What predator is killing your chickens?

[Luhoo]

So my chicken thief was back again last night, we had a heavy rain. I found this one and only one this morning, it clearly has 5 toes and no nails that show. I've looked at weasel prints online and they show front and back tracks.

I just got a job, been unemployed for the last 2 months, my first paycheck I'm investing in some "Hot Wire" and a weasel box. I'm not big on shooting so I don't want to kill what ever it is, I however live 10 miles from the mountains so like it or not what ever I catch is going to live some where up onto of the mountain.

So for now, the door is still secured top, middle and bottom. I put a heavy board on the inside before I close the door, another on the outside and bricks. So far so good, after the other nights fiasco of no one wanting to go in the next day I found a 2 foot snake. So that may of been the reason, but I did loose another Guinea. Lois couldn't find her mates Moe & Gladys in the tree, so she slept on the ground. I found a few large feather and what I seen bear scat and a trail leading through the field.

 

[aart]

That looks like a coon.

Helps to put a quarter down when taking pics to give scale.

 

[Jesusfreak101]

I agree with it looking like a raccoon print. The other print you had looked like a cat.

 

[Luhoo]

Well the suns been out and the print is drying it out

 

[Jesusfreak101]

The fact that it looks like a little hand screams coon to me. But i havent seen a weasle print either.

 

[aart]

Weasel tracks....https://www.google.com/webhp?source...96US600&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=weasel tracks

Raccoon tracks...https://www.google.com/webhp?source...6US600&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=raccoon tracks

 

[kris1990]

We have free range chicken and ducks. They have a chicken cube that we lock during the night for their protection and we open during the day and let them wonder around the property. They are 8 months old. We never had any problems before. Last night in the head count we were missing one chicken that later we found with no head (on the pictures above) and today we found another one attacked in the same way but thus one wasn't dead. She's missing half of the back of her neck. We had to stich her us and we still don't know of she's going to make it. What animal can cause this type of damage? We have 22 acres in the city surrounded by neighborhood. And there are no coyotes or any other type of large predators we know of. Both attacks happened during the day.

 

[Mutt Farm]

We have free range chicken and ducks. They have a chicken cube that we lock during the night for their protection and we open during the day and let them wonder around the property. They are 8 months old. We never had any problems before. Last night in the head count we were missing one chicken that later we found with no head (on the pictures above) and today we found another one attacked in the same way but thus one wasn't dead. She's missing half of the back of her neck. We had to stich her us and we still don't know of she's going to make it. What animal can cause this type of damage? We have 22 acres in the city surrounded by neighborhood. And there are no coyotes or any other type of large predators we know of. Both attacks happened during the day.

That's awful! So sorry that happened.
Here's the article from the extension service that describes different predators : http://www.extension.org/pages/7120...mall-and-backyard-poultry-flocks#.VfRSEhFVikp
Here's a quote from it. It says a hawk will kill during the day. Owl at night.

• If birds are dead and not eaten but are missing their heads, the predator may be a raccoon, a hawk, or an owl. Raccoons sometimes pull a bird’s head through the wires of an enclosure and then can eat only the head, leaving the majority of the body behind. Also, raccoons may work together, with one scaring the chickens to the far end of a pen and the other picking off the birds’ heads.

 

[kris1990]

Would a hawk eat the whole head with the bones?

 

[LeafBlade12345]

Probably not, but an owl would!