We're out of town and got a call yesterday from the neighbors watching the chicken that they found our 9-mo Buff Orpington chicken just keeled over and dead in the coop! No apparent trauma or signs of attack. She seemed fine the night before and was definitely out and about free-ranign for the last few days and seemed her normal self, and then suddenly...there she was dead! We have two other Rhode Island Reds who seem to be fine, so we're at a loss as to what might have happened. Does anyone have any experience with something like this? Is there anything we should be looking for?
The only changes recently are adding a heated water bowl and putting both that and the heat lamp on a timer. It was probably a little warmer the night before she died than when we usually turn on the heat lamp, but it was still at or below freezing. I can't think possibly of what happened?
We're very sad! Jersey was a real character and made us laugh as she would come bounding across the yard to us when we came outside. She laid two double yolkers in her short career.
Will the remaining two chickens be ok as two? We really liked having three, but I guess will evaluate increasing the flock to 4 in the spring since we can't get just one chick. Still, I'm already worried. Our three with Jersey got along great. There was no pecking or problems between them and we really weren't even sure who was the dominant one. I hope that introducing more chickens won't end up being a problem in the future!
Thanks everyone. It's nice knowing there's an understanding chicken community out there.
Hillary
Here's one of my last pictures of the three girls with Jersey on a snowy day.
The only changes recently are adding a heated water bowl and putting both that and the heat lamp on a timer. It was probably a little warmer the night before she died than when we usually turn on the heat lamp, but it was still at or below freezing. I can't think possibly of what happened?
We're very sad! Jersey was a real character and made us laugh as she would come bounding across the yard to us when we came outside. She laid two double yolkers in her short career.
Will the remaining two chickens be ok as two? We really liked having three, but I guess will evaluate increasing the flock to 4 in the spring since we can't get just one chick. Still, I'm already worried. Our three with Jersey got along great. There was no pecking or problems between them and we really weren't even sure who was the dominant one. I hope that introducing more chickens won't end up being a problem in the future!
Thanks everyone. It's nice knowing there's an understanding chicken community out there.
Hillary
Here's one of my last pictures of the three girls with Jersey on a snowy day.
