Dead chicken

[Minflick]

I found one of my cuckoo Marans dead just outside the coop door this morning. I'd come out earlier to check for eggs, and the nesting box is on one side of the coop, and the pop up door is on the opposite side. I know I'd startled somebody because I heard the squawk when I opened the lid to the nesting box, but I've startled them before and thought nothing of it. And then later on, when I went out to do something else in the back yard, I saw her between the corner of the run and the stump they use to get up to the pop up door. She wasn't out cold, she was warm and dead. No pests on her, no obviously broken neck (but I think it's not so easy to tell as it might be on, say, a cat or dog or mouse) and she didn't wake up when I picked her up - and they aren't hand tame at all....

So, why did my apparently healthy hen die? Under a year old. Bought from Murray MacMurray last September. They were all laying eggs dutifully. Did she somehow hit her head the wrong way this morning? I'm sad, and confused. I don't know enough about chickens to KNOW what happened to her, and I'd like to avoid repeating whatever I did, if it WAS something I did.

Melinda

 

[1muttsfan]

Sorry to hear about your hen. The sad fact is that apparently healthy birds just sometimes die. Usually it is some sudden health issue such as injury or heart attack, or an underlying defect such as a heart problem. As long as your birds appear healthy, active and are eating well, there's nothing really for you to do.

 

[Minflick]

My daughter reminded me that one of the Marans (we can't tell them apart) had been sitting in the run a few days earlier, with one foot out in an uncomfortable position, being very inactive. She took a really blurry picture and sent it to me at work, but it was such a bad picture I really couldn't see anything wrong, and then I worked a long day and forgot about it. I hadn't seen anything wrong in the 2 days between the picture and finding the carcass, but I'm not out there all that much.

Well, as long as there's nothing obvious I coulda/shoulda seen or done, then I don't feel so bad.

 

[1muttsfan]

Yes, really all you can do is keep a close eye on the rest for a few weeks. Good luck.