Predators that decapitate chickens

[pjknust]

I lost 6 in one night in April '10. My hen house is not secure at all. They could go in from the top, or dig and go under. It was an old boat shed. I live by myself and this is all I have and all I will have, but my dogs pretty much keep things out of the yard. I was neglectful in not shutting the gate, and not letting my dogs continue to mark the fence.
This 'thing' dug under the garden fence, not a big hole, more long ways along the fence line. Not wide at all, no hair, nothing on the fence. No feathers outside of the fence, but a bunch inside the garden. They went in and around thru the garden gate that I was not closing at the time, and into the hen house that I was not closing at the time. So this thing dug under the fence, ate two complete chickens and took the heads off the other four and left them. I have been told that skunks or fox will eat the heads off.
I have no idea what it was, but I close up all now, and dogs have free run of the garden nowdays.

pam in TX

 

[Mallisa]

My guess, weasel. Had this happen in my coop. remember when patching holes that if it is weasel he is like a mouse and can squeeze through some tight places. A few days after patching the holes my awesome cats brought mr. weasel to me. Only time I have ever seen one and I have lived here since 1992. Also, had an uncle who kept losing chickens in a closed coop...found an opossum in there one night. He had been hiding and was getting closed up with the chicks.

 

[TommyTurkey]

I had an Owl that beheaded rabbits and leave the rest of the body...luckily he moved on an I haven't heard his whoooing for a long time now. He was up in the trees near the creek that runs through the edge of my property.

 

[enola]

First of all, I'd like to thank everybody for your comments. I caught a feral cat in a live trap overnight. He is VERY wild and ferocious. Perhaps he has been the culprit in the loss of many of my best chickens. With every hole I could see, patched, we shall see.

 

[claudiag]

We had a meat bird (days away from being slaughtered) get beheaded a few night ago. Darn thing ruined a perfectly good meat bird. Did not seem to eat anything else (this was while we were at family celebrating our eldest's birthday!). We have caught in our live trap (with eggs for bait) about 11 raccoons in the past 3 weeks. I did not realize there were so many out here! And they seemed to be in the duck yard not the chicken yard until the beheading! I did not realize how nasty predators could be, until the snapping turtle to one of our ducks the first day they were on the pond. That turtle ended up getting tangled in the ducks fencing. It's karma perhaps! More adventures here than I'd like really.

 

[cahia]

Thank you for the information in this post! I lost two last night and they were beheaded! I have locked up the rest of my chickens for the day until I can determine who our predator is!

 

[Aberhallo]

Raccoons for sure. Have you reinforced the coop and run with hardware cloth?

 

[cahia]

Yes but I had the pen door open last night and am afraid they were killed before I locked up. When will day light savings get here so it's not so dark out so early!!!?!

 

[enola]

This is an OLD thread that I started. I never updated with results. The feral cat I trapped must have been the problem. After catching the cat, I didn't lose any more chickens.

 

[Amystef]

Help: I had two hens decapitated in mid day yesterday. From our fenced in backyard. They were free ranging. one was on the opposite side of the fence, so whatever got her also got her up and over the fence as she is too big to go through the fence. Then dragged her about 7 feet (feather trail) The other hen was killed in the backyard again a trail of feathers and headless. No damage to either of their bodies. They were free ranging and I was at home and heard nothing! I had heard an owl at dawn that morning. Any ideas?