GRAPHIC What killed my hen? Predator or illness?

[lagrange chicks]

I would say hawk, a hawk will try to break the neck and then go for the guts. Was the neck broke? You did say a large white bird was seen there and they have a good memory on where there last meal came from.

 

[WingsysRoost]

I'm not sure if her neck was broken or not. I didn't really get a chance to inspect her since I was at work when this happened. In the picture, it looks curled back and stiff. She had puncture marks on her neck, and a little tiny bit of blood on her back, but nothing elsewhere.

I would have expected to see either talon marks somewhere on her or an explosion of feathers, depending on how it tried to grab her. There was not a lot of blood on her at all, actually. I would have thought there would be more blood if something killed her rather than just found her. Of course, I could be wrong, since I've never had this happen before.

I've also heard hawks will typically go for the head or breast of a bird first, rather than the abdomen. Aside from the puncture marks, her head and upper body was left completely untouched. Is this something that would be likely to happen, or would this indicate that it could have been something else?

Thanks for your input.

 

[lagrange chicks]

From what I have seen hawks / falcons go for the intestines to get to the heart and liver. I've seen this happen at our bird feeders when a falcon would catch a morning dove or cardinal it would take it to a tree in the yard and go right for intestines and drop the rest to the ground for me to clean up. The lack of feathers is strange, but I suppose a slight breeze could spread them around some.

 

[WingsysRoost]

Would a hawk always attempt to carry a bird away? It didn't really look like she was moved much, from what I could see at least (only a few scattered feathers - some obviously from her because they were right next to her, but the ones further away were not clearly from her and could have easily been from all the molting that is happening at the moment, not a lot of disturbance to the ground/plants around her, and not a ton of damage like I would expect if the hawk was trying to readjust a heavy bird). My only other thought is that maybe she was next to the fence because it tried to carry her away and then got stuck because it couldn't get enough lift.

I haven't even seen a hawk around since, or heard any commotion from the small birds like there might be one lurking. I would have thought it would come back after realizing that there was food, whether or not it was the one to kill her. I wasn't even the one to see it, but there are no other birds fitting that description in my area so I can only guess hawk.

 

[WingsysRoost]

From what I have seen hawks / falcons go for the intestines to get to the heart and liver. I've seen this happen at our bird feeders when a falcon would catch a morning dove or cardinal it would take it to a tree in the yard and go right for intestines and drop the rest to the ground for me to clean up. The lack of feathers is strange, but I suppose a slight breeze could spread them around some.

That would make sense. I did read something at one point about hawks removing intestines, but then every other source says they go for the upper body first so I wasn't sure if that was a typical thing or not.

I don't recall it being particularly windy, but anything is possible. I'm going to go out and check again in case it did manage to carry her a distance somehow and there's a hidden pile of feathers somewhere that was missed. I would expect more damage if that was the case, but anything is possible, I guess. When the hawk caught the dove right over the yard, there was so many feathers that went everywhere. We were finding them around for days afterwards. The lack of feathers was what was leading me to think she passed of natural causes rather than an attack.

I've been doing way more research on predators than I ever wanted to do in the last few days, and one source said that there is usually bleeding if the animal is killed by something. There really wasn't in this case, which does make me wonder if she passed of other causes and the hawk just saw a free meal. She was one of my larger birds, too, so not really an easy target for most of the hawks that I've seen.

I do think a hawk is the most likely cause of the wound at this point. I'm just not sure if it was the hawk that actually killed her, or if it found her. I guess I might never know. I did check on them when I let them out in the morning, but they were still roosting and she could have easily had something going on that I missed.

 

[WingsysRoost]

After inspecting the area again, I can only come to the conclusion that the hawk could have found her already dead. I found a few more feathers that were on the ground slightly underneath the willow nearby, but it could have easily been feathers from molting because the chickens do spend a lot of time resting in that area. I would really expect more feathers, blood, and visible damage in general if she had been attacked and fought back. If the hawk had killed her by impact, I can only imagine that there would be feathers all over with the force that would take. It isn't likely that wind or anything moved them, because she was found within an hour of whatever had happened. It could still be possible, though.

It could definitely be possible that she passed and was found by the hawk that quickly. It is also equally possible that the hawk killed her, though maybe a little bit unusual since they always fly over but rarely show any interest in the chickens. I have never actually witnessed one trying to attack one of the chickens, only the smaller birds. I still find it strange that a hawk would suddenly decide to attack one of my largest birds after literally two years of pretty much ignoring them. It isn't out of the question, but definitely unusual.

I guess I'll never know for sure. At this point, I'm definitely wishing that I had cameras set up in the chicken yard. I think that is going to be next on my list.

 

[lagrange chicks]

Yes she may have passed away and the hawk found a easy meal, like you say hard one to figure out now. Good luck keeping the others safe.

 

[WingsysRoost]

Yes she may have passed away and the hawk found a easy meal, like you say hard one to figure out now. Good luck keeping the others safe.

Thank you. I'm going to assume that she likely did pass away first, since she did seem like she was developing some health issues. She was not a skittish bird and I do believe that she would have fought back if she was able to. I think that some sort of damage would be evident in that case, and also would be if the hawk did enough damage to kill her instantly, but who knows. Either way, I am continuing with my plan to get hawk netting, since it now is well aware that it can get a meal here.

 

[WingsysRoost]

I am back here again because this mystery is still incredibly frustrating to me. I've been trying to figure out what it could have been still, and while looking at the photo, it almost seems like her comb had gone a bit purple. Could an attack have caused that to happen, or would it indicate another issue? My hen that I lost due to a heart or respiratory issue had a very purple comb, while none of my other birds ever did.

She was also found mostly on her back, with her neck curled back and partially under her. I have found three out of the five birds that I have lost (including her) in this exact position, and I was wondering if this means anything specific. The other two birds were lost due to illness.

My first thought was that maybe she could have been having convulsions of some kind, which could also explain the very few feathers that were scattered around her.

I'm mostly just rambling about it at this point, but if anyone has any ideas or input, I would definitely appreciate it. This mystery is really frustrating because I have no idea what could have killed a large hen with almost no blood, very few feathers, and no signs of struggle. I'm genuinely so confused right now.

Is it possible that the other chickens had pecked her and caused the injury? It still doesn't explain the hawk, though.

 

[Mr Oviraptor]

I have a picture of her here, if that helps.

View attachment 3658263

I wanna say Hawk but there would be much more feathers if that was a Hawk, They rip the feathers off when they eat, I wanna say that was a Mink or possibly a feral Dog, Minks will kill for fun, So will Feral Dogs