What killed my bantys?

[Little Hens]

my daughter has 8 little banty hens. when i got home from work 6 of them were dead around the back yard. My yard is fenced and gated. I have a boxer (which in two years has never bothered them) and am now taking care if my deceased fathers dog which is a retriever/lab mix. I have only had this dog for two weeks but it has not bother the hens. The dead hens were not missing any feathers and were whole except for 3 which had there stomachs only ate. Neither dog had any blood on them and my dads dog was with me when i picked them up and did not show any signs of guilt, or was territorial or anything. He just sniffed the bags and walked away. My husband is convince that he is the one that killed them but i am not. I need some opinions on whether this is typical dog behavior to kill and eat only the stomach or if i should be looking for a preditor.

 

[schellie69]

I am not sure if a dog would eat just the stomach I would think another type of predator Not sure

to byc and sorry that your first post had to be about something like this.

 

[bobbi-j]

It's possible that the new dog killed them and something else ate the stomachs. Labs and retrievers are bird dogs. They're bred to retrieve birds. I don't think he was wanting to maliciously kill your birds. Maybe just carried them around until they were dead and went looking for another one. That's what happened here with one of my labs. I don't know that he would show signs of guilt for doing what he was bred to do. Did your dad ever hunt with him? Have you worked with him to teach him that the chickens aren't play things? Just a few things to consider. It might be an idea to keep him either tied or confined when the birds are out unless someone is there to supervise him until you've had a chance to train him to to leave the chickens alone. I'm sorry for the loss of your father.