I hope this isn't too morbid a question re: coon attacks

[Country4ever]

My chickens were attacked in their run about 10 days ago. The coon killed 2 beautiful hens. They were in the middle of the run when I found them. The only thing bad on their whole beautiful bodies were their bloody, featherless heads. They were all intact, no lacerations, etc., just bloody and featherless. How did the coon do this? Did he do it with his mouth or his claws? Do you think he attacked one and started to do this to the head, then maybe the other chicken defended it and he got that one next?
I'm not trying to be macabre, I just have a need to try to understand what happened and how the coons work.
Have any of you actually seen an attack in progress?
My one hen was still warm when I found her. I was so angry at myself for not checking on them sooner. I looked out the kitchen window once and they hadn't gone to roost yet. Then I went out about 20 minutes later and found this..........with the coon escaping over a lose section of netting.
Just curious how the coons operate.

 

[PhoenixRin]

I think they do it by reaching their arms through the wire and grabbing the feathers.

I had a rather gruesome attack on a rabbit years ago...I had made a hutch from wood and thick wire, and I had the rabbit for about 6 months in there...well, I woke up one morning to find the rabbit pulled halfway through the wire X.X I won't go into details, since even I had nightmares for a while from it.

But coons are very smart creatures. I would suggest putting another layer of smaller wire over the run, or making the run itself bigger, so they have other palces to run if coons come around.

 

[Dragonfly Ranch]

This same type of attack was described at one of our local farm meetings and people there said that is what a skunk does - just bites the head and leaves the rest.

 

[Country4ever]

Yes, I knew it was a coon, since I saw it leaving.
It couldn't have reached through my fencing, since its 1/2 hardware cloth over welded utility wire. It came into the run from a loose section of top netting.
I was just curious how it beat up their heads so much. Do you think it grabbed them and then tried to bite on their heads? Or did it drag them by their heads, or use its sharp claws?
Since the heads weren't mutiliated......just bare and bloody, I'm wondering if it started on one hen, and then got attacked by another hen......which it then focused on.
Sorry I'm being so picky about understanding this. Its just how I am.

 

[chseeads]

A lot of times predators won't just stop at killing one, so it very well may have just dispatched one and then moved on to the next one....

 

[chickensioux]

So sorry this happened to your girls. Does sound like a coon. They are smart, crafty, determined little.....and you need to do whatever possible to prevent them from doing it again. They will be back and quite possibly with "friends".
Again, so sorry.

 

[McGoo]

If you're asking how they actually kill the bird - I'd say they grab the neck and swing and snap it. Animals love the head, so they eat it first. I had a fox attack and that's what I think happened there too. I liken it to the way a dog or cat attacks an animal.

wonder if anyone has seen an attack.... I'm pretty sure someone on the forum must have.

 

[Country4ever]

Thanks everyone.
Yes McGoo, that's exactly what I was asking! I didn't know if they used their hands (since they're so adept at that), or if they grabbed them with their mouths and maybe shook them like a dog does.
I guess I'd like to know that my chickens didn't suffer too long.