Will it come back?

[Celeste Cannon]

Hey all, I had my first loss of my flock tonight. My poor gold lace polish baby was really special to me. Something decapitated her from the other side of the fence and I 1, want to confirm what the killer was,2, want to know if it will come back soon for another chicken and 3 if I can bury my poor girl at the spot of the murder without the smell attracting the predator again. As I said before, her head was taken off and there was some ripped flesh on her chest as if it peeled her and maybe took a small bite. I couldn’t find her head anywhere but her body was by the fence. I took pictures if that will help but I would have to post them later tomorrow. I live in Los Angeles so my predator options are limited, we have coyotes by our house so that’s my first guess, next would be either hawk or raccoon. Hawk most likely because there’s a lot of those around. My poor baby I’m going to miss her lots. I’m worried for my other ladies and gents and I am hesitant to let them out tomorrow because I can’t supervise them since I’ll be at school. Should I keep them in their small coop until I can supervise them? I don’t want them to be stressed but I also don’t want them to be decapitated. And will me burying the dead chicken attract the predator again?

 

[Butterscotchbitesfinger]

Hey all, I had my first loss of my flock tonight. My poor gold lace polish baby was really special to me. Something decapitated her from the other side of the fence and I 1, want to confirm what the killer was,2, want to know if it will come back soon for another chicken and 3 if I can bury my poor girl at the spot of the murder without the smell attracting the predator again. As I said before, her head was taken off and there was some ripped flesh on her chest as if it peeled her and maybe took a small bite. I couldn’t find her head anywhere but her body was by the fence. I took pictures if that will help but I would have to post them later tomorrow. I live in Los Angeles so my predator options are limited, we have coyotes by our house so that’s my first guess, next would be either hawk or raccoon. Hawk most likely because there’s a lot of those around. My poor baby I’m going to miss her lots. I’m worried for my other ladies and gents and I am hesitant to let them out tomorrow because I can’t supervise them since I’ll be at school. Should I keep them in their small coop until I can supervise them? I don’t want them to be stressed but I also don’t want them to be decapitated. And will me burying the dead chicken attract the predator again?

Um definitely it’ll be back, I have been lucky enough that when a fox gets a chicken it takes them and we never find them but. OMG you poor thing! I would not let them out unless you’ve got someone there to supervise! About dead chickens and burying.... I’m not really sure.... I’d hate for it to dig her up. So sorry again, *hugs*

 

[cavemanrich]

Yes it will be back again. Most likely it was a raccoon by the way you describe the scene. They reach thry the openings in the fence, netting, and grab with their paw, and eat the head off.
If you bury your sweetie, the raccoon with dig it up next chance he gets.
You would have to bury it deep, and cover with a heavy cement block to keep the raccoon from reaching it. That is what I do when I return my pets back to Earth.
My suggestion for you is to fortify your run area. The lower 2 feet should be 1/2 hardware cloth. This prevents a predators paw from reaching thru the fence.
As much as you are hurt now,,, please be understanding that the raccoon was only trying to feed himself. Only thing we can do is keep him away from our chickens. This way he can still perform the natures activities by hunting other rodents like rats and mice. All these animals are part of natures food-chain. We just have to make sure that our chickens are left out of that track.
WISHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[Eggscaping]

Hey all, I had my first loss of my flock tonight. My poor gold lace polish baby was really special to me. Something decapitated her from the other side of the fence

I'm really, really sorry this happened! I'd guess a raccoon. As was said, they reach through the chicken wire and grab whatever they can reach, and pull. You have to make the 'openings' in the wire too small for them to do that. So very sorry...my partner lost a very tame duck like that in her younger days. They were trained to come to the wire for treats and of course the raccoon took advantage of that.

 

[Eggscaping]

...this leads me to a side note: I just cannot bring myself to 'like' a post where something has killed a chicken. Or some other sad thing has happened. I *don't* like it. I understand why the 'like' doesn't necessarily mean 'oh, goody' but still. I wish there was a button to click for "I see your message and it's really sad/unfortunate".

 

[cavemanrich]

...this leads me to a side note: I just cannot bring myself to 'like' a post where something has killed a chicken. Or some other sad thing has happened. I *don't* like it. I understand why the 'like' doesn't necessarily mean 'oh, goody' but still. I wish there was a button to click for "I see your message and it's really sad/unfortunate".

I'm with you on that,,,,,, but my reason for hitting LIKE is an acknowledgement of the description or information in that post.

 

[The Lazy L]

If you found a restaurant where the food was excellent, price and service was excellent too, wouldn't you go back to that restaurant again? It's the same with predators when they find a new food source.

Wife has a cat cemetery in our back yard and she has designated me as the undertaker. I bury them with a foot of ground cover and then lay bricks or large rocks over them to keep stay dogs from digging them up. I also bury them in a plastic bag tied tightly. To date zero problems with the bodies being dug back up. I think it is due more to the plastic bag (body can't be smelled?) then to anything else.

 

[Callender Girl]

So very sorry for your loss. And, it's awful when you have to deal with a mutilated body. I usually bury mine far, far away from the coop; last winter, however, I had to throw three of my girls in the trash because the ground was far too frozen to dig and I had no freezer for storage. That broke my heart. I saved some of their feathers in a Mason jar that sits on my dresser.

Predators do come back. I had to run off the killer mink the very next night and it came back in the day time to take one of my ducks. But know that no matter what you do to try to keep them safe, a predator looking for an easy meal is determined and crafty. Do your best, mourn your girl and love the rest.

 

[jolenesdad]

If you don’t have rocks, most chicken keepers have hardware cloth. I bury my beloved pets and then place hardware cloth over the entire hole before the final bit of dirt. If something comes to dig, they stop at the cloth.

 

[cmom]

If you have a game camera I'd put it up and then you'll know what you're dealing with. Years ago I had some birds that were killed and couldn't figure out what the predator was getting in. I couldn't find a breach anywhere. A game camera told the story. Once I discovered it was an owl, I covered all of my pens with heavy duty netting and that solved that problem. Most likely once a predator has made a kill it will be back. Everything like a chicken dinner. Good luck.