Mysterious deaths (warning, photos of dead chickens inside)

[KarynVA]

I would be for moving each of those bricks (especially the ones with holes in them) and looking for evidence of rats or some other burrowing thing.

Good suggestion. Did it. The dirt beneath and around the bricks is flat, compacted, undisturbed. Except ...

Good call @BlindLemonChicken

The brick all the way to the right in that last photo looks like the soil has been disturbed a bit.

... that is correct. I noticed it this morning but it looks like something one of our three cats did (they stay out at night) and it doesn't touch the coop structure. The brick there on the right, underneath it and up against the wood of the run front, the dirt is compacted. No visible breach or digging.

And yes, those coop in place photos were taken this morning after the, er ..... incident.

 

[KarynVA]

Here is another angle of the one with the feathers missing. Since that is the biggest part of the mystery, I thought maybe there's something here that can be deciphered. Sorry for the gruesome photo.

 

[NanaK]

Here is another angle of the one with the feathers missing. Since that is the biggest part of the mystery, I thought maybe there's something here that can be deciphered. Sorry for the gruesome photo.

View attachment 3179766

I had some young birds feather pick one time. To me this looks like the bird died first and then another bird started to pull feathers. Often when this happens others will join in. It would not take very long to pull this many feathers. It just doesn't look like anything attempted to eat any of it. Again, just speculation on my part.

There are some here at BYC who are really good at figuring out predator attacks. I think I would ask to have this thread moved to the Predators and Pest Forums or start a thread there with a link to this thread. You may get better answers than I can give.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

If it’s a predator there’s a good chance it will come back I would put up a game camera or something similar and lock your birds up a few hours earlier for a few weeks. It doesn’t look like a fight between them as that would leave injuries. Particularly on the head. Could a snake have gotten in? They can leave little to no signs of injury except for perhaps wet head and neck feathers.

 

[KarynVA]

Yeah, if it's a predator, these last two may be goners. That's just the circle of life, I'm afraid. I've done everything reasonably possible to protect them. My first batch of 3 golden comets lived in that coop in my yard, in the same set up, for over 2 years and we had actually just as many bear sightings and even more raccoon sightings those summers but they never had an attack.

I did post over on the predator forum also now. This is like a true crime forensic mystery. I MUST KNOW!

 

[McChooky]

If I understand correctly there is bear scat in your yard and landscaping disturbed so I assume the chickens saw & heard everything.My guess is the 2 chickens ran inside the coop and the roosters being bolder stayed out.One thing that happens when chicken become frightened and stressed is is drop feathers all over the place.

 

[McChooky]

Edit:
Sometimes a chicken will release its feathers when stressed (as in predator attacks)The predator will get a mouth full of feathers and the chicken will escape.Except in this case the chicken was terrified and couldn't run & hide.It died of a heart attack I suspect.

 

[McChooky]

Here is another angle of the one with the feathers missing. Since that is the biggest part of the mystery, I thought maybe there's something here that can be deciphered. Sorry for the gruesome photo.

View attachment 3179766

There may not be any open cuts or wounds but it appears to be bruised under the skin or is it just the photos?

 

[Geena]

Here is another angle of the one with the feathers missing. Since that is the biggest part of the mystery, I thought maybe there's something here that can be deciphered. Sorry for the gruesome photo.

View attachment 3179766

So sorry, that's quite the mystery. 12 weeks is right around the time for a juvenile molt. If they did freak out about the bear and bounced off the sides a few times it may have resulted in them dropping a lot of feathers at once. I wonder if the bear walked right up and had a good look in there

 

[Geena]

There may not be any open cuts or wounds but it appears to be bruised under the skin or is it just the photos?

Probably just lividity.