whats eating theirs head in daylight???

[crzybrdppl]

Help.a few weeks ago my gosling was found without its head. I left it there to see what would happen and sure enough the body was moved split open and the inside was eaten out a bit. Same story today with my little silky chicken. Broad daylight in California. Any clue as to what we are dealing with? Thanks. Also I'll add we have never experienced this in the whole year we've started growing chickens. But we did have 4 male guineas that we no longer have and I'm wondering if they are the ones who have kept out flocks safe. Being as now that they are gone we have a predictor problem.

 

[colejohnson73]

Opossum or raccoon.

 

[HarmonyHen]

I had my first casualty today after a year of uneventful free ranging (11 hens and 4 guineas total). Came home today to a headless hen right in front if the coop. My birds are in the brush in the woods most of the day. It happened between noon and 7 pm but the body was cold when I got home so it was probably mid afternoon. Also wondering what would take the head and leave the rest.

 

[Violetsrblu]

Probably an owl. Sometmes they will hunt in daylight and like to eat the head first. This satiates them for the time, so they leave the rest of the body untouched.

 

[crzybrdppl]

Well I saw a hawk eating it in the yard yesterday. So maybe it was a hawk?

 

[Violetsrblu]

Heads are not the favorite of hawks. An owl probably killed it initially and ate the head, then a hawk spotted the body and scavenged on it. Hawks will scavenge if the meat isn't too rotten.

We had a problem with large flocks of starlings roosting in the trees next to our home and creating a stinky mess, so my husband would kill a few with an air rifle to frighten them away (always temporary, but hubby enjoyed the sport). We never picked up the bodies, b/c a hawk would always take care of them for us within 24 hours. We witnessed this many times.

 

[CinnysCluckers]

I am wondering if I am dealing with the same thing? Our girls have open access to their coop 24/7. This is our first group of girls (3 Roos in the mix) and they all are aprox 4 months, one hen doesn't want to go into her coop. I always see them off into their coop at night and last night our "big mama" was nowhere in sight. First time one disappeared over night. Then she showed up today. The last couple days, one of our chickens/ roo has been harassing the daylights out of this girl and a few others. I assumed this was why she was separating herself from the others. But, then I saw her neck today and became a bit squeamish. She definitely has something terrible happening. Here are a couple pics. By chance do any of you know if Is this could be the work of a roo or predictor?

this is the back of her neck near the base of her head. She is currently separated and the harassing roo is too. Any thoughts input would be helpful.

 

[kellbellsa]

I had 9 out of 11 of my hens killed this morning with all their heads missing. Well two of them were actually just plain gone. I thought it was a fox. I thought it was weird that no heads could be found. It creeped us out.

 

[jesse04]

I cant remember which one does what so I may have this backwards.
Minks will kill chickens and only eat the brains
weasels will kill them just to get the blood from the neck

hope this helps

 

[Ashes2324]

I cant remember which one does what so I may have this backwards.
Minks will kill chickens and only eat the brains
weasels will kill them just to get the blood from the neck

hope this helps

Either way,it's probably one or both