# Absolute Massacre



## DavyHollow (Jul 14, 2011)

Alright, probably not good to read this if you are queezy. No graphic pictures, but I do have some graphic details. You have been warned.

So I just got a call from my mother this morning to hear some gruesome details. She was obviously still very rattled, but I got as many details as I could. She went out this morning and discovered a massacre of chickens.

Scattered around the yard were the bodies of 5 chickens. Their bodies were intack and not gnawed on. BUT the weird part was that their heads were gone. We had 10 chickens, so my poor mother went looking for the rest. She found another one under the ramp that goes up to the coop door. It still had its head, but looks like it killed itself in fear, getting stuck or something. Inside the coop was full of feathers, like whatever it was chased them around, causing them to loose the feathers. The yard was also coated with feathers as well as the carcasses. The heads are no where to be found.

After my mom went to work my dad went out searching for the missing 4. He found one, alive but very shaken up, hiding near our dryer vent. We call her Turkey, because she's the lowest of the pecking order and always has a bald spot on her head. She is obviously extremely traumatized, shaking and cowering. She doesn't move around much at all.

Another of the chickens, the only barred plymouth, came back on her own. She hopped into the coop and laid an egg. So I guess she's fine. Either that or she got the "egg scared out of her".

2 of the chickens' are still missing, whether or not they are alive we don't know. We're hoping that its the two youngest Rhode Island Reds, since they've lived through an animal attack before. My folks are going to check the feet of the dead chickens to see if they have the sharpie marks we put on the layers.

Turns out that my dad left the gate open overnight; the gate usually opens the chicken run to the main yard, so they can run around. They go in at night by themselves, and we shut that gate. Then theres another door to the coop itself. We tend to leave that open in good weather. So the only difference from usual is the open gate.

We had a cat attack some teenage chicks we had outside for the day last spring. We had four growing chicks out in a small run for the good weather, and when we came back to get them in, they were all missing, and there was only one body, unbitten or otherwise touched other than the kill marks. The other three we found hiding nearby a little later. One of them was the now adult chicken who came back to lay her egg. We're hoping the other two are the ones that are missing and may come back. Its strange because I saw those three as adults chasing the cat that we suspected of attacking them as chicks. I thought they could take on a cat after that. But maybe not . . .

So now on to how I need help. I'm trying to figure what it was that would do that! I mean seriously!! What kind of animal will attack and kill at least 5 chickens, eat their heads, but nothing else?? The only thing I can think of is that damn cat, since cats don't tend to kill for food, but for prey (at least house cats). But as far as I can figure this cat has been missing from its actual home for a while (the neighbors have reported it as escaped). So it should be hunting for food. My dad thought it might be an owl or hawk since they are known to bite off heads. But an owl or hawk wouldn't have needed the gate open.

Any suggestions of what it might be would be greatly appreciated. We're planning on setting up a critter cam to see if we can see what it is thats haunting us. Maybe even a live trap. If it is a cat we plan to catch it and give it to the local shelter or animal control. But we'll see. Any ideas???

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn ... 9541_n.jpg

Poor Turkey!!:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn ... 8082_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn ... 4062_n.jpg
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash ... 0161_n.jpg

The other surviving chicken (Speckles):
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos- ... 9186_n.jpg


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## Zarafia (Mar 25, 2012)

I'm really sorry for your losses. I would be thinking raccoon. Maybe coyote. Something smart that is probably teaching its young to kill.
I have had the same thing happen to my pigeons and I caught the raccoons that did it. I wasn't cruel to them. They were only following their instincts. But I had to protect my animals.
I removed the offending raccoons and burried wire two feet down around my loft. Never had the problem again.


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## dobe627 (Oct 16, 2007)

Check a forum called backyard chickens, they had a list of predators and what they tend to do. A fox or coyote will carry the body off and usually only kill what they are gonna eat. ***** will leave a body but usually go for the eggs and just kill the chicken laying on nest, in my experience. Hawks and owls will leave a bunch of feathers. I forget what it said only eats the head, sorry your family experienced this I hate walking out to a dead chicken/guinea. Worse yet is when one goes missing. We have alot of fox.


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## .:Linz:. (Aug 25, 2011)

My sister (the chicken person in the family) says it was probably a skunk, raccoon, weasel, or possibly an opossum. Here's the link to that list dobe mentioned: http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/chick ... your-flock


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## Mandara Farm (Sep 12, 2010)

I'm so sorry this happened to your chickens!

We had something kid of similar happen: our neighbors dogs got into the yard one night and we were new to chickens -- and my husband forgot to close the chicken pen. At midnight he sat straight up in bed and shouted "I forgot the chickens!" and ran out to find them all massacred. The heads had all been severed but not carried off. In the morning we found the dog prints by the gate between our yards (the gate had been forced open from the other side and my neighbor has 2 greyhounds that chase and kill lots of rabbits). The bodies had not been carried off either so the chickens had been killed for sport. I know this is not exactly the same, but could it have been dogs? :shrug: 

Hope the ones who made it recover from their trauma :hug:


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## mabeane (Nov 6, 2010)

That's what a weasel does!


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## DavyHollow (Jul 14, 2011)

could be a dog, but from the description online, I think it was a skunk. We definitely have them around here, not so much on weasels. Maybe a raccoon, but I don't it based on its killing style.


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## Skyz84 (Jul 25, 2011)

Our neighbor said a racoon did that to their chickens


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## amylawrence (May 19, 2011)

ugh, sorry you've gone through this. We had a similar thing happen to our chickens last fall, only very slowly. One by one they were being killed by something, as their screen covering the top of the fenced area was not secure. My nephew lives close to the chicken coop and drove in one night to see eyes glimmering. He went out to investigate and found a huge possum crawling up the fencing and into the yard. Apparently he/she was the culprit. Nephew took care of the possum but more chickens continued to disappear. We felt like it was a losing battle and finally gave the rest of them to hubby's coworker just to spare their lives. (Coworker has been sweet enough to keep us supplied in eggs!) Hubby is building a new chicken coop closer in with our goats and donkey, so hopefully they will have a better chance of surviving. Hope you find your other missing chickens!


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## BareCreekFarm (Nov 20, 2011)

I am sorry for you loss  This happened to us last year, we lost almost all of the chickens (gave the remaining ones to a neighbor). Our predators turned out to be a few big raccoons. My advise would be set a few live traps for the next few nights, and try to eliminate the problem.


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## DavyHollow (Jul 14, 2011)

the good thing is that we were planning on. . .eh . . . "retiring" 7 out of the 10 who weren't laying anymore. I got my mom 6 chicks not long ago to replace them, and the chicks are still in the house so we didn't actually end off so bad. We just want to fix the problem for the future plus I feel really bad for my mom having to find them like that. Had to be really scary.

The other reason I want this thing OUT of here is because the dwarves will be kidding not too long from now. If this thing is alright picking off a chicken, a lil' baby ND isn't that much of a step up (though the goats are securely locked in at nights and mommas would be around for security. . .)


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Wild critters.. usually hit and run...sounds like dogs to me... just in for the kill.....

I am so sorry for your loss...  :hug:


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