What predator would pile up dead chickens?

[Bri A]

I have been raising birds for years, so I am familiar with predator issues, but I have a new one. I have a small flock of a dozen 2-month-old Jersey Giants and 4 full-grown ducks. The other morning I went to the barn to find only two chicks in the barn. 4 ducks and 7 small chickens are totally missing. Here is the interesting part. There were three chicken carcasses in a neat little pile in the middle of the horse paddock outside the barn. Two intact and one with a missing head. Missing head makes me think raccoon or owl, but an owl would only kill one or two, and I do not think a raccoon would carry off 4 ducks and 7 chicks. I have never heard of anything piling them up, like they were making a neat little cache and were planning to come back for them. That sounds more like a fox, but I don't see a fox carrying off that many. It could be coyotes, but I don't think they would pile anything up. Happened at night or before 10 AM. Has anyone had a predator make a pile out of their kills?

 

[Rose the Legbar]

Probably some sort of weasel/stoat as they are known to kill for sport. Do you know if weasels/stoats are in your part of the world? It could be fox but they dont sport hunt usually.

 

[Mrs. K]

I think it is a coons. They tend to get them in the dark. I wonder if something spooked them off.

 

[NewcoopNewpoop]

Domestic dog.

 

[Bri A]

Update: I saw a fox in the back pasture carrying off something tonight. Spooked and ran off before I could get a bead on it, but no doubt a red fox. No new casualties, so it looks like it had come back for a carcass it had previously stashed. Cannot say it was not a coincidence, or just scavenging what something else left, but another piece of evidence pointing to a fox. Need to find some British equestrians with some hounds and have a proper fox hunt.

 

[pauwau]

Probably some sort of weasel/stoat as they are known to kill for sport. Do you know if weasels/stoats are in your part of the world? It could be fox but they dont sport hunt usually.

yes I agree weasels do stockpile. I had a Mama move in on my porch and have her babies. I let them stay and observed her adding to her caches. She had dead animals stockpiled in the walls. I observed her moving her babies, (probably too much human activity), and gathered up all her corpses and left them in a pile where she exited. She moved them all to her new home outside. I immediately ripped out all the insulation, disinfected everything and made sure I sealed up access to the porch. The point of that long winded story is that I've personally observed weasels stockpiling food. I know fox will cache food briefly and raccoons not at all.