two chickens dead....does this sound like a hawk to you?

[cbenson6820]

I had one young roo and a pullet killed today. They were free ranging right in front of their tractor. My girlfriend found the chickens at 2pm and the bodies were stacked on top of each other. The chicken on the bottom was mostly eaten. All that was left was a leg and the hip bone, pieces of the breast bone, both wings, and a little bit of the intestines. The bird on top was intact except the head was severed off(only inches from the body) and it looked like a little bit of the throat had been devoured. The feathers were scattered in like a half circle right around the bodies and the bodies were only about 2 feet from the entrance to the tractor.

Does this sound like a hawk to you? Do weasels attack during the day?

 

[Wisher1000]

Maybe a hawk, maybe an owl. Weasels will tear out the throat, never seen them take a head.

 

[chickenfarmer14]

I had one young roo and a pullet killed today. They were free ranging right in front of their tractor. My girlfriend found the chickens at 2pm and the bodies were stacked on top of each other. The chicken on the bottom was mostly eaten. All that was left was a leg and the hip bone, pieces of the breast bone, both wings, and a little bit of the intestines. The bird on top was intact except the head was severed off(only inches from the body) and it looked like a little bit of the throat had been devoured. The feathers were scattered in like a half circle right around the bodies and the bodies were only about 2 feet from the entrance to the tractor. Does this sound like a hawk to you? Do weasels attack during the day?

 

[chickenfarmer14]

weasels will stack the carcasses neatly and will take the heads and most of the intestines

 

[chookchik]

Hawks carry things away - it sounds like a weasle. I lost 3 ducks to a mink, it tore out their throats and lined them up neatly in the day time just before I went to let them out of their house. It was still in the coop and didn't get a chance to do anything other than kill them all - it was like a crime scene. Too bad I didn't have a grenade or shot gun or something. (I still haven't gotten over it).

I suggest you set some sort of trap or it will keep coming back.

 

[cbenson6820]

we live near a small stream so i've always assumed there are weasels around here but i've never seen one. Do they attack during the day though? i'm not talking about early morning, this attack happened sometime between noon and 2 pm.

 

[redsoxs]

I have never had a weasel problem so I can't speak to their mannerisms. But from what you've described I wonder if something as small as a weasel could eat as much as was eaten????

 

[7heaven]

Sounds like a Mink. We had one get into our coop in broad day light, and eat the heads and part of the throats of our five hens we hatched from eggs. He/she laid them in a neat row. That day was very emotional, since we hatched them from eggs and watched them grow up to egg laying hens.

 

[Wisher1000]

I had a mink kill my five American Games when I was a kid. The throats were gone in the front, their bodies were scattered, and the heads were intact. I guess it could be that individual predators have their own MOs. I also had a hawk kill a bird in the early afternoon. There were feathers scattered on both sides of the body and the head was neatly removed.

 

[sourland]

Scattered feathers sounds like a hawk - stacked prey sounds like a member of the weasel family.