luvmypets
Herd Master
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2014
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A few weeks ago one of our chicks disappeared. The four of them would often adventure far outside their pen so after thorough looking we came to the conclusion the chick had stayed out and got taken. I wasn't to concerned until today.. When we first walked into the barn the grain bin was tipped over and empty, my dad blamed it on our fat rooster roaster, but to me that didn't sit right. Out of all the chicks Jigsaw was the Houdini of the bunch. So when I walked into the barn and he hadn't escaped it was an immediate red flag. Then I saw him under a nest box dead. It was upsetting but it happens, then my panic rose as I realized that none of the chicks were by their mother(Cirra). I then spotted sweet potato dead in the center of the stall. I let the other chickens out and then investigated the damage. Fedora was missing and sweet potato was headless .I moved over the jigsaw who had no visible wounds and I slowly picked her up. I thought she was dead but she let of a couple peeps. She was already too far gone at that point, her head was already craning back. She died about an hour later. We have also noticed fewer eggs, even during moulting we get a few eggs. I'm pretty upset and I'm normally not fazed by chicken deaths. My initial culprit is rats. We had problems with them with our first chickens, but that was five years ago, and we haven't had problems since. Is this something I need to worry about with my other animals? I know whatever it was will come back as it knows there is a steady food supply.