This morning I went to my coop to give my girls fresh water and discovered my "special needs" girl, Cayenne, lying dead in the corner. Cayenne was a GLW pullet with severe cross beak that I've fed special feed every day since her beak problem developed and she was the sweetest thing.
I picked her up . . . wait a minute, where the heck is her head???? I moved things around, poking and looking. No head. The other chickens all look fine. I didn't close the pop door that night and after investigating found a 4" gap in the run. Needless to say everyone got closed in the coop tonight.
As I pulled into my driveway (already dark at 6pm) tonight I saw a possum near one of the barns. Also have smelled a skunk the last 2 days. Would one of these just eaten the head?? I have read the sticky in this section about head/crop being raccoon and head/neck being weasel. Honestly I didn't inspect her that closely. The "point of separation" was pretty close to her body, so I'm guessing either of those being likely.
The only other thing I can think - I noticed some blood on her back like from a rooster that was too persistent. Cayenne was half the size of her hatch mates due to the beak thing - my older rooster in that pen - a small silkie mix - didn't seem to bother her a bit but I had a small cockerel that I've seen try to mount her - but she was always able to get away. The other pullets chased him so I think if Cayenne got away the other girls would have kept him at bay?? Would a cockerel actually take off a pullet's head? She did not have the missing feathers/blood on her back the day before. The other pullets were totally fine with her - I've never seen them pick on her even though she was smaller.
Any thoughts?
I picked her up . . . wait a minute, where the heck is her head???? I moved things around, poking and looking. No head. The other chickens all look fine. I didn't close the pop door that night and after investigating found a 4" gap in the run. Needless to say everyone got closed in the coop tonight.
As I pulled into my driveway (already dark at 6pm) tonight I saw a possum near one of the barns. Also have smelled a skunk the last 2 days. Would one of these just eaten the head?? I have read the sticky in this section about head/crop being raccoon and head/neck being weasel. Honestly I didn't inspect her that closely. The "point of separation" was pretty close to her body, so I'm guessing either of those being likely.
The only other thing I can think - I noticed some blood on her back like from a rooster that was too persistent. Cayenne was half the size of her hatch mates due to the beak thing - my older rooster in that pen - a small silkie mix - didn't seem to bother her a bit but I had a small cockerel that I've seen try to mount her - but she was always able to get away. The other pullets chased him so I think if Cayenne got away the other girls would have kept him at bay?? Would a cockerel actually take off a pullet's head? She did not have the missing feathers/blood on her back the day before. The other pullets were totally fine with her - I've never seen them pick on her even though she was smaller.
Any thoughts?