2 weeks ( 15 days) old chick found dead

[HenTea]

My husband was out at the brooder this morning, chicks all good. I came home from work to find one dead. just laying there about a foot from the heat light. I keep an eye on their butts. Her Butt was fine. Lots of room in the brooder and the heat is good. She was a good size pullet. She had been eating and drinking well. Nothing can get in the brooder, maybe a mouse? No marks on the chick. She was stiff when I found her.

These are the 1st chicks we have hatched ourselves. Never lost one before. This is our 4th year doing chicks and chickens.

The only thing I can think of is a mouse... Could a mouse do this?

 

[killmak]

There is a reason chickens have so many babies. Sometimes they just die. It could be anything from being trampled, to getting caught weird in the cage used, to just having weak genetics. If everyone else is fine I would just chalk it up to an unlucky baby. If something did kill her there would be marks and other injured chicks.

 

[HenTea]

I sure hope it is just the one chick. Its the 1st time we have lost one.

 

[FrostRanger]

If you're really worried, you can send her into your state's poultry extension for a necropsy, but yeah, could just be a birth defect you didn't know about and she just wasn't meant to make it