Dead chicken, half bald chicken?

In an attempt to replace some layers I lost during the second dog massacre of 2013, I picked up a few at the auction. I bought 2 boxes from the wrong lot (ie, not the ones I had wrote down) and ended up with a box of 4 hens being 3 roosters (no 4th) and another box of 4 being 3 and one. Which is fine, happens, my fault, whatever.

One looked like a silkie cross, and, over the past two days, she failed off. Her wings drooped to the side, she curled her head into herself and stood puffed up. Wednesday, I put her up on the roost and left her. Yesterday, I was going to put her down when I got home, but she was already gone.

The side that was upright, excluding the wing was completely bald. Not a pin feather, regular feather, long stringy hair you sometimes have to singe off after butchering, nothing. Perfectly smoothe pinkish-purple skin. The other side, was fine, the wing was fully feathered and the feathers seemed undamaged.

You'd think I would have felt being bald when I picked her up to put her on the roost, but maybe I had the other side in my hand and the wing from the bald side. Is there something in particular that would cause this or is it, as I suspect, mice? There was no trace of pulled or plucked feathers.

What do you think?

no clue..that is very strange indeed..are you suggesting the mice may have chewed them off after she died?
could feathers have fallen out due to swelling or could you suspect a cat?

mirycreek wrote:no clue..that is very strange indeed..are you suggesting the mice may have chewed them off after she died?

Correct, it's the only thing I can think of. Mind you, since we got ducks on Sunday, I've only seen mice once.

Sweetened could have been the other chickens pecked her after she had died, I have lost a chicken overnight in the young pen and come morning it is almost the same as you describe, I think it is the others walking on, scratching around, and pecking.

I doubt this may have caused the complete baldness you describe, but I have noticed that when a hen begins to fail, the roosters take advantage of this, attempting continuous matings with the failing bird. Often they wear off a lot of feathers, especially on the back and head. When I encounter their dead bodies they have a lot of feather loss. I often wonder if this behaviour brings on the death faster.