The door doesn't latch, but it was closed, the mess on the bottom of the coop was untouched, there's no blood, no more feathers than there were before (PeanutButter was/is molting), and the rest of the chickens are completely unharmed. If you can explain all of that with raccoons, I'll accept...
If you see this, HELP!
I am completely perplexed as to what has happened to my chicken.
My coop is a little, chicken-tractor type. . . thing with a flap on the side (for collecting eggs) and a small, sliding flap door for the chickens to move through. Last night, two of my four hens (Puddle...
We've been keeping the Silkie and chicks from my other thread in with the other chickens. They wouldn't go back into the coop, and were spending the night in a dog crate in the corner of the yard. We figured they were safe there,because they were hidden and because Splash was REALLY aggressive...
The only way I know to sex young birds is to look at their saddle feathers. If they're pointed, it's probably a roo. If they're rounded, it's probably a hen. This isn't very reliable, though, and with some breeds it doesn't work at all, but it should give you a place to start.
I think the Australorp is named Puddle... not permanent yet. For Red, I'm thinking we might name her Saura, because she looks more like a dinosaur all the time.
I don't know. It's certainly possible that the others killed her. As for the pink egg, I have no idea how that could happen or have anything to do with her death. Sorry!
Our birds have always been fine without a roo. They will probably come back to the coop at night. Our flock went through a stage when they would all sleep on the kid's swing set.
On second thought, we've never had a roo. PeanutButter has taken on the role of rooster for our flock, even crowing...
We let our girls go out whenever they like. I lock them in when they're all in the coop sleeping, and let them out first thing in the morning. They don't always go out. When it's snowing, raining, or just cold they stay in the coop.
(ignore pixelated chicken)