I know chickens die all the time but

[bobbieschicks]

that doesn't make it hurt any less to find our favorite 10 week old pet Silkie dead under the coop.

Rest in peace my beautiful Rokk.

We just returned from a trip and I had a friend do the chicken sitting while we were gone. She was here this morning taking care of the chickens and she said she didn't see any Silkies. Doesn't mean she/he wasn't already dead under the coop - just that she didn't see it.

Anyways I went out to let everyone out to free range and to check on the status of the coop manure box and I noticed that our lovely Rokk did not exit the run like everyone else. Then I noticed a pile of feathers under the coop. What I found was a stiff body with some missing feathers. His/her head looked like it was pecked open at the top. I suspect our 10 week old Lavender Orpington Francis is the culprit - I think he pecked her/him on the head because I noticed Francis getting aggressive with one of the other Silkies before we left on vacation. Getting on their back and pecking them. Is that possible? That the rooster would have done it? And then would they eat or pull out the feathers?

I don't believe it was an outside animal since our run is secure with hardware cloth and no other chickens were injured or missing. And she said they were all inside last night in their coop - which is secure with an auto door.

 

[mrpekinduck]

Oh I'm so sorry that's terrible! It's always sad when pets die especially when the one who caused it is right there!

 

[bobbieschicks]

Quote:
Thank you for your kind words. I do believe it was Francis the young rooster - I'll keep my eye on him going forward to see if he needs to be stew or not. I peeked into the roost area bit ago after everyone had gone inside and found that the two remaining silkies are up in the roost area huddled along the walls. The Lavender Orpington pullets were in the middle of the roost with Francis standing next to Foghorn (23 week old White Leghorn rooster) and the older pullets were in the front with the head pullet on the ground eating from the feeder. I'll check again later and see if I can figure out where everyone settles at the end of the day when the lights go out.

My friend is very upset - she wants to reimburse me for Rokk. She feels responsible for it happening because she was watching them for us. I told her no way she's reimbursing me for Rokk, that chickens die all the time and not to worry about it. We'll miss Rokk, but we don't know what happened to her/him. Rokk could have simply died of an unknown cause or from the cold weather or from a previous injury and then sustained the pecks on the head after dying.

 

[stewie's mom]