What eats the heads off of chickens?

[wolc123]

Keep us posted on if you ever solve this riddle. From reading all these posts, there are a bunch of head-only eaters out there (owl, hawk, coon, skunk, weasle, possum, etc). It dont sound like a fox or coyote, but a mink may also do that. A bunch of leg-hold traps set around a few chicken heads will tell you what is doing it. My money is still on the owl.

 

[zman007007]

I would say you need to have one of the remaining chickens volunteer to be bait and set up some night vision cameras.

 

[Jaylegger]

What eats the heads off of chickens?

Ozzie wouldn't happen to be touring in your area would he?

 

[scootr2d]

Well unfortunately this ended up to be a timely thread, Lost a large Buff 2 nights ago, Head and Neck gone. Found what was left of her in the morning. Looks Like a weasels back (ermine) in the area. They are the only ones that can squeeze into my coop.

Stakeout last night, no luck picking it off . Need sleep tonight so I put the pig in with the chickens for added protection. This weekend the hunt/stakeout begins. Like I said once they find an easy food source they will return again and again. Have Ruger loaded with ratshot , the Browning Buckmark loaded with full clip.

I have no Doubt Mr. weasel will be pushing up daisies by the end of the weekend.

Kind of a shame really they are pretty cool looking and efficient little hunters. They probably help keep the mice and mole population down on my property as well , it's unfortunate but they just cannot co-exist with chickens.
The chickens are too easy a meal for 'em to pass up.

 

[pitt_md]

No. No. No.... Ozzy is associated with bats.
Circus Geeks bite the heads off of chickens. :thumbsup:

Didn't Alice Cooper do that?

 

[MossRoad]

Didn't Alice Cooper do that?

Nope. Someone threw a chicken onto the stage. Cooperor or someone from the band chased it off the stage. If flew back into the crowd and the crowd tore it up or something like that. Cooper has always said he felt bad for the chicken.

 

[R_Walter]

Probably skunks.

I agree on the skunk theory. Had it happen to me on different occasions and each time I put out a trap, I caught skunk.

 

[Vineyard Dave]

No. No. No.... Ozzy is associated with bats.
Circus Geeks bite the heads off of chickens. :thumbsup:

Yeah, I was about to ask if you had any traveling circuses in the region..

 

[MossRoad]

Yeah, I was about to ask if you had any traveling circuses in the region..

No, but I've been mistaken for a carny on several occasions. :laughing:

 

[dcyrilc]

No, but I've been mistaken for a carny on several occasions. :laughing:

My grand parents were carnys when my mom was a little girl. Her baby sitter was an elephant. She tells a story of one time when she was getting spanked and the elephant was being walked past their trailer and it reached its trunk through the open window and grabbed my grandmother.:laughing:

I also had a great uncle who used to trap live animals in Africa for the circuses and zoos. Never met him though, that I remember.

 

[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