Help - Hen found dead!

[Illia]

After yesterday's loss, I really can't take another - But sadly I did. This morning, it was raining hard, so all the chickens were inside - But I found out that one of my young roosters was, for the first time, mating a hen. ( they are/were both about 5 months old) The only problem was that she was dead - She was upside down, and right below the perch she sleeps on - (must have died in her sleep) What could it have been? We have not had sicknesses for a long time, and yesterday's turken loss was due to a terrible crop impaction, which that turken never came into contact with this hen (new hampshire red) so, what happened?

Also, I quarantined the young rooster who was ontop of her, because I don't want to lose him either - What should I do to keep him from getting whatever may have happened to her?

 

[chixie]

I am sorry for your recent losses... hugs

 

[hen-thusiast]

Click on this link and answer the questions.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3569

What type of bedding do you use? Feed? If you answer the questions on that link hopefully someone on here can help. Sorry about the two losses in two days. I know nothing about crop impaction but I was following your other thread.

 

[Illia]

The whole flock has been doing well for a long time - they are housed at night and whenever they feel like it, in a wooden building with white pine shavings, and occasional hay that drops from the nesting boxes. Their food is either layer hen pellets bought from the hardware store, or forage from outside. Since we live out in, well, the middle of nowhere, the pullet may have possibly ingested something she shouldn't have. all of the hens eat most of their food from outside foraging - grass, seeds, whatever they find (including, on occasion, plastic or wood or whatever else) She was doing perfectly well yesterday, no odd droppings or behavior, and was just plain dead this morning. There were no signs of injuries, no physical problems.
Now, as a history, all of our hens are from Murray McMurray hatchery (don't worry, we are never again buying hatchery chickens. .) and have previously had dying baby chicks all the time - infact, over half of our flock has died because of them being hatchery chicks, but the ones who survived up to now are just fine.

Edit: On a sidenote, when we first had the chicks and they were rapidly dying off, they seem to die off by breed. We have wyandottes, new hampshire reds, a turken, ee's, brahmas, and polish. 1 out of 10 turken survived, which is the worst (besides a couple colors of polish that did not survive at all) and 10 out of 10 of the wyandottes survived. What is up with that? I thought Turkens are supposed to be hardy. Our Wyandottes, infact, are the only breed of chicken we own in which none have died. The new hampshires, when we first got them, had a 50% loss, until now.

 

[hen-thusiast]

Quote:
That would be my guess as well. Sounds like two entirely different problems. Good luck, I hope that was the end of it!