what would kill 8 chickens in 1 day????

[dainerra]

I doubt dogs from this description. If it were dogs, you would have found bodies everywhere since very few dogs kill for food. They just think it's fun to see all the birds screaming and flapping around and like to play with them. Of course, dogs play a bit rough for chickens, so they lose interest and move on to the next bird.

From your description I'd say coon or fox

ETA: also keep in mind that at this time of year Mama coon is teaching her babies how to hunt (so is Mrs Fox) so you can expect that most predators will be traveling in "packs"

 

[Lucas Smith]

We don't have raccoons here in Australia but certainly have foxes and this sounds like foxes to me as dogs normally don't just rip off the heads
A friend of mine lost 16 in a day hens this way in a day
It seems foxes do this not just for food but also funny
Cheers
Lucas

 

[inohio]

All of my DAYTIME losses have been to domestic dogs. We've had one local farmer loose 75 in one night (all bodies left headless), he believes that was racoon. Nocturnal animals will be active in the day, but only when they have young and need extra food to maintain them.

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

I would say dog.

 

[zazouse]

sorry for all the losses.
My bets on a dog or dogs.
I feed my dogs chicken and the first thing they eat is the head and feet.

 

[ctbagley]

Raccoons seem like the most likely. All the chickens I had that were killed by dogs (and there were many before we built out pen) just like to bite them, throw them around and go on to the next "toy". Raccons are the kings of biting off heads and leaving feet behind too. The raccoon population in NC seems to have exploded this year and they are much smarter than other predators. They probably have been watching your coop fo a while and saw their opportunity when the door was still open. I am so sorry for your losses...we finally had to give up the free ranging....they only go out when we are home to sit with them outside. We built a chicken fortress/run for them for other times. I recommend getting a havahart live trap (made for raccoons).

 

[goosemama]

I do think our villains were a pack of raccoons. My husband said later at 2am he heard another one but missed it as it ran away too quickly, so there is a lot of them! As one members said earlier probably mama teaching the babies how to hunt. We had a lot of daytime disappearances last year right from the fenced yard and most were newly hatched Spring chicks about 2 months old. I figured it was a fox or coyote scaling a 5 foot fence, but after the carnage of this weekend I can see how a raccoon or several could easily climb a non-electric fence and be off with several big hens. One other aspect is our two dogs were old and in the last 2 years died (Black Lab and Westie). They used to go out on the deck periodically through the day and night from their house doggie door and bark - and I'm sure their presence was enough to help. After they died it was like open house here for anything that wanted a chicken dinner.

I have never seen a dog on our property - neighbors that do have them contain them to their own property (l/4 mile away), so I'm almost l00% positive our problem is raccoons and lots of them! We just ordered five foot flexible semi-permanent electric poultry netting from Premier (expensive!!!) and we have realized we have so many gate issues and places where they could come in the front of our property, climb a big tree and drop into the fenced area, that we need to carefully plan this fencing so they can't enter at any point. I am so mad at losing my beautiful hens to these marauders. I was up until 5am last night worrying about how we were going to enclose them with this electric fence safely, but my husband has been planning and has it all worked out. So we will go from there and hope for the best. Anyone else out there have experience with electric poultry netting?

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

When I had a neighbor's dog kill every single one of my birds a few years back--there were some headless bodies, some just chewed on (no blood), some ripped up....and a few totally missing.

 

[Potrack]

I’ve heard of a weasel slaughtering a whole house full of poultry in one night.

 

[Fluffyflufffluff]

I have had day time free range chickens for 3 -4 years. Came home from work to find feathers EVERYWHERE. Followed a trail of feathers (BIG cochan roo) into the woods to find his body with no head. My husband searched the woods for more, but found nothing. Day later one chicken showed up hurt very bad. What would kill hurt 8 chickens in1 day?
I have only seen woodchuck in yard. What should I be on the lookout for? Chickens now locked up.

Thanks Tisha

That sounds really frightening. Do you see any "lack of a better term" force entry? Any Idea how big this thing is? I hope you can figure this out soon...