What could have done this?

[luvmyEs]

We came home the other day and found our black silkie dead in the yard. Feathers were everywhere, including some RIR feathers. She looked like she had been partly plucked, her stomach was opened and mostly eaten. Our other chickens and ducks were hiding under our deck unharmed. DH thinks it was a hawk because he sees them flying around our house. I think it could have been a dog because our neighbors can't keep their's in the fence? Any ideas? We live in rural New Hampshire. We want to get rid of whatever it was, but not just killing everything.

 

[sourland]

I'm with your husband. Although the method of eating doesn't sound quite like their MO, I'm betting on the hawk. If the neighbor's dog is coming over, it will be the next predator.

 

[zazouse]

If you are saying the insides were eaten i vote dog, i have never heard of a hawk eating the insides but have see there kills where they eat the meat from the neck and breast.

sorry for your loss

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

i'm very sorry for your loss. Can't provide insight on what may have killed her. But Silkies are very prone to predators. They have trouble seeing above them because of their crests, and can't fly up into a tree to escape. For that reason, i keep all my girls in enclosed pens. There are many people who free range their birds and suffer very few losses. That's great and those birds are probably happier than mine. Perhaps if free ranging is important to you, you may want to stick with larger breed birds, not bantams, and perhaps don't include heavily crested birds in your stock.

Again, i am so sorry about your little bird.

Hope you find the killer.

 

[luvmyEs]

The all of my flock, except the silkies, are large breed chickens. I only had 3 silkies (2 now) as my living incubators

.

If you are saying the insides were eaten i vote dog, i have never heard of a hawk eating the insides but have see there kills where they eat the meat from the neck and breast.
Yes that is what I mean, the insides.

 

[janinepeters]

If you are saying the stomach itself was eaten, I go with dog because wild predators know better than to eat the least nutritious part of the bird.

 

[wcntygl]

I am not an expert by no means but i say a hawk and the reason is; we had 5 baby chicks in a 3/4 closed in roof pen. I heard odd noises around 7 in the morning went out and saw a "bird" flying into a tree. Heard the same noise later. went out again and saw feathers every where. It ended up being a hawk that ripped my lavender orpington to pieces. Guts were all over the place and the stomach was torn out also. SOOO a hawk can and will do this.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Quote: That's a little different than the example the OP gave of

Quote: Hawks "could" rip one open during that attack, but aren't very likely to EAT the insides first.

That's more of a Mammilian trait