Came home to a dead Hen

[trunkman]

When I got home from work today I did what I usually do when I get home, take care of the chickens, give them a treat and make sure they have clean water and check on my old girl which I'm expecting to drop anytime. Well when I opened the coop door to check on the old one I was really surprised to see one of my 9 month old Austalorps was laying on the coop floor dead. I've seen quite a few chickens pass on and they are usually on their backs with their feet in the air, this one was different, she was laying right side up and her neck sharply curved to one side. I picked her up and layed her on a table to check her out, I looked for blood, missing feathers, wounds and nothing was abnormal. When I found her she had been gone for probably a couple of hours or so because she wasn't cold, just slightly cool so she couldn't of been gone for more than a few hours because she wasn't stiff yet. One thing I did notice is that head hung loosely so I'm thinking she has a broken neck. What do you think and has that happened to any of you?

 

[gritsar]

Sorry for your loss. Sounds like she broke her neck. Could she may have gotten spooked by something causing her to fly into a wall?

 

[trunkman]

Quote:
I don't think so, I found her between nest boxes that face each other that are about 4 feet apart with a hanging waterer between the two. The only thing I can think of is that maybe she jumped off the nest box and fell wrong.

 

[BWKatz]

Quote:
I don't think so, I found her between nest boxes that face each other that are about 4 feet apart with a hanging waterer between the two. The only thing I can think of is that maybe she jumped off the nest box and fell wrong.

That sounds more like it. I've had parakeets fall in their cage and break neck on a lower roost.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
I don't think so, I found her between nest boxes that face each other that are about 4 feet apart with a hanging waterer between the two. The only thing I can think of is that maybe she jumped off the nest box and fell wrong.

That sounds more like it. I've had parakeets fall in their cage and break neck on a lower roost.

Yeah, that sounds quite possible. Unfortunately chickens tend to be the most self destructive of creatures.