2/3 Chickens dead within a month of one another

[d_h61]

So we rescued three chickens from British Hen Welfare Trust last June and had no issues with them until recently. They were approx 18 months when we got them (ex farmed chickens). The first one about 4 weeks ago died, I'm 80% sure she died from vent gleet that we just didn't catch early enough and we had to PTS! Then our strongest chicken (Luci) had a impacted crop which we managed to massage and she quickly perked up and is fine. Today my husband has gone to let them roam around in his lunch hour and found our second dead chicken (Houdini - Photo attached), now she was looking a little wobbly yesterday and she had a pale comb but other than that there's no signs of illness/injury.

We have been waiting to get some new chickens until we got back off holiday so we can mix them into the current flock correctly however, we're now not sure what to do!

We can either get some new POL chicks and keep Luci with them but we're concerned there may be some virus that has killed the other two which she could pass onto the new chickens and wipe the lot out!

Or as mean as it sounds (as there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with Luci) do we cull/try to rehome the last chicken?

Any advice is welcomed!

 

[Kiki]

What exactly do you feed your birds each day?

 

[Rose Quartz]

Pale comb could be a few different things. Makes me initially think anemia. But there are other things that could make her comb be pale and not mean sickness at all.

What feed do you have them on?
Was Houdini in lay?
Was she molting?

Did you notice the other girls who died having pale combs, or being wobbly?

check for mites just in case. Lice is less concerning than mites, most chickens have small amounts of lice, but if your surviving chicken seems to be over run with lice then there's likely something very wrong with her health.

https://the-chicken-chick.com/poultry-lice-and-mites-identification/

There are mites that live in a building too that come out at night to feed on a chickens blood, and that could cause anemia.

 

[d_h61]

No

Pale comb could be a few different things. Makes me initially think anemia. But there are other things that could make her comb be pale and not mean sickness at all.

What feed do you have them on?
Was Houdini in lay?
Was she molting?

Did you notice the other girls who died having pale combs, or being wobbly?

check for mites just in case. Lice is less concerning than mites, most chickens have small amounts of lice, but if your surviving chicken seems to be over run with lice then there's likely something very wrong with her health.

https://the-chicken-chick.com/poultry-lice-and-mites-identification/

There are mites that live in a building too that come out at night to feed on a chickens blood, and that could cause anemia.

No Mites or lice, we did have mites at one point but took the coop apart, washed and rebuilt and they've not been back since then.

Hettie our first to die she had a slightly purple comb which had flopped over. So different from Houdini.

We get an occasional egg but not 100% who from as they lay the same colour eggs ect.

Molting - yes she was loosing feathers

 

[d_h61]

What exactly do you feed your birds each day?

https://www.smallholderfeed.co.uk/products/poultry/natural-free-range-layers-pellets/

this is the food they're on, do give them some treats of fruit/veg and sunflower hearts now and then.