Crime Scene – photo by Alan Cleaver

I recently was contacted by a Chris W., an Urban Chicken Podcast listener who sadly had just had one of her chickens killed and left some ways away from the scene of the crime. Chris wanted help detecting who had destroyed her lovely hen and I did my best to try to deduce the culprit from the evidence provided.

I have shared my conversation with Chris and my attempt to get to the bottom of this backyard chicken murder case.  See if you agree with my detective skills and whether I am the next Sherlock Holmes of chicken mysteries.  Chris W. originally provided me the following set of underlying facts surrounding the strange death of one of her backyard hens.

I live on Hatteras island and we don’t have big predators here. I’m puzzled -a hen [of mine] was killed found in the watery sedge next to a decaying log with just its neck eaten around the entire length. The crop and head were not eaten, [though it] did look like [it had] one slash on its back.

My dog I brought in later, seemed to follow [the scent of the victim] tracking into watery areas and I thought I smelled something in the area. This [the chicken murder] happened in the afternoon and the neck was completely stripped of feathers and flesh..  [Do you have] any suggestions as to the culprit?

This was not much information for me to do a thorough investigation, but I did the best that I could with the information that I had provided to me.  I did a little research and applied some solid logic to come up with my best solution to the ‘whodunit’ case.  The following is what I wrote back to Chris.

I feel a bit like Miss Marple investigating ‘Murder on the Poultry Express.’  There are a few facts that I don’t know which would be helpful in solving this mystery.  Was the bird taken from the coop by the predator or was the bird free-ranging at the time of its death?  If the bird was taken from the coop, were there any signs of entry by the predator (e.g. dug out hole under run, etc.?) Is it possible that the bird carried itself to the watery sedge area and was killed there? How old was the bird?

In order to answer your question more accurately I did some cursory research on the predators found on Hatteras Island.   Here is a LINK to a list of predators that the Hatteras Park Service Rangers regularly trap.  I suspect that the culprit may be one of the creatures listed on this website.

I asked whether the bird was taken from the coop or while free-ranging because several of the most common chicken predators will not carry away their victims from the scene of the crime.  Raccoons, weasels, possums, muskrats, and minks kill and devour on the spot.  If the bird was locked inside a coop it is very unlikely that a polecat or similar animal took it. Dogs, foxes, coyotes are more likely to break into a coop and carry off its prize to another location for consumption. However, if the bird were in a locked coop, then the offending dog, fox, or coyote would have left physical clues as to how they broke into the coop.  Polecats are able to squeeze their bodies through small gaps that a chicken owner would overlook in a coop/run’s structure and thereby leave no discernible evidence of entry.

I asked if it was possible if the bird had walked itself to its final resting place (the watery sedge area) because that could account for a polecat eating it away from the coop. Additionally, I asked about the age of the bird because polecats (and the like) tend to favor attacking younger, smaller chickens.

The fact that neither the head nor the crop were eaten by the killer tends to suggest that it was not likely a raccoon, possum or muskrat that ate your chicken.  These notorious predators usually consume those parts of the bird.  It is possible that one of these predators killed the chicken by watery sedge and was in the process of eating its victim when interrupted and scared off from its prey and so the feeding was incomplete.  A mink though tends to simply drink the blood of its victims, which is why a mink will kill every chicken in a coop given the opportunity and drink all of their blood (what little vampires!) If a mink came across your chicken by the watery sedge it would explain the solo kill and only the neck area of the victim being consumed.

There is one last fact that you provided that throws a wrinkle in my investigation  — the single slash on the chicken’s back.  None of the predators that I have mentioned so far are “slashers” per se.  There are only two predators that I can think of which use slashing as a kill method — birds of prey and humans (with the aid of a murder weapon).  When a bird of prey kills a chicken there are typically puncture wounds where the bird snatched, carried off and then ultimately crushed the victim chicken’s ribs and punctured its lungs. Birds of prey will also use their talons to slash at the back flesh of their victims.  My research revealed several varieties of birds of prey living on Hatteras Island.  Birds of prey do tend to eat the neck meat of their victims.

The last possible scenario takes a page from Ms. Christie’s classic, “Murder on the Orient Express.” In that mystery novel, the twist was that there were several murderers who individually each stabbed the same victim once, which resulted in the detective being unable to ascertain who specifically dealt the death blow. (Sorry – I probably should have given you a spoiler alert for the book’s plot).  It is possible (though not highly probable), that a human killed your chickens having stabbed it. A profiteering predator then found the discarded body at the watery sedge and nibbled at the neck meat.  I have read about more human-killings of neighbor chickens than one would assume reasonably possible. Does anyone in your neighborhood hate your chickens?

My best guess is that a hawk, osprey or some of other bird of prey is the culprit here.  The slash on the victim’s back, the transport of the body to a different location, the taking of just a single prey, and the portion of the carcass consumed most strongly suggest a winged attack from above.  If a bird of prey was indeed the killer, be aware that they will come back to take another easy target (i.e. chicken dinner) from your yard.

I hope that this resolves your chicken murder mystery.  It was fun getting to deduce an answer from the facts provided.  Please let me know if I can help you with any other chicken questions.

 

Thank you so much for your reply.  The next day my neighbors chickens were attacked. They were lucky – they got home during the attack and their birds, though very seriously injured, will likely survive.

 

It was a neighborhood dog that has struck before. It [the carcass] looked really strange the way it pulled a chunk from the back and pulled off the skin of the neck.

 

I’m sure it was this dog, [as] my dog took me all around the route of the chase. So for sure she [the victim] was pursued. This neighbor is so inconsiderate … [and doesn’t] really care how his actions or lack of them effects the neighbors. It is sad that my hen died this horrific way.

 

I have them mostly in a electric nylon fence but I’m not sure that will completely spare them if a dog really gets aggressive and wants to get in.  I let them out for a few hours on my acre so they can get healthier eggs and eat the ticks.

 

Thank you for reaching out – that is really thoughtful and I appreciate your time. Blessings to you and your flock  — Chris W.