Only Murders in the Coop

[djorg]

A few weeks ago, I found one of my chickens laying dead inside the loft where all six of the girls slept. I found no blood on her, but saw spatters on the back wall. It was hard to determine when she passed, but she was cold and stiff when I found her. The prime suspect was my Delaware girl "Della" (see below: she's the white one). She'd been bullying the others for some time and strutted around like Queen of the manor. That morning, she made the most noise announcing what had just transpired.



Later that night, I was afraid there might be another killing, but without proof I had no choice but to let nature take its course. The next morning I discovered that the other four chickens had chosen to sleep on a perch in the aviary I built connected to the coop. They were thinking the same thing I was and didn't want to find out who was next. This has been their habit now. Della sleeps in the loft by herself while the others huddle together outside on the perch.



All this has happened during August with high temps in the 90's-100's. The evening cools a bit, but there's a good chance the coop, even though in the shade all day, became too much for them and tempers flared.

The other cause might be that now that they've all grown to full size, the loft might be too crowded for them. I bought a double sided coop with two lofts and two nesting areas on opposite sides of a common 'courtyard'. Silly of me to think they would split up and use both sides.



Now that it's cooler weather, I'm hoping they call a truce.

 

[FarmerGirl101]

Did you find any puncture holes on the one who died? Was her comb purple when you found her? I would be very surprised if she was killed by another chicken without visible wounds unless she was pecked repeatedly on the head. But that is a more common death with chicken breed who has vaulted skulls.

 

[djorg]

Did you find any puncture holes on the one who died? Was her comb purple when you found her? I would be very surprised if she was killed by another chicken without visible wounds unless she was pecked repeatedly on the head. But that is a more common death with chicken breed who has vaulted skulls.

When I found her, one eye was open, and one eye was shut and red around it, but it wasn’t blood. I did not see any puncture wounds anywhere, but I wasn’t looking for any either. She was flattened as though she were trampled on by a heavy weight. That was my first guess was that possibly she was smothered under the weight of the other chickens. But then I saw the blood spatter on the back wall and came to the conclusion that she was pecked repeatedly somewhere. No one else showed signs of distress or injury.

 

[FarmerGirl101]

Could the red be from bruising or trauma? Did it look like the red was from being pecked or some other unknown cause? Being flattened is not unusual, I've had chickens who were flat when found. But that was when we were out of town and a neighbor came and checked on them. When you say flattened, do you mean like fully flat or partially flat. And did you check on them the day before. How much blood was there? My flock was killed by a racoon and it was super bloody but some of them looked perfectly fine other than being dead.

I would also use hardwire cloth (1/4" ideally but 1/2" works too) on the run walls. Racoons love to stick their hands through any holes in a fence and will kill a chicken through it.

 

[FrostRanger]

Yes, the coop is too small, general rule of thumb is 4sqft of coop space, 1sqft of roost space, 1-3sqft of ventilation and 10sqft of run space per bird. Chickens also tend to like to roost together so one big coop is usually better than 2 smaller coops. As for what killed her, hard to say, do you happen to have pictures of her?