Bye girl 😭

[Eggcessive]

Thanks Coach 723, I didn’t understand, and I did mean the first link that you posted:

 

[Eggcessive]

This is the picture in this same video that I was trying to show where the organs are labeled:

 

[TaylorGlade]

If you meant a link to the video, I'm not sure which one @Eggcessive meant, I will attach links to two, and a few of manuals that might be helpful too. Images are graphic, so if that isn't what you meant, apologies.

David is going to attempt a necropsy in the morning. He did determine she wasn't egg bound. We want to make sure it's something that won't impact the rest of the girls. Thank you for the videos

 

[TaylorGlade]

We have two coops. All but two of the birds from her coop decided to roost in the other coop tonight. Is this normal behavior? I have examined the coop and cannot find evidence of mites or anything wrong with it.

 

[coach723]

It could be. Depending on what happened in that other coop, even small things can sometimes upset them, things moving to new places, predators hanging around at night, all kinds of things. When the hen died she may have flapped around (common neurological response to the process of death), could have upset them. Or could be due to a pecking order reset. Give them some time, maybe they will go back on their own when things settle, or it may be a permanent flock reset. You can try moving some back after dark, if they spend the night there then they may stay again. If space is not an issue, then you could just leave it as is, if space is an issue, then I'd try moving them at night a few nights in a row, see if they will eventually start using it again.

 

[Eggcessive]

Some other necropsy pictures:
https://www.slideshare.net/OsmanAfrah/a-visual-guide-to-a-chicken-necropsy-1

https://www.gribblesvets.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Avian-postmortem_-a-how-to-guide.pdf

 

[TaylorGlade]

It could be. Depending on what happened in that other coop, even small things can sometimes upset them, things moving to new places, predators hanging around at night, all kinds of things. When the hen died she may have flapped around (common neurological response to the process of death), could have upset them. Or could be due to a pecking order reset. Give them some time, maybe they will go back on their own when things settle, or it may be a permanent flock reset. You can try moving some back after dark, if they spend the night there then they may stay again. If space is not an issue, then you could just leave it as is, if space is an issue, then I'd try moving them at night a few nights in a row, see if they will eventually start using it again.

Space isn't an issue. That coop is big enough for 45 birds. We now have 37. And 35 were in that coop. We have an entire set of roosting rails that go unused most nights in that coop. The thing that surprised me was that instead of using the unused rails, most of the cream leg bars stuffed themselves between the australorps on the same side.

We didn't move them. I didn't know if it was possible they were actually missing her. I know my cats mourn the loss of each other but didn't know if chickens did. Or if they are moving because something was wrong with the coop.

The first two photos are the large coop. The third photo is the two remaining in the smaller coop.

David is going to try to do the necropsy this morning. So thank you too everyone who shared links.

 

[coach723]

Chickens can form attachments to each other just like any other living thing. When there is a loss in a flock, others may be stressed by it for a while. There are a lot of variables, how old they are, if they were kind of paired off as companions or part of a larger group (mixed flocks often group by age/generation or their particular hatch mates), where the loss was in the pecking order, etc. If a bird is taken by a predator that can traumatize all of them for a period of time. But they do bounce back fairly quickly, particularly if the flock is numerous enough. Long term, if there is a massive loss, leaving only a few, or worse, just one remaining bird, it can be worse. They will readjust, it will just take some time. And chicken logic is very different than ours. Sometimes they avoid things or don't like things (or do like things) that may not make sense to us. It makes sense to them somehow. If they won't use things it can take some trial and error to figure out perhaps why. I moved a fence line once in my run, to make it larger. There was a line in the grass where the fence used to be, that they had worn in the dirt, they would not cross it. They just ran that line. I had to physically go out and place them, one by one over the line, until they realized they could go over there. I have added things to the run that took days, or even weeks on occasions for them to accept and use. Sometimes they avoid it like it's a ticking bomb. They can be very suspicious of new things sometimes.
It looks like you have plenty of room and they are happy and comfortable and getting along, so it's up to you whether to try to shift things back, or leave them as they are. If you have a hatch, or raise new chicks, then you can always acclimate them to the emptier coop.

 

[TaylorGlade]

Chickens can form attachments to each other just like any other living thing. When there is a loss in a flock, others may be stressed by it for a while. There are a lot of variables, how old they are, if they were kind of paired off as companions or part of a larger group (mixed flocks often group by age/generation or their particular hatch mates), where the loss was in the pecking order, etc. If a bird is taken by a predator that can traumatize all of them for a period of time. But they do bounce back fairly quickly, particularly if the flock is numerous enough. Long term, if there is a massive loss, leaving only a few, or worse, just one remaining bird, it can be worse. They will readjust, it will just take some time. And chicken logic is very different than ours. Sometimes they avoid things or don't like things (or do like things) that may not make sense to us. It makes sense to them somehow. If they won't use things it can take some trial and error to figure out perhaps why. I moved a fence line once in my run, to make it larger. There was a line in the grass where the fence used to be, that they had worn in the dirt, they would not cross it. They just ran that line. I had to physically go out and place them, one by one over the line, until they realized they could go over there. I have added things to the run that took days, or even weeks on occasions for them to accept and use. Sometimes they avoid it like it's a ticking bomb. They can be very suspicious of new things sometimes.
It looks like you have plenty of room and they are happy and comfortable and getting along, so it's up to you whether to try to shift things back, or leave them as they are. If you have a hatch, or raise new chicks, then you can always acclimate them to the emptier coop.

We started with 12 - 10 australorps and 2 amerecauna. We found out that 8 of australorps were cockerels, and so was one of the Amerecauna. (Later, we discovered it was actually nine of the Australorps because one was a late cockerel, but that's a different story). We had to rehome the known cockerels, which left just three very lonely chickens. They wouldn't come out of the coop until we got more babies out in the run.

Ours don't seem to mind new things. The only thing they took adjusting to is "Shambling Mounds." It's what David calls piles of raked leaves. By the end of the day, they finally learned to love them. They don't mind us working in the run with power tools, either. And we have one girl in particular, Munchkin, who is curious to a fault.

I don't care which coop they sleep in. I figure they know more about being a chicken than I do. The girls are still using the nesting boxes in the coop their companion passed away in. We have nesting boxes in both coops - but ALL the birds use the boxes in this coop for some reason.

So maybe they will come back to it. We are talking about getting Bielfelders in the Spring. So if not, it will become their coop.

 

[coach723]

Wow, that's a terrible boy to girl ratio! Sometimes happens if you buy straight run birds, lots of extra cockerels go in those sometimes. I've had some hatches that were mostly boys also, luck of the draw! I'm sure it will all work itself out in time. Sometimes figuring out why they do, or do not do, certain things is just impossible. A chicken mystery.