Dead Pullet...

[Eve-Lee]

I'm having a horrible chicken day...
Had to end the suffering of a meatie first thing this morning. A broken leg that came clean off the bone. Not the first one in the past week, I might add.
Then this afternoon I went to check on the hens and one of my three month old hens was dead. I inspected her closely and there was no blood or bites. Under the feathers the skin was very pale. Her neck was broken and she felt empty if that makes sense. There were some feathers directly around her. But she was cold and no rigor mortis. No flies but a few fire ants.
Everyone else was fine. Not acting strange or sickly. The fence is sound and the gate was shut. Of course there's always the possibility of a predator. why just the one and not others? why no blood or bite marks? We actually have a smaller cheap chicken coop in our chicken yard. My older hens lay their eggs in there out of habit. It's just kind of a hangout for them. I found the dead hen in the bottom of that.
Could an older hen or the rooster have broken the neck?
Ugh... Just feeling defeated tonight over the loss of that sweet hen.

 

[cubalaya]

if I were to put a 3 month old pullet in with adult hens and rooster then I would expect them to kill her, unless she was raised as a chick with them. that doesn't work with cubalayas. I do have hens raising chicks in the same pen with other hens and a cock and no serious problems yet

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yet many of us integrate brooder raised chicks at a much younger age and never have those problems, but we generally don’t raise Cubalayas. Breed can make a difference as was implied.

Are you sure the neck was broken and that she was not just limp? If you find a dead chicken before rigor mortis sets in the neck can be very limp.

Assuming the neck was broken and considering where you found her, Ii is possible she was cornered in there by an older hen and broke her neck trying to get away. Chicks that age often panic when an older hen gets close, even if the older hen is not actually doing anything to threaten them. Sometimes older hens will enforce their pecking order rights on a younger bird, so that could add to the panic in trying to get away.

It’s also possible the pullet was just perching in there. I assume there was a roost. Especially if that coop is small, she may have hit something on her way down, a wall, the nests, feeders, whatever, and broken her neck, especially if the roost is high and the landing area is small.

She may have gotten into a pecking order fight with one of her siblings and trapped in there, ran into something trying to get away.

She’s a little young but I’ve seen cockerels that age try to mate pullets that age. She may have been trying to get away from one of those.

In other words, there are a lot of things that could have caused her to break her neck in a tight space. It does not mean another chicken was necessarily trying to kill her.

Then it could be something as simple as she had a heart attack or stroke. The neck may not have been broken at all. The neck can be really limp.

Also, chicks go through a couple of full molts before they reach adult size. They outgrow their feathers and have to replace them. At that age it is highly likely the feathers you see are from a molt and have nothing to do with her death, especially if that small coop is a hangout for the young ones when they are avoiding the older.

The only way to determine cause of death (broken neck, stroke, heart attack, predator attack, maybe something else) would be to get a necropsy done. You can contact your county extension agent to see what is involved with that. It would involve refrigerating the body and getting it to where it needs to be before the body deteriorates. But even then, if it is a broken neck, they won’t be able to tell you what actually happened. Since she was not acting like she was sick and none of the others appear sick, I’d treat it as one of those things that happen. When you deal with living animals you sometimes have to deal with dead animals. Sometimes they die for no apparent reason.

I know it is not easy, but many of us have found chickens dead for no apparent reason.

 

[Eve-Lee]

They were put together when the chicks were about a month old. They never paid much attention to each other. Of course things could have changed.
Might will just have to keep an eye out.
Will a hawk kill with no open wounds. And then not take the bird with them?

 

[Ridgerunner]

it's possible a hawk killed it and was scared away, but hawks usually take the head first. If it was a hawk, there should be puncture marks on the sides of the chicken from the talons. It doesn't sound like a hawk.

 

[Eve-Lee]

Thanks for all your help!
I may never know what happened. But that's alright. I know it happens to us all at done point.