What is up with my Delawares!?

[mconro]

We hae Delawares this year for meat birds. They have free range and are allowed to go into their coop at night. We have a red light on as they have pecked in the past. (They are 14 weeks old) They have a chicken door and a roost.

The bad news is that we have lost 3. 2 we have NO idea what happened. Just found them laying with no visable injury. The third we believe was suffocated! For some reason these birds crowd in the corner!! And I mean CROWD!! We have put 5 gallon buckets in the corners (upside down) so they can't push each other quite as much. Any ideas??

Also, there are a few of them that are hyper sexual. They LOVE my husband's brown suede work shoes! And I have the bites on my ankles to prove how much they LOVE them.

Any ideas would be great. These are the strangest birds I ever seen. We got them because we had read they were close to the old Indian River breed. Don't remember these behaviors! lol

Thanks much!

 

[La Mike]

Sounds to me they are getting cold.

 

[mconro]

Can't be cold. We NEVER let the coop get below 60 degrees and they were doing it when it was 80 in the coop the other day and humidity was awful.

 

[La Mike]

Do they run from you lol

When they go in the coop do the spread around any or go straight to a corner?
They may be scared of something in the coop area. I had this kinda issue once and caught a few snakes.