# What would kill a big rooster and only take the head?



## Ravenlost (Jul 20, 2004)

Today my hubby found my big six-year-old Barred Rock rooster dead in the chicken pen. He was in the middle of the pen, but there was a large pile of feathers in two places nowhere near to the rooster. His neck is stretched out and raw and his head is gone. 

What could have happened to him? I've had him six years and nothing has ever bothered the chickens. Could he have gotten his head stuck and pulled it off? If so, what would explain the two piles of feathers? 

Could an animal (I'm thinking raccoon) have killed him? Would it have only taken his head? He was a big mean rooster with one inch spurs that he liked to use. I just can't figure out what happened.


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## Txsteader (Aug 22, 2005)

A big **** could do it, for sure. We had one that managed to push one corner of the trap door open (one of the hinges was a bit loose, but still it took _some_ strength), kill 4 hens, pry the trap door open enough to get back out----with one of the hens! Of the 3 remaining dead hens in the house, 2 were headless.......no other damage, just decapitated. :flame:


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## Mulish (Mar 24, 2005)

I caught a **** in my coop, that had his grimey little paws around a young roos neck, eating it't head, whilst the roo was alive. I abhor the little monsters.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

A **** might have been able to reach in and get the sleeping roo if he was close enough to the wire. Owls will take the head too. After that the roo could have flopped away from the fence.

A friend said that his pheasants would roost in the tops of the trees in his pen and owls were taking the heads off even though the roof was fenced.


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## seagullplayer (Nov 6, 2008)

Racoon, would not even need to be a big one. Headless corpse is there MO in these parts...

Live trap using tuna fish as bait, if you don't have a cat, use marshmellows for bait if you do. He will be back every night until everything is dead.


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## Guest (Feb 24, 2010)

Had a **** do just this to one of mine the other night. I left him a treat the next night.

.....Alan.


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## Pamela (May 10, 2002)

We lost two young pullets last month, both with heads gone. It was a weasel. Saw it both times....got the weasel the second time.


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## Ravenlost (Jul 20, 2004)

Hmmm...my mom said weasel. We have both...raccoons and weasels. The only weasel we've ever seen was small - it fit in the palm of my hubby's hand (dogs had killed it).


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## TractorNut (Feb 22, 2010)

Don't forget fisher cats(weasel family)


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## Idahoe (Feb 4, 2006)

A bobcat got in my chicken yard and ate the heads of two hens and just killed a few others for the thrill of it, I guess. Probably most carnivores do this because of the amount of blood


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

raccoons go on a killing spree with anything it can reach, they bite kill and go, they may eat some of a few of the victems if they kill alot or they will pull a bird thru the wire if they cant get in and eat it thru the wire, 

just eating the head is a weasel kill, weasels kill eat the head and go, Feral cats if they cant drag the bird away will kill eat the head neck and chest cavity untill their full then go, Possum if it moves from chicke feed to chickens will just start eating at the back end of the bird and wont bother to kill it, 

bob cats, coyote, and fox will grab and run, takeing their kill away to some place quiet to eat,


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## Ravenlost (Jul 20, 2004)

Hmmm...you're making me think it was a weasel! There were two hens and a duck in the pen. The rooster and hens roost on top of the chicken house, not in it...that's where the duck sleeps! Whatever got him had to climb the fence (can't burrow under...fence is buried pretty deep). 

I was afraid that if it was a ****, it would come back last night, but everyone was there this morning.


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## heirloomer08 (Jan 18, 2010)

I have to agree with most everybody here. If just the head is gone 9 out of 10 times that is either a weasel or a mink. All they are after is the blood. If it was a **** it would have ate the whole thing.
heirloomer08


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## mom47371 (Feb 10, 2010)

I say weasel/mink, in that dfamily. We had a few problems in the past. And trust me they can wipe u out over the course of a winter!


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## Ray (Dec 5, 2002)

well, we herd about the *****, ha ha, I've had bad experiences with the neighbor kids ferrets when their dad got tired of them an ran them from their house, They ended up in my chicken house going from chicken to chicken chewing the heads off while they were on the roost. after 4 devastating nights they were caught in traps. i also caught a mink doing the exact same thing. I caught opossum killing a dozen a night and only eating a little bit. I was trapping a **** because several experts came over and found that a **** was killing them but when it was caught it too was a opossum. not saying a **** wouldn't, just mine was possum. try a couple have a heart traps, use peanut butter and marsh mellows, set it where the chickens can't get to it, or borrow a few steel traps, from friend. best wishes, ray


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

Possum and **** traffic the same area, the **** will do alot more killing while the possum gets caught easyer, possum are lazy and if there is food left out all night they will eat the chicken feed, if a trap has something that smells good why not go in and find out, **** kill for killing sake alot of time, they will bite the heads and necks killing the birds but if they are able to get into the coop they wont each much from any one bird, just killing and going on to the next, 

once a **** has killed all there is to kill it moves on to a differint part of its territory sooner or later and that leaves the dim witted possum to get caught in the trap,


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## Jcran (Jan 4, 2006)

In our neck of the woods (no pun intended) we get that result when skunks get in; heads gone. We had a weasel once and it tore the neck out of the hen, but we got out there in time and saved her life...a bloody, horrible mess. It was a miracle she lived.


