Lost my top girl today. 😢

[hayley3]

Sorry to hear it always seems like it is the favorites , few seasons ago we lost Caramel my 10 year olds (at the time) favorite to coyotes, left feathers all over the pasture. He was distraught for the whole summer. Ours are totally free range and almost all have passed to old age (still hard) Since I gave up on poop on the hay bales so they roost in the rafters, no more predation. We have an awesome Roo incredibly brave almost reckless. Almost lost him last time. Again really sorry.

Interesting that yours are safe in the barn rafters...I had raccoons that would climb up in the rafters to cross to the other side and drop down into my coop. So if they had been in the rafters, the raccoons would have got them for sure. I watched the raccoons inch along the boards.

 

[Folly's place]

I started with bantams from a neighbor, and was told that they would be fine roosting in the rafters. NOT SO! After too many losses, we rededicated the old coop/ garden shed on our property, and no longer found body parts in the barn in the mornings.
Mary

 

[oldload]

I've lost 3 birds to hawks where all they eat is the head and meat from the neck. We put netting over our run and it helped until I got a hole in the net during a storm. I was going to fix it but I put it off a couple of days and a hawk got in through the hole. My rooster tried to fight it , flew up and got a spike hung in the netting. The hawk got him. He was a big ole boy and a darn good rooster. I never thought a hawk could get him. The hawks around here seem to hunt around 0900-1100. I'm going to rebuild my run and use chicken wire instead of bird netting. It seems like they always get our favorites.

 

[Molly Mojo]

I've lost 3 birds to hawks where all they eat is the head and meat from the neck. We put netting over our run and it helped until I got a hole in the net during a storm. I was going to fix it but I put it off a couple of days and a hawk got in through the hole. My rooster tried to fight it , flew up and got a spike hung in the netting. The hawk got him. He was a big ole boy and a darn good rooster. I never thought a hawk could get him. The hawks around here seem to hunt around 0900-1100. I'm going to rebuild my run and use chicken wire instead of bird netting. It seems like they always get our favorites.

We have lots of hawks out here.

From my observations, they all hunt/ fly between 9-11am. and then again around 5-6pm.
Now I only free range at the end of the day at about 8-9:30.

 

[Chick Nana 6]

How true it is ALWAYS the favorite! I lost my favorite hen when she was a year old to a fox when I ran into the house for a 5 minute bathroom break. She was so friendly - a Buff Orpington - she walked right up to a fox. My 2 acre lot is surrounded by woods and all the wildlife that comes with it. Now my husband and/or I supervise all free ranging 100% of the time.

 

[Ggg]

Thank you for your kind words. They really do comfort.



I don’t know how to process a chicken.

What should I do with her body?

There weren’t even flies on her yet

Bury her. At least give her that much respect.

 

[Doggirl08]

We had an opossum pull the heads off of a few of ours. A raptor got another, but my sister, who was 4 or so at the time, loved raptors, and said, “Maybeee, she was just running around the yard and her head fell off!” We were sad, but we laughed.

 

[Doggirl08]

How true it is ALWAYS the favorite! I lost my favorite hen when she was a year old to a fox when I ran into the house for a 5 minute bathroom break. She was so friendly - a Buff Orpington - she walked right up to a fox. My 2 acre lot is surrounded by woods and all the wildlife that comes with it. Now my husband and/or I supervise all free ranging 100% of the time.

Aww, I’m sorry. It is truly always the favorite. My dog got into the garage, and killed my favorite 6 week old chick, sparrow. This year we haven’t lost any to predators. A fox got into our coop, killed one, and the other one got bitten, but my dad ran out, and scared it away. Both of my parents are vets, and they saved her. She was just missing a bit of her chest for the rest of her life.

 

[Barbara l sandoval]

I have free rangers in my backyard.

I’m outside a lot and have hiding places for the birds.

I was inside for about an hour (Happened between 10a-11a) and came out to my girl dead on the ground and her head was missing.

No trail. Minimal blood where her body lay. Not many feathers.

Do hawks just take heads? She was 3 months old, so not adult, but still not tiny.
View attachment 2228066

All the others were hiding well, and two of them were hidden so well I had to search.

I will be building an enclosed run in the next month.

I know this is a part of “farm life” and I will adjust, just a bit sad.

She would come onto the porch and talk to me when I had food. It was as if she was presenting her argument about why I should share.

She almost always won the argument

I’m so very sorry for u she it seems was going to be one of the very special ones.. I had a hawk that got after my chickens.. it was scary

 

[Crttr Crzy]

Had a weasel wipe out an entire flock of young ducks years ago. No heads, very little blood. Thought the flock had been attacked by aliens, lol. Saw the weasel a few weeks later out in the field. I have no idea why they steal just the heads, or why they don't eat more of the meat. It seemed like they just killed for the sport of it and took the heads as trophies.