Yeah. It is unfortunate to find chicken deaths especially when you work tirelessy on them. I know far too well. Just learn from your mistakes, it’s a process!
To be honest, I doubt. My chickens have been scared out of their minds before but they would just cluck and cluck so I don’t your girl would be scared by a branch while laying. If you really want to find the cause of death to prevent deaths of other birds or just know from curiosity, you can do...
Too large chunks of anything can be bad for them, they don’t have teeth and its harder for them to chew, so they rely on chemical digestion in the crop. Any other signs of chicken acting strange or any other notorious things you’ve found associated with the death?