What a bummer of an evening! I had to babysit for my daughter today at her house until 3:30. She took me home & wanted to visit so I quickly went out & gave fresh ice water to the chickens as it was so hot today. Later this evening, I went out to their fenced yard & saw something at the far end. There were 3 or 4 other chickens there checking something out. It was Dinosaur, my 9 week old Ameracauna rooster!
He was lying next to the fence, so eaten that I had to identify him by his gold & purple wing feathers. All that was left of his head was his beak & his neck was just a string of skin holding everything together. His back was all de-feathered & partially eaten. Feathers were thick on both sides of the fence. My husband thought maybe a dog had grabbed his head thru the fence, as he saw 2 dogs running from our yard an hour or 2 before I found him. Do you think this is the likely culpret or something else? Also, I'm worried now that some of the chickens got a taste of his back flesh & picking will start in. What can I do to prevent that?
( Any chance it was a Raccoon? They are famous for reaching in and grabbing. I have read their reach can be up to a foot! 2 x 4 welded wire is better than chicken wire but not really predator proof. Hardware cloth is best, but kinda pricey. For my duck run, we used wood siding.
