Help! Mysterious death!

[Fishersfarms]

Help! I've had chickens for about 4 years now and we had the most random death ever!!! Today I went down to the coop, only to find my head hen Rhoda dead! (Not to be gross) but the other chickens had started to pick apart her body. A few days ago, we had a hawk attack, when one of the smaller girls had gotten through the fence, but we found this hen inside the run of our coop! She was about 5 years of age, and was still laying regularly, it was 95 degrees out, so maybe heat stroke? They had cool water so I'm kinda dumbfounded at this point. Any advice is welcome! Please!

 

[Kiki]

Is could have been any number of things.
Heart attack.

 

[junebuggena]

Most likely old age. 4 to 6 years is about average for hatchery sourced birds.

 

[The Chicken-Boy]

Might have been heat stroke if she didn't have access to cool water. Most likely old age. Hot weather & old age combined can definitely be hard on the bird. Could have been a predator if there are any holes in the coop bigger than 1/2 inch. Not surprising that the other birds started to peck at her especially is they were shut up.

Losing a bird is very hard. So sorry for your loss.

 

[Fishersfarms]

Is could have been any number of things.
Heart attack.

Ok, thank you

 

[Fishersfarms]

Is could have been any number of things.
Heart attack.

Ok, that's one of the things I suspected

 

[Fishersfarms]

Might have been heat stroke if she didn't have access to cool water. Most likely old age. Hot weather & old age combined can definitely be hard on the bird. Could have been a predator if there are any holes in the coop bigger than 1/2 inch. Not surprising that the other birds started to peck at her especially is they were shut up.

Losing a bird is very hard. So sorry for your loss.

Thank you. She was the second bird we lost this week, the first one to a hawk, my son was devastated

 

[The Chicken-Boy]

Thank you. She was the second bird we lost this week, the first one to a hawk, my son was devastated

Electrolytes can help with heat-related stress. So, so sorry about both of your birds.

 

[Fishersfarms]

Electrolytes can help with heat-related stress. So, so sorry about both of your birds.

I ended up adding some to their water today to help them deal with the heat, we put a camera out and it turns out that a red tail hawk has found a way into our run, we lost yet another bird yesterday

 

[The Chicken-Boy]

I ended up adding some to their water today to help them deal with the heat, we put a camera out and it turns out that a red tail hawk has found a way into our run, we lost yet another bird yesterday

Could I see a photo of your run? We have a lot of hawks around here and we've managed to make a hawk-proof run. Anything I can do to help...?