Heading into my seventh year of chicken keeping, I'm finding 1-2 deaths a year is the going rate, for any reason. Keep in mind that chickens have been bred first and foremost as food-producing animals and not as pets, so longevity is not within most hatcheries' concerns for an animal whose main usefulness lies in the first year or two of life (meat and/or eggs). I'm beginning to see anything past two years of age as bonus time (I do keep my chickens as pets).
Out of a batch of nine chicks hatched April 2023, I have lost three. One buff orpington suddenly passed at nine months (I suspect from an internal hemorrhage). The other two girls were production layers (ISA brown and Amberlink) and both passed in 2025 from reproductive issues, which is within the norm for those breeds (those breeds have also been the sweetest and most docile, so that makes their passing extra rough on me!). My oldest hens (Plymouth rocks) passed at around 4-1/2 years of age.
