Help!!!!One of my hens is dead

[shejay]

Got home this afternoon and one of my hens is dead in the pen. I think my rooster is a murderer. Is this possible?

 

[lisahaschickens]

seems unlikely. I'm no expert but I know you'll need to give more information for people to be able to help you. How old, how many chickens, was she externally injured, what is your housing setup, etc.?

 

[shejay]

I have 10 hens and one rooster (Americana).He has always been agressive. The pen shows no sign of something tunneling under. The pen is 8' x 8'. The hen was no tore up just dead.

 

[jprice2ndlt]

I too know your pain. I had a wyandotte hen who was fine one day and the next day she just went limp i seperated her and i found her dead today.

 

[shejay]

My problem is, if it is my rooster I have to get him out of there before he kills again. The chickens are about 10 months old.

 

[Davaroo]

Had my own dogs kill all my chickens. I can empathize, at least.

Killer cock? Not likely. On the other hand, it is uncommon for a chicken to simply die of old age. This leaves only a few other causes.
If there are no signs of 'foul play' or predation, it may have been disease, something she ate, etc.

But ask around with the neighbor kids, anyway

 

[speckledhen]

It's probably not the rooster. Sometimes, a chicken just dies from something we cannot see. My first death was a SLW hen we just found dead. Turns out that she was laying internally and we had no idea. She was followed by three other hens with the same ailment. If we had not opened them up, we wouldnt have known.

 

[rooster-red]

I'm curious...
Was the hen around 2 years old?

Did it come from a hatchery?

 

[shejay]

Thanks for the input. You probably saved the roosters life. What's strange is we normally let them free range but the last three days we have had them in the pen because we just planted the garden. We also have an attached pen with 13 biddies and nothing bothered them. So you are probably right about her just developing some kind of problem.

 

[Momma_Cluck]

If they free range, she could have eaten something that killed her, she could be egg-bound or have an impacted crop-- or who knows what..

Had the roo done it-- she'd be bloody and tore up... not "just dead"