What would kill a chicken and then leave it completely untouched?

[jammyjammy2112]

it couldve been a mink they would kill and suck the blood sometimes just eat the head

 

[Shining Hill]

I had a similar kill. I could not find any puncture wounds anywhere on the bird at all. It's head was tucked way under and at a funny angle. I do have a few barn cats around. Did you ever find out what did it? I know it has been a while.

 

[shotboltbay]

I came home the other day to find a dead hen, her head was gone, feathers from her spread over the ground for 25 feet. No other sign like dog tracks or coon tracks, so I thought mink. Neighbour shows up, he had seen the whole thing and it was a raven. He said the raven hit her aggrssively. An eagle flew down and the raven left. The eagle landed about 20 feet away and the neighbour ran the eagle off. I think the raven was stealing egs and the hen an Americauna was actually talking to the raven and going its way and it sort of was defending itself. Raven keeps coming back for eggs and has not attacked any other chickens. I would consider Ravens as a possibility in your case also.

 

[cityturncountry]

Raccoons have attacked my MIL chickens and left them all dead without eating them. But that's always at night when they found a way into to cage.

 

[chicken04]

It was probably a dog.We had a dog kill my beloved Australorp Gloria and her twin sassy was so depressed but she has another friend now.But the way you described him it sounded like a dog killed him because what dogs do is grab the bird by the neck and flings it every where and breaks the neck and it looks like nothing even happened to them just a bite mark and spots where it tried to catch the chicken so displayed feathers and some blood.And I'm so sorry for your loss.

 

[Shining Hill]

What kind of chicken is that in your profile pic? I used to have one like that and I loved her! She was so pretty!

 

[ElRocko]

Weasels will kill the animal and drink/suck it's blood so it won't eat it and it will look like nothing touched it.So sorry about your loss

Glad to hear someone has an answer. Its be than more than 30 yrs. and I always wondered what was getting in my chicken coop and killin my blood sucked right out of em. Left like rag dolls. Any ideas on how to trap a
weasel? Kept digging under and getting in.

 

[50-45-1]

Another very likely possibility would be that your rooster died of a heart attack.
It's not uncommon as it sounds.
I observed my one year old white rooster flopping around my yard about 1 minute after I had seen him chasing hens in an amorous way.

It flopped for about 30 seconds then lay dead.
Not a bad way to go I suppose...