Losing chickens, one by one... (Warning: Dead chicken picture)

[Poliwag]

A few weeks ago I discovered my Pekin bantam was dead, stuffed in between the edges of the coop, with her head missing. The rest of her was intact. More recently one of my Silkies had all of her feathers ripped out of one of her wings and it was bleeding. I thought it was the chickens having their pecking order thing on her, however, it got worse.

Later on, her tail feathers were also gone and that area was bleeding also. A couple of days later, she was dead. She seemed fine, she ate and drank, she hid from the other hens though. Her body was a mess though. Her insides seemed to be all missing. I just assumed the rats had had a go at her body through the night and the rest was the other hens having a... taste of her >.<

Today, I found another one of my silkies, dead, she was perfectly fine, she had no missing feathers, she wasn't bleeding at all. Her body was the same as the other silkie. This time I took a picture. Maybe someone here can tell me what is killing my chickens.

WARNING: IT'S NOT A PRETTY SIGHT!




I have had the silkies for over 2 years now. I have had rats all that time with no major drama. My chicken coop is dog and cat proof. There is wire covering above the run. I had a snake in the coop before but a snake wouldn't take a bite out of a chicken.

I live in Australia. What could possibly be doing this to my babies?

 

[Chickenfan4life]

Hmm, sounds like rats or weasels to me. Sorry for ur loss. Hugs coming ur way...

 

[Poliwag]

Quote: I don't think we have weasels in Australia. I do have rats but they have never attacked any of the chickens before.

Thanks for the hugs

 

[cluckcluckluke]

it maby dog and cat proof, but is it FOX proof?

They are pretty crafty buggers. Have a look around the fen line and check the roost and nesting boxes for damage or signs of forced entry (look EVERYWHERE). if it was a fox though it should have atleast taken more than 1 chicken a night, im pretty clueless on this one, especially the silkie that lost it feathers before death

. i also live in Australia and i cant think of any other predators except eagles but you said you had a covering. i hope that the creature responssible for this stops, good luck

 

[Fancychooklady]

I'd say rat, I live in Tassie and while we don't have too many rat attacks ,at this time of the year the things are in plague proportion . Cats and quolls generally only eat the head. The only other thing I've seen do that sort of damage are birds of prey. Lock the hens up and set some

traps.
I have silkies and the poor little

are pretty helpless against all the nasties. Hope you get to the bottom of it soon.

 

[zazouse]

That bird looks like it has been dead for a while, kinda mummyfide, could it have gotten trapped in something and died then something drug it out?
I have seen birds that look just like this , found one in an old flower pot that got knocked over on top of her.
Sorry for your loss

 

[Poliwag]

Quote: The pen is only small. And she is a Silkie. I have seen dead chickens before but not Silkies, so I don't know what they are supposed to look like.



Quote: I have never seen a fox before. Anywhere. I live in town so I don't really think a fox would risk coming in town.





Sorry guys for the late replies. Was kind of expecting to get an email when I got a reply lol. No more chickens have been killed.
I have decided to just give away my chickens to make sure they don't get killed by whatever. And other reasons. Thanks everyone for trying to help