We found three chickens in the field. It looked like their necks were broken, tucked under their dead bodies. But there were no bite marks of any sort. One guinea hen and two other hens dissappeared, no body, no parts. The strange thing is, the other chickens were not in the least effected. Usually, when there is a hawk or fox around, they all hide for many hours. On this day, we were gone for about two hours, and except for the dead bodies lying around, nothing was out of order. Any Ideas?

-- Sue (sulandherb@aol.com), February 24, 2002

Answers

not enough info,, were they behind wire,, any feathers,, tracks,, hawk would have carried away the body,, one at a time,, usually a fox will carry it away also.

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), February 24, 2002.

They were roaming free....no fence. There were feathers around, but the 3 that remained didn't appear to have any feathers missing. One did look like something attempted to pull feathers from her back, which led me to think "dog".....but no teeth marks, no blood drawn, nothing. Would a hawk kill 6 at a time? I thought they just grabbed a live one and flew.

-- Sue (sulandherb@aol.com), February 24, 2002.

Sue, scroll down and check under Predators, may find some ideas re what is going on and also some discussions on what to do about it. Just down the board is a post about dead Guineas, Check it out. Hope this helps you, I hate to see people lose poultry! LQ

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), February 24, 2002.