Head missing

English Oliver · #1 07/01/10, 07:07 AM

I found one of my 12 week old ducks laying on the pond bank with just its head and neck missing. There is another that is hobbling but it went into the pond before I could examine it. What do you think did it?

"O"

mmurrey · #2 07/01/10, 08:35 AM

I would guess it would be a weasel or mink, I think if it was a fox or coon the whole thing would be ate on.

sewsilly · #3 07/01/10, 08:45 AM

Weasel!

mare · #4 07/01/10, 10:54 AM

i had a coon just take the head off before too, then he just layed down next to it and slept

English Oliver · #5 07/02/10, 07:17 AM

I found another duckling this morning, this one was floating in the pond. All of its rear end and intestines were eaten but none of the meat. The mother duck yesterday kept her brood on the pond and under trees along the edge making me think that what got the first one was an owl but this one wasn't an owl.

The last 24 hours haven't been good, yesterday morning I found the first dead duck and one that was injured and after lunch the neighbors Jack Russel came down and went through my chickens like he was insane. He killed two hens, one with a brood a month old, four of the chicks from the brood, one six week old Guinea, and injured three other hens pretty bad. Now this morning another dead duck. Makes me want to kill something.

"O"

deineria · #6 07/02/10, 01:34 PM

Yep - weasel.

English Oliver · #7 07/02/10, 04:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deineria

Yep - weasel.

To my knowledge we don't have weasels where I live.

"O"

maleyfarm · #8 07/02/10, 05:40 PM

my guess is coon or possum, we had a possum get our coop our couple years ago and take the head off 4 hens then go to bed in the corner of the coop (he didn't have a good wake up call)
its been my experience that hawks and owls will carry their kill off a little bit from the site and eat what they want, if a fox or coyote gets it then you'll never find it. and if its still in the area is usualy a coon or possum.
we have very few mink around and they stay pretty close to creeks and rivers and we have no weasels so I don't have any experience with them, but unfortunaly I have a bit of experience with varmits. we have 700 acres of national forest in front of the house and the back side of the property is another 1200 acres of national forest.
we had a couple young turkeys just last night that where killed. 1 was just killed and left and the others a pile of feathers about 50 yards from the barn. they had been disapering right before dark when we herd all the chickens and turkeys into the coop and we got in the habit of not worrying about them. (our fault we got lazy)

Sheltieslave · #9 07/03/10, 12:21 AM

we had a dog that would be head out chickens and ducks .
Dad took my dog for 1 last walk.

but it could also be a cat.
do you have snapping turtles ?
I know some of this sounds weird to you all but in Panama we watched snapping turtles Behead baby Ducks that where wild