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Right after I discovered the bodies, and before collecting evidence that came to light later in the day, I did call the lab about a necropsy. They said the cost is $208. I decided to wait and see if I could put the pieces together and save the $208. With help from everyone on this thread and...

Yeah, if it's a predator, these last two may be goners. That's just the circle of life, I'm afraid. I've done everything reasonably possible to protect them. My first batch of 3 golden comets lived in that coop in my yard, in the same set up, for over 2 years and we had actually just as many...

Here is another angle of the one with the feathers missing. Since that is the biggest part of the mystery, I thought maybe there's something here that can be deciphered. Sorry for the gruesome photo. 😢

Good suggestion. Did it. The dirt beneath and around the bricks is flat, compacted, undisturbed. Except ... ... that is correct. I noticed it this morning but it looks like something one of our three cats did (they stay out at night) and it doesn't touch the coop structure. The brick there...

The feathers missing seems to be the biggest clue to what happened, but also the biggest disprover of nearly every theory! It's crazy. The feathers being plucked after the death is an interesting idea, @NanaK But again, why only one of the corpses? I will post a pic of the coop in place in...

@NanaK your hypothesis seems the most likely to me. They probably flew up in a panic and broke their necks on the top of the run/ floor of the coop above them. I still don't know how the feathers got pulled so thoroughly on that one part of one of the chickens, but I guess that will always be...

You guys! There is bear scat all OVER the yard! It's everywhere! I see now there is landscape disruption in a clear path around the back of the house almost to the chicken run but then it stops. The chicken run and coop show no evidence of claw marks, scrapes, having been shaken (bricks all...

I always cover the run with a tarp when it rains so it really never gets muddy in there. As to the idea that digging happened in the mud; the run and coop are surrounded by bricks all around so if something tried to dig, the bricks would have been rearranged/ disordered. That was not the case...

True. I have seen a skunk that lives under our deck out and about during the day. I have also seen raccoons in our yard during the day but not this summer.

Also, remember this would have happened during daylight hours. It was raining pretty hard most likely at the time it happened.

That was our first thought, too. Using latex gloves, we carefully examined their necks beneath the feathers and saw no marks whatsoever. Also, I agree a weasel could have gotten INTO the run area; but it could not have gotten OUT. I'm convinced of that.

Photo of the coop at the end of page 1. There were no bite marks, no body parts missing, ....?

I'm 100% confident a predator didn't get in there because there is no breach; there is no fur; there is no blood; there is no disturbance of the dirt floor of the run (this photo is before we put the run in its place on the grass in the yard, with bricks all the way round at ground level. No...

Edited to add: this photo doesn't show it because the coop was just finished and not yet deployed with chickens; but those latches always have carabiners on them to lock them closed.

OMG if they are both male that could explain a lot. They were both so much larger than the other two though I was told they were the same age. The two white ones were always bumping chests and one-upping each other, physically; I always thought that was odd but never having had roosters I didn't...

The only good photo I have of them was soon after I got them, at the end of May. When I bought them I was told they are all pullets.

No cockerels; all pullets.

I woke up this morning to find 2 of my 4 chickens dead. They were in the run, which means they died before 9:30 last night because they always go into the coop no later than 9:20 pm. It had been raining and I had covered the run with a tarp, so I didn't notice anything amiss when I closed up the...