Finding a Dead Chicken Every Morning - HELP!

[MaransGuy]

#1 I have a light on in my coop 24/7 and have had so for the last seven years and have never had a problem. It is very unlikely that it would be causing stress and killing birds. My birds sleep well and cycle with the daylight. They do not neet complete darkness to sleep and be healthy. They also moult properly.

#2 If you have aggression strong enough to kill an adult bird then you WILL see signs of trauma. Typically, ruffed feathers on the head and neck would be found from where the other birds would have been pecking. If it was enough to kill a bird you would certainly see marks. A coop built for 100 birds housing 40 is ample space.

#3 Are you certain that a mink or weasel cannot get in (hole 1/2"-3/4" is big enough)? They are able to take down a fully grown hen and kill it leaving very little damage. Usually, two tiny prick marks near the neck or skull is all that is left. You have to look VERY closely to see them. They will kill and then not eat the prey at times, preferring to drag it away before doing so.

#4 While mold could certainly be a factor, if it were actually bad enough to cause deaths you would be seeing syptoms during the day and not be losing just a single bird per night. It does not kill that precisely. Deaths and illness would be more prevalent and clustered.

I am leaning much more toward a predator, mink likely, perhaps a rat, that is killing one at a time and then losing interest and leaving when it can't figure out how to get it out of the coop. Entrance holes for a predator that tiny can be very difficult to find. You must use common sense, and your own experience, when trying to figure these things out. You know your birds, you know your housing. I suggest putting some type of camera in the coop to see what is going on. It likely will mean the difference between keeping birds or not. One death at a time, always at night and with no other symptoms equals predator to me. Other causes are simply too random to keep such a strict pattern.

 

[ChicksnPacas]

I am very sorry for your loss. I hope you can figure out what is happening. You feel so helpless when something like this is happening. I may have a similar situation. Two days in a row now I've found a chicken almost dead and very lethargic. We are having extreme cold and have a red heat lamp in the coop. The one we found today was right under the light. So I wondered if this one actually got overheated. The first one we found was on the roost with her legs out and open mouth breathing. She came in the house and I syringe fed water and food to her. Today she is just fine. The second, a buff orp, is now in our house and acting lethargic. She ate a little food and I syringed in some water.

I was wondering if the smell, ammonia?, from being kept in the coop during this extreme weather is affecting some. There is some fresh air coming in from their chicken door during the day, but none of them want to go out. Another thing someone mentioned is the less dominant not getting to food/water. That may be part of the problem too. Open for any ideas for both of us.

 

[paxicotrader]

Quote:
First of all, I agree with you about the light and the mold. The light was never a problem last winter and I'm just not seeing any signs of aggression (bad enough to cause death). We've also never had a mold problem and did check for that.

We haven't completely ruled out a predator yet, although that theory is not as plausible because

1. We did look over the coop again and couldn't find any small holes.
2. We have a huge Great Pyrenees who stays near the coop all night. She has been a great deterrent thus far. Plus, we also have a cat (excellent mouser) who sleeps in the coop sometimes. (No, he's not killing the chickens - we found some dead even on nights when he wasn't in there).

I'm really leaning strongly towards the smothering explanation. Here's why:

1. All the birds that die are "newbies," young birds less than a year old. They were gifted to us by a friend and ever since they arrived they have remained at the very bottom of the pecking order. We even noticed that many do not roost at night but just stay on the floor, often huddled. I don't know if the older birds are barring them from the roost, or if they just haven't gotten the hang of it.
2. We always find them under or near the lamp, which suggests huddling and subsequent smothering. (This is also why I agree with the poster above who said that cold is not really the problem b/c the ones on the roost are fine).

I just found this online at World Poultry.net. It sounds eerily like my problem:

"Sudden death of birds in one area of the house (usually in one corner) without any other signs is indicative that death has occurred by smothering."

"Smothering is caused by crowding into a corner or piling. It may occur when birds are moved to new quarters...It is more common at night."

To diagnose: "Necropsy of birds reveals congestion of the lungs and trachea."

If there is another death, we just might take it to the vet to confirm our theory.