One of my young Silkies was killed today. I don't know if it was a pullet or cockerel, but it was 3 months old, a decent sized bird, not a tiny one. It was in a chicken run with 6 foot fence. I was at church so I didn't hear anything. My Mom found feathers in the coop. She said you would have thought there would have been a dead bird, but she didn't see any body parts. A lot of the chickens are molting badly right now, so she thought maybe it was just a molt. Most of the feathers were blue... but I saw something that looked like intestine or something so I knew something was wrong. It really looked like a fat worm, but I knew it wasn't. I started looking and found my black Silkie eaten in the corner of the run. It had it's head and feet, but the breast was eaten and one leg so eaten it was just bone and tendon... it was horrible. It was mostly on one side. If I turned it on the other side it didn't see so damaged. It was just horrible though... I am really concerned because this happened in the coop and in the run! I don't know what it could be. The only coop predators I've had were at night... an opossum and a snake. I have seen hawks from time to time, but nothing recent and nothing ever got my chickens. I did hear a hoot owl the other day, but did not spot it. What do you think would attack during the daylight hours, attack inside a small coop, then eat the chicken there in the run, all the while there are many other chickens there. Why did I find blue feathers instead of black when the black was dead? I looked for chickens missing feathers, but did not see any with missing feathers. I am always worried about repeat offenders so I really would like to figure out what happened. If it's a bird, I would have to cover my whole run in order to protect them and I'm not sure I can... just very worried, as I have some really beautiful Silkie youngsters back there. Any help you could give would be appreciated!
