I just found all 26 of my ducks headless!?!?

[louloubell2017]

Thank you

I had 2 Polish hens killed by a racoon, one of the chickens was roosting on an umbrella and the Racoon jumped from a tree only the umbrella on the patio. I worked the evening shift and occasionally no one would put them the hutch so I would when I came home, her head was gone. The next night that racoon came back and got in the hutch bit off one of the hen's heads. And the next night I set a live trap with the rest of the dead chicken in as bait, giant means racoon, I was mad at that thing, but I took it to a lake area far in the woods.

 

[pinkytuscadaro]

Raccoons

 

[YouStayClassy]

I’ve found absolutely the only way to secure chickens, ducks, geese from predators is to put them in high security lockdown at night (hardware cloth, 2-3 way locks, wood, no gaps, wire to prevent digging or solid bottom) and an electric fence or netting. I put my ducks and geese that can’t fly IN a section in my carport that’s closed off with a door and leave the light on all night.

These items combined are highly effective for me, just requires a lot of extra effort to stay on top of each coop’s structural integrity and the health of the fence. (Just got a fence charger that puts out 8k+ Volts around an acre - yeah, it’s great.)

If you rely on the efence only, the one night it happens to get grounded or downed, the predators will come. They are ruthless on a wood line, too, so I’ve seen some things. The opposums will jump from trees to get over the fence even. It’s awful!!

You can find deals sometimes on hardware cloth if you’re needing to replace the chicken wire. Check out Nextdoor or Craigslist for construction sites dumping it. You can get garden wire to lay on the ground and pin with garden hooks to create a ‘dig proof’ barrier around your coop, too.

10 years of owning birds and it’s amazing the amount I can recount lost to just one slip up. Best of luck, terribly sorry for your loss.

 

[CPT]

That happened to some of my guineas 2 yrs ago; only 2 survived and ran off, but came back later on in the day. It's so hard to deal with! Definitely raccoons.

 

[Songbird21]

Why the Hell would they just eat the heads??

 

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So I just walk out to my coop and all 26 of my ducks were on the ground without heads all the heads were gone but the bodies were there and looked unharmed. I can't find the heads anywhere I can't see any holes or places in the wire were an animal could have gotten in what could have got them all?!?!

Classic skunk attack. Skunks can get into small holes we can’t see. For some reason they like just the heads of birds and leave the rest.

 

[ElmCityChickens]

Could also be a Fisher Cat. Are there Fisher Cats in your state? Any bodies missing? If there are bodies missing could possibly be a fox. Or an entire family of raccoons.

 

[centrarchid]

A fox could come in to de-head ducks in short order in an attempt at harvesting a surplus kill. Does the run have a secure cover?

 

[emMAyTeeTee]

Why the Hell would they just eat the heads??

Zombie raccoons

 

[Bunty144]

So I just walk out to my coop and all 26 of my ducks were on the ground without heads all the heads were gone but the bodies were there and looked unharmed. I can't find the heads anywhere I can't see any holes or places in the wire were an animal could have gotten in what could have got them all?!?!

Do you have Genets in the area? That's exactly what they do. They bite off the head and consume the contents. They seem to eat the whole head because they always do disappear completely. Very destructive but very beautiful creatures. One wonders why Nature creates such horrible behaviour!