couple years ago I had a hen that would fly up to the top of the apple tree and then give a speech. One day an eagle tried to pluck her off the tree by lifting her by the head. This is gruesome but what happens when they do that is the body is too heavy and the head pops off and the eagle is left with just a head in his claws. I found my girl shortly after this happened; she was still warm. I deprived the eagle of his prey by bagging her up and disposing of her. This last week I lost a chicken to another eagle and I have an injured girl in sick bay. If your chickens can fly out of the run, they may have flown to safety and that's why you found them elsewhere. I don't know where you are, but where I am the salmon aren't running like normal and the eagles depend on them. They are desperate to feed their own young, so they are going after our chickens. I have now set up obstacles so my girls will be safe. I hope. I can't close the top of my chicken run because it's my little orchard, so I set up tomato cages upside down, spikes up everywhere. The chickens can still range wherever they want but the eagles don't have a landing spot. Remember they have to swoop and grab. They cannot outrun a chicken on the ground. I feel your pain. The one I lost this week was one of my original hens. So sweet and lovable. The one in sick bay was also one of my originals. She is not doing well atm. Heart breaking.
Hello all! I have some sad news... last night I came home and 7 of my hens were gone and 1 of my female ducks was gone. I had been away for the weekend and was having my neighbor do chores(he has done them multiple times) I am 100% positive that the night before they had all gotten locked up. So... my neighbor locked them all up Saturday night and then at about 5pm on Sunday, he called me and told me that one of my Wyandotte’s(who was a VERY large bird)was dead and it was laying on his front porch. He said that she didn’t have any cuts or wounds, but she did have blood coming from her mouth/beak. He then called me about an hour later and proceeded to tell me that 7 of my laying hens were gone, and one of my female ducks was also gone. My chickens and ducks are EXTREMELY good about going into their coop at night, so this was alarming. I arrived home probably 20 minutes and began to look for the missing birds. We did manage to find my blue Copper Maran that wasn’t hurt at all but was pretty traumatized, and also a light Brahma that was not in good shape. She had a small wound and was laying on her side. We also found a few small wounds on the hens that were in the coop when we got home. Later that night we found 1 of my buff orpingtons that was sadly dead... very dead. Her head was gone but her body wasn’t touched, and she was left pretty close to my house in my lawn. I did find plenty of feathers scattered around my property but not the other 4 hens and 1 Duck that I was missing
I’m sorry about your chickens.
