Hen found dead

[grittylu]

We were very distressed to find one of our 3 year old buffs tonight in the coop laying dead under the feeder. She seemed fine yesterday afternoon/evening, and we didn't notice anything unusual this morning, though it was just a quick in and out feeding. On postmortem inspection her vent was red and swollen. We have been getting a lot of abnormally large eggs lately, but not just from the buff, there were some huge blue eggs from the ameraucanas as well as pretty big white eggs from the leghorns. We have been keeping a light on in the coop because of the cold here in Michigan, but from what I'm reading it sounds like that's not necessary and I had hubby go out and turn the light off tonight. I'm assuming the large size of the eggs caused an impaction, or maybe she just prolapsed from one too many big eggs. Either way, I'm wondering what would cause the hens to lay such large eggs? I can't even get the egg cartons closed on some of them, and there have been lots of double yolks lately. Could it be from the excessive light? We did change to a different brand of feed also. Any advice would be welcome, we sure don't want to lose anymore of our girls.

 

[azygous]

I'm sure sorry about losing your girl. I've been there. The hardest part is not knowing what caused it, that maybe you should have done something differently.

But condolences are all I can contribute. I'll be anxious to see if anyone can shed some light on the possible relationship of over-sized eggs and her sudden death because I have a Light Brahma who seems to be stuck in molt who is also laying over-sized, sometimes double yolk eggs. And lately she also seems to be having trouble with shell-less and thin shelled eggs slipping out during the night.