Found chicken dead this morning

[amartinlb]

I found my 8 month old Jersey Giant dead under the roost this morning.

Her back was pecked opened two inches down to internal organs. Do you think she dropped dead and then they pecked her? Or was she pecked to death? I have not seen any signs that I have a pecking problem or any picked on chickens. This chicken was not low on the totem pole. All the chickens are healthy looking, eating , drinking, laying and running around. I noticed several chickens that appear to be starting to molt around neck and head. None are even a year old - and it's New Jersey in the cold we just had two huge snowstorms and it's been in the twenties so they have been staying inside or in the covered run. I have a 12X20 shed with a 12X12 covered run with 20 chickens one banty roo. I have a heat lamp over the water when it is below freezing as the water heater was too expensive. It was very disturbing even though I know chickens will cannibalize. I'm worried about my other chickens as I have three idiots broody trying to hatch golf balls that are sitting targets in nest boxes.

 

[usschicago1]

Sounds like apredator maybe. Is there any way one could come in? Its important to check because if it is he'll be visiting tonight too.

 

[amartinlb]

Don't think it was a predator. Shed is solid. No sign of mess or feathers. Not much around here - live in large town only predator problem hawks or dogs - not much else around.

 

[usschicago1]

Quote:
Ohh well i would say maybe you have a little cannibalism going on. I would hang some cabbage from the ceiling (give them something to do) and add some vitamins and minerals to there water ( just in case they are having some sort of defiencency) [only do that short term ]
so sorry

Mark

 

[chookchick]

You might want to give them some extra protein, it will also help with the molting. You can give them small amounts of cat food, low-salt fish, small amounts shredded cheese, washed cottage cheese, meal worms, sunflower seeds, etc...Make sure they have oyster shell and grit available all the time, and feed in the coop when it is snowing out. Chicken diversions like the cabbage head are great ideas.

 

[theFox]

Sorry about your Jersey Giant, they are nice easy going birds, in fact frequently just too docile. I currently have one in hospital recovering from a bit of pecking, she had a small wound that went unnoticed until she got walloped by the others. Nothing like waving a red flag in front of a bull. She is easily twice the size of the next larger breed of chickens we have but she rarely reaches out and touches the others.

While you'll likely never know for certain it is still possible that a small predator got to her, she died and her flock mates did a bit of protein scavenging, or her flock mates thought something was wrong with her.

In any event watch the protein level your flock is getting and keep an eye on the rest of the flock.

 

[emartin]

It wasn't a predator... Trust me...

We lock up the amish shed every single night and the caged run for the winter (since the outer run is vulnerable to hawks since the tree leaves are gone) is covered with 6mm tarp and solid wood and the fencing is steel chain link.

The windows we installed steel wire mesh on so a predator can't get in that way.

It wasn't a predator...

We live about 1 mile from the Ocean. The only real predators we have here are Skunks and Opossums and Hawks. Opossums and Skunks are rarely seen in our neighborhood (and again no way of getting in the shed at night), and the hawks aren't a threat when they are in the covered run.

There are raccoons in the area but rarely in our neighborhood (been YEARS since we have seen them or even evidence of them on this side of town). Either way, still no way to get in the shed.




The Jersey Giant was one of the younger birds by a few months but she was the biggest. She was FAR from the bottom of the pecking order too.

The only way I can fathom this from happening is she suddenly died overnight since they were all fine when we closed them up for the night.

NONE of the breeds we have are really none for cannibalism/aggression either.

The breeds in the same shed/run:
Gold Laced Wyandotte
Ameraucana mutts (EEs)
Cuckoo Maran feather legged
Bantam Silkies
Bantam Golden Neck d'Uccles (2females 1 rooster)
Buff Orpington
Rhode Island Red
Barred Rock
Gold Comet (white plymouth rock X NHR)
Giant White Cochin
Silver Spangled Swiss Spitzhauben Appenzellers
Polish
Welsummer

and I believe that's all of them.
....




So here's what we want to know. Is it sometimes normal for a hen, particularly one not even a year old and perfectly healthy up until the death, to sometimes just drop dead?

Is it possible if SHE was molting (some others are either being pecked or are just molting. There are broodies taking up the nest boxes so we are going to add more) that since these are all first year hens that they pecked out of curiosity until they drew blood and cannabalized that way?

In either scenario, would it be likely for it to be repeated? If the apparent molters get more bare skin should we apply pine tar?

If they have lice or other bugs, would it be obvious if we checked them or would we need say a magnifying glass? We have D.E. we can apply all over the shed and the birds wings if we need to.

Any other theories?

 

[emartin]

Also crushed calcium chips are available in the run we throw small bucket fulls in there with the scratch ever so often. The run is wood chips with lime that was applied last spring and of course dirt. They pretty much have plenty to do out there despite the less amount of space in the winter until we let them back out into the full run again.

Protein should NOT be an issue. They get whole grain scratch (Whole Wheat, Whole Oats, Black Oil Sunflower Seeds, Whole Flax Seed) we mix ourselves. The feed they have is BlueSeal Layer Pellets which is a high quality complete nutrition feed.

We give them kitchen scraps quite often which includes 'exotic' rices, bread, tortilla chips (salt free), mashed potatoes, etc.

BlueSeal Layer Pellets is 16% protein and they go through 4gallons worth just about every other two days....

 

[chookchick]

Quote:
All of the kitchen scraps that you mentioned are very high carbohydrate and low protein. I would cut those out completely, and keep their scratch down to 10% or less of their diet. In my opinion bread is never a good treat for chickens. It won't hurt to give them the high protein treats mentioned, and will help with any molting.

Any breed of chicken can become a feather pecker/cannibal if the conditions are ripe for these issues. Once they have shown an ability to go in this direction, it is much more likely to occur--learned behavior.

The "predator" that others are concerned about is a rat--rat's can get through a slot that is only 1/2" wide, so I don't think it is wise to completely rule that possibility out. Especially if the JG died from other causes, a rat would take advantage of a free meal.