missing head

No, that's not a hawk's M.O. That is a coon or an oppossum. Set a live trap with the remainder of one of the chickens right outside the coop (tie it into the back of the trap) and see what you catch.

 

Yup coon or possum.

 

In my experience, headless victims are usually due to hawks or owls. Sometimes minks or weasels could be the culprit as well. One beheaded bird at a time sound like bird of prey to me. I've lost several to great horned owls this year - take the heads right off or strip the head with their talons.

If your pen is covered in netting, look for signs of feathers at the top netting - birds of prey will leave signs behind.

Weasels don't typically stop with one birds and will kill several in this manner.

Coons destroy the whole carcass unless they're interupted. Seen these disasters too. Pretty devastating if one of these gets in a pen.

 

I concur with Hinkjc. Great horned owls will get game birds flying into the fence then grab them and pull their heads through the fence. Coons will enter a coop and in a killing frenzy remove the heads off of several chickens. Saw this happen on a neighbor's farm when I was a kid. The coon after killing an entire coop of RIR went to sleep in a nest box and was found there the next morning.

 

Sound's like raccoon to Me.Possibly even a Rat.Never had a rat attack until this year.They killed 25 Grad's and most were head attack's.Invest in a live trap and put some kitty food or tuna in you might be suprised at some of the thing's you can trap! So sorry about your bird's.

 

Well I say coons because if they couldn't get in, they will sure reach and pull, explaining why only one dead and not a lot of em.

 

Here are some pics of a great horned owl who got caught up in our flight top netting over a pheasant pen. He (or his friends) came back several times, eventually killing the male in that pen, injuring a male in another pen, killed several ringnecks this year in yet another pen and killed a wild turkey hen by beheading her. Trust me, I know these birds well.

 

Hi! Great pics of a fabulously fabulous bird, they are lucky they don't live here.
There is a brief place when you have a predator-type bird (as glorious as) caught trying and tried --- that really makes you think. They are just glorious in close-up in pics, but I can appreciate them much better from a distance.

Lisa

 

did you help the owl?

(what ur thinking "my chickens are dieing left and right and you care about the animal killing them??!??" )