My favorite 2-month old Mille Fleur bantam chick died today suddenly. She was perfectly fine yesterday and even tried jumping onto my Christmas tree. She was peeping happily and running around indoors like a small puppy. Checked on her right before work at 6am and she was still chirping just fine, but when I came home at 4pm she was already gone, frozen stiff on the ground.
To other people who raised bantams, do yours eat and poo very little? This was my first time with a bantam variant and I'm trying to figure out the cause of death and the only thing I can think that was amiss is perhaps some sort of internal issue. I noticed when she was younger that she barely ate much at all unlike all the other chicks I raised, but I assumed it was a bantam thing. Even at roughly 2 months old she still didn't eat much save for a few crumbs here and there.
She lived alone in the brooder outside, she recently moved out from the indoor brooder 2 weeks prior. There was plenty of food and water and adequate shelter from the elements. She didn't seem to enjoy being with my other chickens and actually preferred to be indoors and hanging out with us instead.
Here's a pic of her in her favorite tray she likes to sit on I took a few days ago before her passing.
To other people who raised bantams, do yours eat and poo very little? This was my first time with a bantam variant and I'm trying to figure out the cause of death and the only thing I can think that was amiss is perhaps some sort of internal issue. I noticed when she was younger that she barely ate much at all unlike all the other chicks I raised, but I assumed it was a bantam thing. Even at roughly 2 months old she still didn't eat much save for a few crumbs here and there.
She lived alone in the brooder outside, she recently moved out from the indoor brooder 2 weeks prior. There was plenty of food and water and adequate shelter from the elements. She didn't seem to enjoy being with my other chickens and actually preferred to be indoors and hanging out with us instead.
Here's a pic of her in her favorite tray she likes to sit on I took a few days ago before her passing.
She was a very pretty bird. As for her death, i'm not totally sure what happened. I sometimes find a perfectly healthy (or so i thought ) chicken frozen stiff, and i always look into what was lying around, worm/parasite load, feed and water intake, etc. I don't raise bantams anymore, for my area we do tend to have hawks so those guys for some reason get taken out first, and i always get attached to them more than the other chickens. 
