Does anyone know what this could be?

[Black Duck Darth Vadar]

Hello,
This morning while collecting eggs in my chicken run, I noted what appeared to be a small pile of feathers that look to match the feathers of my Speckled Sussex cockerel. After closer examination, I realized that this was a chunk of what appeared to be hollowed out, dried skin slightly larger than the size of a golf ball, with feathers still attached to it. I looked over everyone in the flock, especially the Sussex, and no one seemed to have any feathers (or skin) out of place. Everyone looked happy and healthy. Any ideas of where this could've come from?

 

[ChickNanny13]

No clue but will be following to see what others come up with ... Anyone "missing" ?

 

[pennyJo1960]

I could not enlarge the photo so hard to tell are any of your hens missing ?

 

[Black Duck Darth Vadar]

No clue but will be following to see what others come up with ... Anyone "missing" ?

Noone is missing, and I can't find any injuries.

 

[Black Duck Darth Vadar]

I could not enlarge the photo so hard to tell are any of your hens missing ?

No one is missing and no one is injured. Sorry for the poor pic quality. It sounds silly, but it looks like a piece of my rooster just fell off. I was hoping to hear "Oh, yeah, that part falls off of all roosters at 9 months".

 

[pennyJo1960]

Nope sorry we never loose chunks do neighbors have birds ? looks to be a drop from aerial predator

 

[Black Duck Darth Vadar]

Nope sorry we never loose chunks do neighbors have birds ? looks to be a drop from aerial predator

That could be it. The run in covered, but my chickens love sticking their heads through the fencing and grabbing sticks and such. Would chickens kill a smaller wild bird that wandered into their area?

 

[pennyJo1960]

sometimes they will but if they can put their heads through you could loose them should have at least hardware cloth 2 feet up from the bottom then nothing can reach them that way

 

[ChickNanny13]

sometimes they will but if they can put their heads through you could loose them should have at least hardware cloth 2 feet up from the bottom then nothing can reach them that way

Chickens will definitely kill a bird ... Just the other week, the girls were playing "keep away". They are confined so I went to check, apparently a small bird got through the 1' chicken wire & got caught. It was dead, tried getting it away from her but as I was doing that another grabbed the head & that was the last I saw of it.

The birds in the trees where having a hissy fit, not sure if it was a baby trying to fly or got through the wire. But those birds were very upset.

 

[dawg53]

Are you sure it isnt a turd with feathers stuck to it?