What takes the head of chicken and leaves the chicken?

A

AR-MAN

New member
Question, I have a friend that lives on a farm and has ducks and gueese and chickens. Something has been coming in at night to the penned area and killing the animals and takes the head but leaves the body. What could this be?
Thanks, Mike
 
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Possibly a weasel, I've heard they'll wipe out chickens and leave them laying there.........



I agree. I'd say possibly a weasel. We've had them slaughter 20 chickens in a 4 night period. Each was slaughtered by the the throat.

Tony
 
NO NO NO! NOT A WEASEL! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/angry-smiley-055.gif It's a voodoo zombie chicken head thief. They are most active just before Halloween. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
Coons kill the same way.
I keep game birds and use for dog training have had a family of coons wipeout a pen of 80+ birds in one single night, they took off the head but left the body. I know they got to eat too, but kill just to kill that shxt [beeep] me off.
 
Cats will come in and scare the birds and as they stick their heads out of the chicken wire, they get bit and pulled off. The solution would be to add some 1/2 welded wire or something to the bottem 1' of the pen.
 
I have heard of a similiar story about turkeys. Where as they were so stupid that they would stick their heads through the fence and the neighbors dog would turn them into a new tug toy
 
I have rehabilitated several birds of prey and my experience is that owls large and small will kill in this manner, especially in a pen or cage situation. I have also had skunks kill many of my captive birds this way.
 
skunks, coons, possums, will all do this .. when they go for the kill they go for the neck and will bit the head right off and eat it , the other part of the chicken is flopping around and they just get another chicken .. it could also be KFC..
 
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NO NO NO! NOT A WEASEL! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/angry-smiley-055.gif It's a voodoo zombie chicken head thief. They are most active just before Halloween. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif



This goes to show you don't know about voodoo zombie chicken head thieves. We all know they were outlawed in 1967. Where have you been? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
A guy I know raises game birds,he had owls taking their heads off at nite.He put up red strobe lights and his problem was solved
 
ropntoz, it is good to see someone who has studied or worked directly with birds post a straight-forward admission that a protected bird of prey just might perform an undesirable act w/o citing this study or whatever that would indicate otherwise.

Additional thoughts:

An owl will eat starting at the beak - yes, they eat the beak - and down the neck till they have access to the internal organs, then they will eat those. In essense, hollowing out teh body cavity. YOu could take the remains and pluck and have perfect main ingrediants to chicken and dumplin's. A coon, etc... may start with the head, but usually will hit the breast and/or split the carcass when they get down that far.

Weasels attacks are often not fatal on an adult chicken. They are usually to blame for mass killings of yound birds where often the only sign of attack is a bite mark to the back of the neck. Vampires, to be seasonal.

If you have an owl getting those chickens, or whatever proves to be the culpret, he will not stop until you are out of chickens or he gets "rehabilitated" ....permanently. Look for the attacks to take place right at dusk or daylight. Daylight, in particular. The chickens stir very early while owls are still active.
 
A friend of mine in S. Dakota raises pheasants, he had a similar experience and finally caught the culprit....I could be wrong but I am thinking it was a mink that did the damage?
 
+1, OWL.
I've seen it happen in a friend's waterfowl collection. Put netting over the compound and most of it stopped. Some pole traps verified the culprit(s). Tell your friend NOT to set any pole traps! He could very well end up in Federal Court if caught.
F1
 


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