Nah. Rats are far bigger than mice and my feralish birds rarely go after fullgrown mice (they far prefer pinkies). Plus while mice are annoyibg, rats are usually just mean
I agree, likely rats or mice. They're quite vicious for how cute they look. I lost a pullet one night and within the hour or so of discovery and removal, they had done a ton of damage to the body, and that was still with plenty of chicken feed around
Odds are the birds didn't start eating until the hen was already dead, not that it's my h assurance, but it should be some.
Mine have gone without for a day before and maybe I end up with a hen deciding to sleep outside for a day or two do to birds getting hangry, but usually they're just...