Silkies found dead wedged under the coop

[Maggiehc]

Tonight I came home a little after dark and found three out of four of my Silkies dead. All of them had no apparent marks on them but all were found with their heads wedged (stuffed?) under the coop. Two were together and the third was on the other side of the coop. Does this sound like weasel behavior? Something else? Sickness?

We have other birds but these guys were the "pets" of our flock and it was so shocking to find so many dead.

 

[1muttsfan]

Did the predator get in under the coop? Sounds like it was trying to drag them away. If the opening is very small,a weasel is likely. It is very sad and frustrating to loose birds like that.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

it sounds like a predator
, maybe a cat, maybe a weasel. It may have chased them around and they were trying to get away..its hard to know exactly what happened with a closer examination, silkies are reputed to be defenseless. Sorry for the loss.

 

[littleoak]

I had bantam Cochins several years ago that I was color breeding and the same thing happened. Their heads were pulled under a small chicken house. I was able to lift and move the chicken house and found a weasel sleeping there. That weasel then slept forever. My experience with weasels is that they do not go far from the food. It has to be caught or all chickens will soon be dead.

 

[Maggiehc]

Thanks for the help. We did look under the coop and it looks like maybe there has been some digging there but alas didn't catch the culprit there. We're on high alert protecting the rest of our flock and I'm going to put out a liver baited trap tomorrow.