Chooks unknown killer

We have had 2 of our 6 chooks killed in the past 3 days. We are far from anyone with a dog and the chooks are in a paddock surrounded by good chicken fencing with native bush along one edge. Both time only the head and neck has been eaten. They were lying against the fence with their feathers all around.
We have had the chooks for 3 years now and this is the first time we have had this happen.

Does anyone know what might be doing this and how we could protect the 4 remaining chooks?

Many thanks.

Welcome James, all I can think of is a ferret or stoat? Trap them as they are bound to be back. Others may have better ideas.

Hi James and welcome to lsb

I'm sorry to hear about your chooks...as Spoook said, it sounds like a mustelid of some kind, ferret, stoat or weasel. You can get some more information in this article .

Cheers
Kate

Sounds exactly like a typical killing by a member of the mustelid family. A family member who breeds chooks had a huge loss in his young chicken pen. Something like 30 or 40 killed.
He trapped the stoats and ended up catching 6, I think he said. Must have been a whole family that took the opportunity. If you don't trap these villains and deal to them, you will lose more chooks because they will be back.

Any blood? Reason I ask is when our banty was killed and I mentioned no head/no blood the general concensus was ferret - apparently they exsanguinate the bodies, a bit like mini-vampires...? [xx(]