What's killing my chickens? PICTURES

Some folks I use to hunt on near Clinton had several chickens killed by Hawks. He had no idea what it was until he actually saw a hawk come out of nowhere and land right on top of one of the chickens (he assumed breaking it's neck) then fly back into a tree waiting on the chicken to die. He would find the carcas under a tree or in a seperate field behind his house.
In your case I can't imagine that if it is a Hawk that there wouldn't be more of a mess, as in feathers scattered everywhere or the carcass even carried off before it is eaten. Odd.
I'm wondering if it isn't a Dikfer.

mink or weasle

Time to hang a trail cam to identify the preditor.

Or a 110 conibear

Mink/Weasel would just take the head or back of neck only, not open them up.

BILL CLINTON!

gundude, several people already said weasle.

Google does some easy research.

What killed my chickens and what can I do about it?

The usual predators of chickens are raccoons, foxes, weasels, and coyote. If you find an explosion of feathers, the culprit was probably a raccoon or fox, although owls and hawks have been known to grab chickens. Raccoons will go after caged animals, pulling a head or feet through the fence and eating them. They are very adept with their paws, and will often drag off a bird and eat all of the meat, leaving an almost intact carcass. If you find dead chickens with wounds around the neck and the crop eaten, the likely culprit is a weasel. Weasels will sometimes try to drag the carcass of the chicken through a small hole. Dogs will kill a chicken and often not eat it. Opossums and skunks rob eggs and will eat chicks. Spreading finely powdered lime around the chicken coop may show up identifiable foot prints, or snake tracks, of the predator.

Scarecrows and similar devices are rarely effective against determined chicken predators. Jerry Fry, in Missouri, keeps a scarecrow in his chicken yard, and each evening changes the position of the scarecrow and puts his sweaty shirt from that day on the scarecrow, claiming that no downwind predator will ever come close to the area. Blinking red lights, like the Niteguard may help against owls. Some chicken owners report that a radio in the coop playing country & western music deters weasels, foxes, and raccoons.

The only effective protection against most chicken predators is to lock the chickens in a safe coop at night. Secure wire fencing, either with the bottom buried or with a strand of barbed wire along the ground, and with no holes or weak points, will do the job against raccoons and foxes. Raccoons especially are clever enough to scout a fence for a weak spot. PVC fencing on heavy rebar posts (surplus mine roof bolts, for example), is effective for fowl, especially with electric scare wires at 2 inches and 7 inches off the ground around the exterior perimeter. PVC fencing 5.5 feet high, with a pattern roughly like a chain-link fence, has been used to protect and hold chickens, emus, guineas, peafowl, and geese. One supplier of PVC fencing is BF Products in Harrisburg PA (1.800.255.8397).

If the problem is weasels, you will need either solid walls and doors for the coop, or a fine mesh fencing like hardware cloth. A weasel can get through a quarter-sized hole, and when one gets into a coop they can do a lot of killing in one night.

Netting over a fenced-in run may be necessary to deter hawks and owls. Be sure to put some visible barrier up with the netting, such as surveyors tape; otherwise the netting may be invisible to the raptors, especially at night.

If your own dog is the problem, some farms have reported success in teaching a dog not to chase chickens by tying a dead chicken around the dog's neck for a few days. It is also possible to train a dog to not chase chickens. There are reports of Anatolian shepherd dogs trained to guard poultry, and Anne Williams, in Darien, Connecticut, has trained her huge Irish wolfhounds to round up the chickens each day and bring them into the coop. The dogs carry the chickens in their mouths and hardly ruffle a feather.

An alternative to coops, which works in some areas, especially with tough breeds of chickens like Modern Games, is to allow the chickens to roost in nearby trees. If you can't always get home to lock them in a coop, or if predators have terrorized free-ranging chickens so they're reluctant to go into a coop at night, allowing them to roost in trees may protect them from most predators. Chickens roosting in trees are vulnerable to owls, racccoons, and occasionally foxes, bobcats, or bold feral cats.

You going to give them some free eggs as a prize?