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## Ezekiel's Garde (May 10, 2009)

****, mink, weasel, possum, maybe skunk. The first 3 are the most likely, though.


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## roolover (Jul 16, 2007)

Ravenlost said:


> ... The rooster and hens roost on top of the chicken house, not in it...that's where the duck sleeps! Whatever got him had to climb the fence (can't burrow under...fence is buried pretty deep).


Do you mean they roosted on TOP of the chicken house... OUTSIDE? ***** are good climbers, and an owl would certainly be suspect for that predation scenario. How high is the roof? I was told that mink/weasels will not climb more than about 4 feet. I had a mink kill my entire first flock in one brutal bloodbath... I hate mink!


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## Ravenlost (Jul 20, 2004)

Roolover, yes I meant they sleep outside on TOP of the chicken house. Only time they ever sleep in the chicken house is if it's icy with temps in the teens...something that doesn't happen very often here.

The fence is about seven feet high and the roof of the chicken house is about four feet high. The pen is large and the chicken house sits close to the middle of it. I didn't want the house near the fence cause I figured they'd get on top of the house and jump over the fence.

Could've been an owl. We have plenty of those. It really puzzles me that nothing has ever bothered them out there the entire six years we've lived here, but hubby thinks that's because the dogs aren't allowed out there any more. 

There's a huge sweetgum tree and two fairly large cedars smack in the middle of the chicken pen with a lot of honeysuckle and wild rose vines underneath the trees. 

We have possums, but they tend to hang out at the barn where there's plenty of dry catfood they can get. We've got skunks too, but I don't think a skunk could get into my chicken pen.

Would a big field rat do this?

Here's a photo of my chicken pen and homemade chicken house (that's the victim in the forefront of the photo):


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

skunk dont climb, they will get eggs chicks and a setting hen on the ground though


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## gracie88 (May 29, 2007)

A raccoon ate the heads off a half-dozen of my chickens and both ducks, over the span of 3-4 nights, before I got my dog (and convinced the remaining ladies to sleep inside). It also chewed the innards out of one duck, looked like a scene from a slasher flick in my yard. Until I got the dog, I lost birds every time I screwed up (left the door open or missed someone roosting outside). He also apparently knew about live traps. I am ok with the hawks taking the occasional bird, it's almost worth it to see them around, but have no patience for those rotten *****. Fortunately, neither does my dog.


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## Ezekiel's Garde (May 10, 2009)

***** will climb a fence like that. I bet it was a ****.

If it was a mink or weasel, there would've been a bloodbath, probably. I found out the same way that roolover did.


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## Ravenlost (Jul 20, 2004)

There was no blood anywhere. Just feathers. I think it was a **** too...did from the minute I saw the rooster.


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## bugstabber (May 12, 2002)

We had that happen to ducks quite a few years ago. People guessed it was either a raccoon or weasel.


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## mare (Aug 31, 2006)

i had a small **** take the head off of my big roo too and then he layed down next to it and took a snooze--he is in eternal slumber now.


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## roolover (Jul 16, 2007)

***** are a possibility, although I was told that they don't like flexible fence. Mink/weasels could easily get through that mesh; they can sneak through very small spaces. 

I'd get a Havahart trap and bait it with canned catfood, tuna, or (sorry) dead chicken. When we had ***** climbing the fence and getting through the space above the window in our broiler coop, we set the trap with the dead birds and they were fighting each other to get into it. 

It's just me and my experience with predators, but I'd require everyone to go into the coop at night... well, except for the turkeys who roost on top of the barn. Of course, they're too big for an owl to haul off.


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## cjb (May 2, 2006)

Actually, owls sometimes only take the head too.


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## Ravenlost (Jul 20, 2004)

Yeah, we've got tons of owls around here. I can see one swooping down and grabbing Randy (the beheaded rooster). So far we haven't had anything come back. The hens are much better about sleeping in the house than the rooster was...which may be what's saving them. There's not a door on the chicken house so I can't shut them in at night.


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## quietstar (Dec 11, 2002)

KSALguy is right about skunks climbing unless there are Spotted Skunks in your area. They are smaller, but naturally climb for prey...Glen


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## Ravenlost (Jul 20, 2004)

Never seen a spotted skunk, so I'm thinking we don't have any.


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