Dead ilkie gooey from beak to shoulders. What killed it?

[Chickiepoo23]

I have my suspicions that a snake tried to eat one of my silkie pullets, but can't seem to find any images confirming this. The peep didn't have its head through the fencing so it wasn't some kind of animal sucking on it. Only one tiny spot of blood on a wing, but otherwise not other injuries I could find. The other birds were massively spooked, but none of them where injured. I will also point out that this was during the daylight. At night they are all safely secured in a coop. I live in CT and biggest snake I've seen around here that might try and swallow a pullet would be a black snake. Only thing I can think of because this is out chicken run. Hog wire with chicken wire and then hawk wire over the top that goes 18 inches into the ground and is 6ft up. There is an electric fence around their moveable field so it could only be some thing small that would want to get in there. The peeps are in a new coop in the back of the run with a small fence between them and the adults so they would get used to each other before introducing them. Truly nothing bigger should be getting in.



I'm angry and sad because wouldn't you know this silkie was my tamest and the one who let me handle it the most. I just want to know what did it so I can protect the rest of my folk. We've had sudden chicken death, death by deformity, and a dog wiped out half my flock last year and my tender heart is having a hard time dealing with all their deaths.

IF you think it is a snake, what can I do to prevent further deaths.

 

[shmccarthy]

http://icwdm.org/inspection/livestock.asp

This is a site for predator identification for livestock/poultry attacks. You can read here and it might help figure out what got your silkie.

 

[Chickiepoo23]

Thank you. I'd viewed the site before and nothing on it that matches what happened to my pullet. Powder Puff was gooey/gummed from the head down to his shoulders but every thing else was pristine. I even looked for tracks and couldn't find anything but it has been dry so the ground around the coop is hard.

 

[shmccarthy]

It sounds like a snakes was too small to eat the chicken and spit her out.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

^ yup.

I went back to my coop last summer to find a pretty large black snake trying to scarf down one of my 4-5 week old LF Cochin chicks. I'm not sure of my presence startled it or it finally realized that swallowing that chicks was physically impossible, but the snake regurgitated what it had gotten down and beat (no) feet for the tree line. What had been inside the snake was wet and gummy, but everything else looked fine. I never got the snake, but I didn't loose anymore chicks that way either...
Im not really sure what you could do to keep them out, besides locking them in the coop until they're big enough to not worry about :/

 

[shmccarthy]

Yeah snakes are pretty difficult to get rid of I hear. There may be some threads on deterring and preventing snakes, I heard mothballs work.

 

[Chickiepoo23]

Thanks folks, I was considering putting one of my roos in with the pullets to act as extra security against snakes. I will be able to tell my fiance that he was right. I just wish it hadn't gotten any of my babies and ESPECIALLY not THAT one. Massively frustrating.

 

[Sparrow]

Don't waste your money on mothballs or other ineffective "deterrents". Just put a nice rooster in and he will teach them to be more observant and wary.

 

[Mickey Lou 04]

If you have the room/acrage check out guinea fowl. They eat up snakes, and are an added alarm system. And I love their noise.

 

[Mickey Lou 04]

plus I think that they don't need a coop like chickens