Dead Chicken- What to do?????

[JSossong]

I just walked into my coop and found one of my chickens lying on its back dead. Its awful. It was a Red Sex Link- about 16 weeks old. All of my chickens have seemed completely 100% healthy since day 1. My RSL's just started laying about 2 weeks ago. I haven't switched them to layer feed yet since they haven't all started laying so they've been eating grower feed and I've been offering them oyster shells on the side. It doesn't look to be predator related...there's no blood or anything. I haven't done much investigating because I'm not sure what to look for exactly. They live in a huge coop that I try to keep as clean as possible. And I let them free range during the day.

I'm going to head out to the coop now to remove the dead chicken.

What should I look for? I really need to make sure that this won't happen to the rest of my flock. What should I do?
Any suggestions and advice are welcome.

 

[MoffatChicken]

I have had the same thing happen, and my parents said they used to have the same thing happen when they were younger. For me I see one chicken separating from the group and then the next morning she is dead in the coop. I'm sure there is something wrong and maybe something that i could do to fix (Maybe) but what I do know is that for me it wasn't contagious to the rest of the flock....

Not all the answers you were looking for but hopefully puts your mind at ease a bit

 

[JSossong]

@MoffatChicken thanks for answering! Anything puts my mind at ease, at least for a little! I just really hope whatever happened doesn't happen to the rest of my girls. I went out and cleaned food and water containers and eliminated the dead chicken- I was creeped out initially by the dead body but I did end up at least somewhat examining it before I buried it - nothing looked out of the ordinary. I'm just hoping it was a random death and nothing more.

 

[Zgm12]

It sounds like your chicken may have died due to egg binding. This can happen to young chickens prematurely laying and lack of calcium. To avoid deaths of your other chickens you going to want to make sure you give them the layer feed which is formulated to provide balanced nutrition for laying hens. Also, make sure your chickens have access to crushed oyster shells as this is a great source of calcium.

 

[JSossong]

@Zgm12 Thanks! Have been keeping oyster shells in the coop since and haven't had any other problems with my girls! I have 2 different ages of chickens in the same coop...the first batch are laying and my 2nd batch are about a month behind the others...worried about feeding them all layer feed considering the 2nd batch isn't laying quite yet. Maybe I'll need to start feeding them separately. I heard feeding them layer feed to early could create some problems, yet at the same time I want the girls who are laying to have the right nutrition...would calcium be the only difference between grower/finisher feed and layer feed?

 

[sbhkma]

There's a bit of protein difference too. I free range my gals as well and I keep an additional feeder of oyster shell right by their favorite hangout spot so they can munch on some if they feel the need. They seem to know when they need more calcium in their diet.

 

[Country4ever]

Sorry for your loss. Sometimes they just die, and we never know why.
I've had several do that. They were totally healthy appearing, then dead in the morning. I've usually decided they broke their necks, falling/jumping of the roost.