Dead Chicken

[Perry17]

I found one of my favorite hens dead today. She was right under the roost, I left early this morning so I didn't find her until I got home this evening. She was stiff, but there were no ants or flys on her.

She hasn't been sick, acted normal yesterday. No feed changes, good weather.

I checked her over, and there's not a single scratch on her. So I don't think it's a predator.

She's a young hen, 1-2 year old red star.

At first I thought it was my 4 year old red ranger, and just assumed it was a heart attack or something that goes along with meat birds. But at a closer inspection, I realized it was my red star. So now I'm not really sure.

Y'all have any ideas what it could be to kill her so suddenly? Just seems odd.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Some chickens just drop dead. It happens. Age doesn't seem to matter. They are fine one day and dead the next. I always suspect heart attacks.

 

[Eggcessive]

It can be common to lose a hen that way. Without getting a necropsy, it would be hard to know what killed her. Had she been molting recently?

 

[Perry17]

Nope, wasn't molting.

Sounds about right, just dropped dead. She was right under the roost, so she might have dropped dead last night. My mind went straight to heart attack too. She was heavy built for a red star.

My friend raised 50 red star chicks until they were almost starting to lay, I'm guessing they got them from a hatchery. Then they just gave me 4 of the extras. So maybe just bad hatchery genetics?

She was the last one of the 4. I haven't had a hawk in years, but the week I brought them home a hawk picked out 3 hens. And they all just happened to be the red star pullets. Guess I just had some bad luck with them.

I still have her, I'll probably cut her open tomorrow and see if anything looks odd.

Just wanted to check and make sure is wasn't anything I needed to worry about my others getting. All the others look good though, normal as always.

I have just never had one die like that before. Thank you!