Dead Chicken

[philipm]

Lost all mine to polecats last year they killed the chickens over a few days .Always left them in the pen as they couldnt manage to drag them through the wire.Polecats used to be quite rare around here but are making a resurgence probably due to an increase in rabbits.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Lost all mine to polecats last year they killed the chickens over a few days .Always left them in the pen as they couldnt manage to drag them through the wire.Polecats used to be quite rare around here but are making a resurgence probably due to an increase in rabbits.

I have a polecat on video earlier this year.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Polecats used to be quite rare around here but are making a resurgence probably due to an increase in rabbits.

By the 1920's polecats were thought to be extinct in Wales (if not Britain) - until my Great Grandfather shot one in his chicken run! It seems that our valley was the last haven for them, there used to be quite a few of them on our smallholding (remote, well off the road, no residents since the late 1800's and not 'farmed' to any great extent) I remember more than once when I was training horses on the road watching a polecat run ahead of me on the lane.

 

[frankenstine]

unfortunately for chickens they are bottom of the food chain and pretty much anything can and will take one, if it was enclosed and found close to the fence fox would be my bet had a few around here that would scare the chicken from one side of the pen so they all ran to the other side trying to get away from it invariably with there heads through the mesh trying to escape and get stuck, then the fox would run round and pull them through or there heads off trying.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Well the two Sumatras are back this morning so we lost only one

 

[pargyle]

They have spread considerably over the last 30 years and are now found

Well the two Sumatras are back this morning so we lost only one

That's a relief then ... so 'just' the one that was killed then ? Still sad to see it happen and after an attack it really puts the wind up the others that escape.

 

[Erichalfbee]

House sitter takes Bracken out very early so I guess the opportunity was taken.
Funny we have one blind chicken and she survived

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Well the two Sumatras are back this morning so we lost only one

It's like what haoppened when the neighbour's dog broke into the hen run (for the second time) one hen dead, one played dead until I picked her up and Scraggy chick (who took some damage the first time, and still has a large bald patch of scar tissue on her breast) was nowhere to be seen, apart from a few stray feathers in the hedge. No sign of her in the woods so I told SWMBO she had probably hid in the hedge somewhere. A few hours later, I was up in the range apiary and received a text. Scraggy chick was on the lawn frantically trying to get back in to her mates!

 

[Brian Bush]

Have you mink in your area. Had this issue a few years ago. They kill a couple, drag one away and return a few days later.

 

[Miles]

Exactly the same has happened to my chickens over the years. I caught them red handed. I can say with confidence that the predator was a polecat or polecat/ferret hybrid. You can set humane traps for them if you want to be sure.

 

[BBC]

Anybody any idea what would do this?
I’m away and we have house sitter who heard nothing. 2 hens are missing and 2 safe
Free range in the garden View attachment 28165

In my opinion this is a cat.
Wild predators would not maliciously kill. Nor would they leave without hiding for later.
I’ve seen this with rabbits, rodents, pets and other small birds. Often the fox is blamed, but believe me, cats are the culprits here.

 

[Erichalfbee]

What a plethora of culprits.
As long as it’s not the two legged variety.

 

[Sutty]

In my opinion this is a cat.
Wild predators would not maliciously kill. Nor would they leave without hiding for later.
I’ve seen this with rabbits, rodents, pets and other small birds. Often the fox is blamed, but believe me, cats are the culprits here.

Foxes do exactly that - kill lots, take one, and leave the rest lying around. Caught on video by a member of the "poultrychat" forum I was a member of (sadly now closed down).

 

[Foxylad]

I would not like to say for sure, without examining the pen and bird in person. But it was not a fox. Foxes kill by removing the head. They do not strip the neck.
Place a wildlife camera over looking the carcass. What ever killed it will return, usually within a few nights.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Foxes do exactly that - kill lots, take one, and leave the rest lying around.

seen it loads of times - poultry and lambs, bloody heartbreaking arriving on a field and finding dead headless labs lying around

 

[philipm]

Years ago I watched a fox climb over an eight foot fence into our chicken pen this was when the do gooders were relocating town foxes to the countryside, It didnt climb any more fences after. Normally they will wipe out the whole flock and take perhaps one chicken.

 

[protheroe]

By the 1920's polecats were thought to be extinct in Wales (if not Britain) - until my Great Grandfather shot one in his chicken run! It seems that our valley was the last haven for them, there used to be quite a few of them on our smallholding (remote, well off the road, no residents since the late 1800's and not 'farmed' to any great extent) I remember more than once when I was training horses on the road watching a polecat run ahead of me on the lane.

Seen quite a few polecats when doing bees on abernant.Also theres been around 5 run over on the side of the road last few years.

 

[PeaBee]

Thought it looked a bit to "delicate" for a fox with just the head and neck picked clean. Only thing I have seen in the past do it so neatly are hawks and mustelids. Mink do make multiple kills but not sure they would carry the other 2 birds off. There are a lot of young foxes around now but would they be that neat and not just crunch the head and neck. A low electric fence is good at keeping critters at bay.

 

[Erichalfbee]

not sure they would carry the other 2 birds off.

The other two are home after a night out

 

[PeaBee]

The other two are home after a night out

Would say much more likely to be a mink or polcat/ferret then. Glad they have come back.