Pecked to death?? Predator?

[OhioClucker]

***GRAPHIC DETAILS***
We have chicks that are 6-7 weeks old. We recently moved them from inside our house to inside the coop. We left them in the large tote that was used as a brooder so they could have a bit of shelter from our hens. Tonight we found the black sex link chick dead in the coop (outside of the brooder). It was dead. It appears that it's rectum was torn out. There was a large hole, about the size of a large marble on it's bottom. None of the other chicks or hens were injured. The coop didn't have anything disturbed, all the fencing was intact. Roof was intact. Nothing had dug around the coop.

What could have happened to my chick?

 

[luv4ducks2814]

It sounds as if it was the older hens that pecked it to death. If it was a predator, i almost 100% guarantee that the predator would take the whole thing. To a predator, a baby chick is only a snack, and probably would have swallowed it whole and got the others. I would suggest getting a different thing to put the baby chicks in, safe from the older hens, because older hens will pick at baby chicks. Hope this helps and sorry for the loss of your chick

 

[farmerjakelee]

Chickens can be cruel and are known to peck each other to death every now and then especially when they see blood on a chicken. The chick also could have died first and then the chicks will peck at it as well.