Dead hen assistance

[TheSter]

Hi all,

Got home last night to find one of my RIR girls dead in the run. She was only about 8 months old. Cage is pretty predator proof and no signs of entry. Pics attached if anyone has encountered something similar and can help. Hen v hen or egg-bound? Flock has seemed to have gotten along fairly well. My first flock so I’m a rookie when it comes to this stuff. Thanks for the help and apologies for the graphic pics

 

[Bridger Davis]

Welcome to byc! WOW... I'm sorry for your loss! I think what happened is she died from something inside... Maybe a heart attack, maybe a parasite.. Once she died, it would appear her friends pecked her.. This is pretty weird but sometimes chickens can be disgusting so... But anyways, let's get a professional opinion. @chickens really

 

[chickens really]

Looks as though she was canabalized ...Possibly pecking injury that then they ruthlessly killed her..RIR are not my favourite Birds...I will not keep them here..Very aggressive and require total balance in feed and space..

 

[Bridger Davis]

While I agree with how she died, I used to have a few RIR and they... well, never mind. They were pretty mean to each other. One accidentally got burned from a heat lamp accident and the others pecked her a lot. Then, she just assumed the heat lamp thing was my fault and started pecking me We called her pecky.

 

[lmdengler]

This Fall, I lost a chicken to pecking. At first I thought maybe they pecked at her and then she just died. When I looked at her, her head was bloody. That weekend I decided to do a major cleaning of the coop in case there were germs. When I crawled up and inside the coop (raised coop from TSC) with my scrub brush and soapy water - let me tell you it looks like someone was murdered! There was blood everywhere - walls, ceiling, floor. It took me over an hour to scrub and clean it. My guess is - they started on her and she swished and flew and so did the blood. What a gory mess. This is the second chicken over the past year I have lost to "pecking". I would have never believed how "pecky" they can be. Ironically, the chief hen who does the most picking on - is a RRR. She goes after the other hens and "Bob the Rooster" whenever she feels like it. I'm certain it was her who did it.

 

[TheSter]

Thank you all for the replies. Had a Buff Orpington, barred rock, golden laced Wyandotte, a Delaware and 3 (now 2) RI reds. The RIR’s seemed like the least friendly out of the group so it makes sense

 

[oceansunset73]

I am so very sorry for your loss.

I have 6 RIR's. I use to have 7 though. One of them became a major bully, literally going after all of her other sisters and pulling out mouthful of feathers from them at a time, it was so much that after a while none of the others had any tail feathers anymore at all, completely gone. The rest of the flock were so scared of her, they would perch or hide wherever they could just to try and get away from her. I rehomed the bully for the sake of the rest of my babies.

From what I have been hearing and from my own experience, RIR's can be very unfriendly to just down right mean.

My remaining 6 are all absolute sweethearts though. Guess I just got lucky.

 

[WhiteWyan]

I think it would be worth feeling her abdomen just to check if there was a bound egg.

 

[lilmillefleur]

I had one RIR in the past, she wasn't aggressive, but she was the top hen. They are Definitely not a mellow breed. Sorry bout your chicken.

 

[Fairview01]

Typically if it's from pecking all except one bird will be missing feathers. The one that isn't missing any is your culprit. It's learning her flock mates are tasty MREs available whenever. The next one is usually the one with the least amount of feathers. Once it shows blood the rest of the flock will join in also.

That's if it is from pecking and not something else.