mine defintly isint a fox becouse they killed my two 16 week old chicks only eating the head and the biggest hole in there coop (there in a seperate coop) was a rat hole a fox defintly couldnt get into it without digging tbh i dont no how he gt the hens out of my coop no where theres a hole big enough and there is no feathers its defintly not a hawk couse i have a net he comes back to the remaning 2 bodies in my cooop took one ate the wing and head and organs of one and crambed it in a small space for l8tr no feathers no hole lots of half eaten bodysThat is almost without a doubt the work of a fox. A fox will without a doubt attack during the day. A fox will take as many as it can, making multiple trips, and bury the prey. The fox does this because they're extremely opportunistic hunters and don't know when their next meal is. They bury their food near the den for later meals. A fox will attack from behind, going in for a swift kill. This leaves only a pile of feathers at most. You may also find trails of feathers as the fox carries away the prey.
Definitely not mink, definitely not any birds of prey and I can almost guarantee it isn't raccoon or possum.
Mink/weasel attack the back of neck and head area, sucking the bills and feasting on some flesh. They do not acquire the strength to drag off a chicken, let alone multiple.
Birds of prey will swoop near or on the prey, usually eating it alive.unless it is a very small animal, they seldom carry off their prey and will eat it on the spot. A hawk carrying off a regular sized chicken is like strapping an f150 to the landing gear of a piper plane and expecting it to take off, it just doesn't work.
Dogs (roaming/domestic) don't usually eat the birds. Most dog on flock attacks that I read about are dogs that are allowed to wander and they all seem to happen the same way. The dog sees the chickens and wants to either "play" or the prey drive kicks in and the dog "plays" the chicken to death. The dog will usually grab and shake an leave a lot of feathers everywhere but after the bird is dead, they move onto the next one. Dog may be a possibility, but I would expect you to find more bodies if so.
A raccoon or opossum will typically attack at night, although daytime attacks can happen too. They will pull the chickens off the roost and kill them pretty violently. There is a lot of blood and feathers when they attack. They eat the head most of the time and will also eat entrails and breast meat. Both eat prey on the spot and will seldom drag off kills. Raccoons and possums have been known to kill for sport and will leave bodies scattered about.
I have read a lot about attacks on poultry and have first hand experience with some of the attacks myself, unfortunately. Hopefully that may rule out some possibilities for you.
I can almost guarantee that you have a fox that went after the chickens. I had a daytime fox come and get 7 of my hens that were free ranging. I noticed her run glancing out the window and when she saw me, she dropped one of my leghorns and was gone in a second. The hen was still alive when I got to her but sadly her injuries were too severe and she died about 10 minutes later.All I found from them were just a few piles of feathers in the yard, no more than 10 feet from the front door. The next day I let them out but I stood next to the door and supervised them free ranging. I had my gun next to me in case the fox came back. Sure enough, she came literally out of nowhere and jumped on one of my hens and went straight for her neck. My hen freaked out and I grabbed my gun. The fox ended up missing the hen and took off so fast I couldn't get a shot at her. I had to stop free ranging after that..A few weeks later, my neighbor came over and gave me all her egg cartons. She said a fox killed all her chickens but one and she came home to the fox running out of her yard with a hen in its mouth. About a month later, another neighbor on the street came over with his egg cartons and the same thing happened to him. The fox never got caught despite all of our efforts to trap/shoot it. Maybe the ones that you found were able to get away before the predator could get to them and hid somewhere?
thanks ill take a look
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