Two Roosters Dead unknown cause...Help!

[Hoosierchickens]

This evening when I went out to close up the chicken coops I found my 2 year old black cochin rooster dead in the run. He was lying on his stomach with his body flattened and his head curled under. I went to check on the rest of the chickens and found my 3 year old blue cochin dead facing the corner of the coop in the same posture. Neither showed any signs of sickness leading up to this and the rest of the flock appears perfectly healthy. Egg production is booming. I can't find any signs of death on either one. No blood. No missing feathers. No obvious injuries. No signs of a fight and these two roosters always got along just fine with each other. No apparent respiratory issues or drainage. I checked all the feeders and couldn't find anything wrong with the feed. No external parasites. If it was just one chicken I would just write it off as sudden death syndrome but the fact that it's two chickens the same evening has me worried. Anyone have any ideas/thoughts on a potential cause of death? The rest of the flock appears perfectly healthy as usual.

 

[StephieSky]

Well growing up on a farm where we didn't have any livestock and we did have barns filled with rats & mice, if I had to guess, I'd say your two chickens shared a meal that was toxic.
The tucked head, belly down hunched and stiff muscled position is classic for a bird that had died from poisoning. The owls and even an occasional crow sometimes ate the mice or rats after they'd eaten the bait.
You should check everything carefully. Remove any rat or mouse bait you've set out and try not to worry too much. It can take several days for bait to kill a rodent. It could easily have been a random mouse just stumbling into the coop looking for a place to hide as it would have been ill. Weird things happen.

 

[Hoosierchickens]

Thanks for the reply. That's exactly what I had suspected, too. I do have D-Con in my shed and in the crawlspace. Perhaps I should remove it and let the chickens and cats control the rodents.