Something snapped my little 4 month old Blue laced red Wyandotte pullets neck and left a small nickle sized hole right over her right wing joint. No other punctures or marks. There were not a lot of feathers torn out, hardly any actually, and we found her out in the corner of the chain-link fence just laying there undisturbed... The way our yard is set up, is we have an acre and a half of fenced in 6 foot high chain link that's to the ground, then we have the poultry runs in the center of it with the goat fence bordering the bottom. My theory is a hawk, the abandoned feral cat we cant catch/live trap or the rooster. My only naked neck has been getting a weird injury also, its a dime, sometimes penny sized cut or rip right on the left side of her crop. Every time her front heals it comes back, and we cant figure what is causing it...But it did happen the day that we put the new rooster outside. i am hoping its a coincidence... Any ideas? Anyone??? I go away for my honeymoon this Tuesday and I told the house sitter to keep the birds penned, and to just shoot any predator that comes into the yard and goes right for the pens, or is caught in the act. the reason we think its the rooster is because it literally looks like something hung on at the wing joints. Then again I have never seen this before, anyone???? Please???
This sounds a lot like what happened to my chicken yesterday. I found her under a tree, in a protected run. If a hawk got her, it has to have been through the cattle panel fence, which I could see, because I have netting over the run and it's undisturbed. I also had a pullet outside the run a month ago who died in the same general location but I didn't see any puncture wounds on her neck, (I didn't look that close). I also wonder if it could be the rooster? He's young and a bit rough.
Never heard of a rooster doing something as drastic as snapping another chickens neck, but I guess its possible! Sorry about the loss
Well, we have ruled out the feral cat, as her hatch mate Winston was attacked in the pen with the other chickens. We have narrowed it down to either another chicken or a hawk; as the neighbor verified that a bird was the one who was attacking Winston. Thankfully my baby rooster made a fly for it and cannoned over the top of the pen into the yard where he huddled under the coop until I got home. :/ Now I have to figure out if its another chicken or a hawk.
