Unknown predator killed hen...Help identifying???

[77horses]

Quote:
There are a lot of crows around. Which is good, because they do a good job of keeping hawks away. But I've never seen any of the huge Ravens, though I know it's possible that there are a few around.
There are also HUGE gray squirrels that I've seen raiding the chicken coop for cracked corn.

It's a silly question, but maybe could a huge gray squirrel be a thread? I mean they get pretty big...almost the size of my young cat, Nadia. And I've heard of red squirrels raiding bird nests and eating eggs/baby birds. But I don't know.

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

Squirrel plage me too.........but have not attacked the chickens yet. BUT my neighbor tells me that squirrels and pack rats will eat young chicks and juvy birds (bantam hen is not much different at least to me). Mostly the squirrels and pack rats steal eggs and feed. Course my squirrels are ground squirrels - no trees here for tree squirrels.

 

[77horses]

Quote:
Yep. And it seems even more likely because of the size of the gray squirrels here, which are about the size of a small, young cat. But I've never seen them as a threat to the chickens, since they only like to steal the leftover cracked corn, and there's quite a lot to eat around here, along with other food sources in the woods, so I doubt they would be hungry enough to attempt to eat a chicken.

 

[Bizzybirdy]

Possums here pull legs off and intestines out of chickens when they kill....as do racoons but they usually decapitate. I have had possums attack/kill my hens when they used to free range after before dusk and right after daybreak.

Hope you find out what did that. So sorry for your poor chickie.

 

[featherz]

I just had the same thing happen with my beautiful GLW - everyone here seemed to think hawk because it was right at the treeline into my forest, just as yours, and there was a huge feather explosion. I had them out free ranging, but I am covering the run this weekend and they have been 'cooped up' since until I can do so. I only let this group of chickens free range because of our guineas, but now the guineas have decided they want to sleep in the trees so it all works out.

 

[77horses]

UPDATE: The chickens are still fine. I'm working on building a secure run for them. They're only allowed out when I'm nearby outside, but even when I go inside the house they need to go back into their coop just in case.
I'm thinking it was a skunk. We have a few here who always seem to be nearby the house, and they can and will attack chickens if needed, right?
Thanks everyone for all the responses.

feather- I'm so sorry about your GWL hen.

Hopefully we can both figure out what it was that killed our poor hens so we can get rid of it!