Pine martens!

[Danialaska]

I free range my girls, so it was inevitable I would loose one eventually. I believe a pine marten or some other weasel like critter must have got her in broad daylight. It plucked the poor things head right off.
Well, I've set up snares and live traps to try and catch the bugger. So far no luck. Does anyone have any tricks to eradicating the problem?

I've thought about temporarily putting up our electric poultry netting, but I've heard they are no match for the sneaky devils.

 

[nuthatched]

There's a few other predators that do that, you could set out a game camera

 

[Danialaska]

There's a few other predators that do that, you could set out a game camera


That's not a bad idea. We don't have raccoons in our area. Mostly coyotes, wolverines, lynx, bears, eagles..... and the weasel type critters. I'm curious as to what other types of predators kill and leave the carcass untouched?

 

[nuthatched]

Smaller predators or a lot of predators just like certain areas and will leave the rest.
For example, raptors will mostly eat the organs, coons will go for the crop and upper area, weasels will just kill and leave it.
It's hard to say unless you catch them, you have a varied predator load.

 

[Danialaska]

Smaller predators or a lot of predators just like certain areas and will leave the rest.
For example, raptors will mostly eat the organs, coons will go for the crop and upper area, weasels will just kill and leave it.
It's hard to say unless you catch them, you have a varied predator load.

Thanks for your reply. Sounds like it's time to set up that gamecam.... and maybe pitch a livestock guardian dog to the husband

 

[Ridgerunner]

I free range my girls, so it was inevitable I would loose one eventually. I believe a pine marten or some other weasel like critter must have got her in broad daylight. It plucked the poor things head right off.

Many critters go for the head since that is a good way to quickly kill. Hawks are another critter that tends to take the head off, I would consider them too. I've had a hawk kill that way in broad daylight and an owl do that at dusk. Could be a pine marten too. It's hard to narrow it down.