What eats the heads off of chickens?

[tallyho8]

Well, so far no more chickens have disappeared and my neighbor has taken down his trap without catching anything.

But this morning we spotted a red fox in my back pasture. I have never seen a fox in this area before.

They are building a hurricane protection levee around Lake Cataouatche which is only about 5 miles from my home and there are thousands of acres of wilderness swamp surrounding that area. All the construction in the area is driving the wildlife out and we are starting to see animals around here now that we have never seen around here before.

I wish I still had some of my hounds so that I could get rid of that fox. I wonder if I leave my Australian Shepherd in the pasture for a while if the fox will pick up the scent and stay away. If not I may have to sic Winchester on it.

 

[Nasty135]

Well this is a good thread and unfortunately timely in our situation. It was about three weeks ago or so that we employed the freshly finished chicken tractor and had acclimated the 23 chickens to their new residence within a 5' high fenced in pen (however open top). All was good with a drop down ramp for the chickens to come and go as needed, being fenced in seemed somewhat safe to all in concern, and to the extent of laziness the ramp was an inconveinence pulling up the draw string at night and going out first thing in the morning to drop the ramp. Since the chickens were so good about tucking themselves in at night we figured we'll just leave it down (you already know where this is going).. Being somewhat of an alert individual the next day my son says "Mom you have a dead chicken in the pen" So she gets it later that morning and lets the rest of the chickens out to free range..
Later that day ,I get home from work looking down the slope toward the chicken coop and see these piles of feathers here and there 6 piles of feathers here and there and further away in the tall grass I find two more headless chickens..

Now I have smelled skunk late at night, and days before the attack there was the who-whoo of an Owl which I'm told is a Grey horned, and to top it off with in the last two weeks I've seen at dusk this fast moving bushy tailed low to the ground (short legged)all light grayish fury bodied ,but no pointed ears running across the road in front of me ...(looks bigger than a cat) "what a description" ...I want to say gray fox but all the pictures I've seen of gray fox are not as light in color as this critter or as fury looking... SO the mystery continues.:confused2: and egg production a little less

But I can tell you this , The RAMP door is closed every night and all has been fine since, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[gauthier]

cats,maybe little cats or big cats,but cats eat the head first,ain't got a big tomcat around?

 

[Charlie Chicken]

I'm a new member. We lost a chicken this afternoon about 5:00 p.m. The chickens were free ranging and whatever it was killed only one chicken and took the head. I suspect a coon but it could be a skunk. I sat out tonight with my .22 rifle and something came out of the woods, but it was too dark to tell what it was. The more I think about it, I think it was a skunk. I'm going to set a live trap tomorrow.

Charlie Chicken

 

[MossRoad]

If its a skunk, probably better to set a dead trap than a live trap.... just sayin' from personal experience. :laughing:

 

[Looking4new]

I'm a new member. We lost a chicken this afternoon about 5:00 p.m. The chickens were free ranging and whatever it was killed only one chicken and took the head. I suspect a coon but it could be a skunk. I sat out tonight with my .22 rifle and something came out of the woods, but it was too dark to tell what it was. The more I think about it, I think it was a skunk. I'm going to set a live trap tomorrow.

Charlie Chicken

Your being in Wisconsin I wouldn't rule out a Fisher as your culprit.
Fisher (animal) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia