How many deaths is "Normal"?

[Zenzilicious]

Hello!

We are on our first flock. We got our first chicks in May of this year. As of today, we lost 3 birds due to sickness, and I feel like the most terrible chicken owner.


-1 Silkie Mix passed away due to suspicious Marek's symptoms- could not move side of body. Quarantined & Hand fed her every day 3x a day until passing(I think vaccinated Easter eggers infected others from my research).

-1 Buff had similiar Marek's symptom's to Silkie mix, however after a day she was just.... fine and still is. (alive)

-1 Australorp began to have Marek's symptoms. She was sick for 3 days and quarantined, but recovered like Buff did and put her back in coop, however next day I found her "pecked through" by other chickens...

-1 Easter Egger. Just lost her yesterday. She had a very diahhrea vent. I cleaned her, no maggots. Quarantined for 2 days. vent was clear. Seemed to be recovering (no mareks symptoms) and then she was just... dead the next morning....


I'm pretty sure the first 2 deaths were from Marek's and I learned about not to introduce vaccinated chicken and non, and I learned that I need to more slowly re-introduce chicken to the flock. I have no idea why the easter egger died, so I guess i'm just not sure what to learn from this other than maybe I won't always have an answer? Is it normal to lose chickens? I feel like 3 in 5 months is a lot....

 

[dennisma1]

I'm so sorry that does seem like a lot. It sounds like you are doing your best. I just had a hen die today and yes you sometimes dont have an answer . I'm not willing to do hen autopsies. She was ailing for a few weeks and I put her down. I learned a lot on this forum and learned to keep a lot of chicken meds in stock but sometimes nothing works.

 

[Folly's place]

I'm really sorry for your losses, it's not a good first experience for you or your birds.
Chickens vaccinated against Marek's disease DO NOT cause Marek's to arrive in your flock because of that vaccine!
Previously vaccinated birds, if exposed to Marek's disease virus, will become infected, but are much less likely to die from the tumors that kill unvaccinated birds. And the only way to find out what's happening in your flock is to have necropsies done!
Biosecurity is so very important with chickens; introducing birds from other flocks is dangerous, and can cause disasters, from Marek's disease, Mycoplasma, and some other diseases. Many of us were careless when we started with chickens, and then may have been really lucky, or not.
And birds do die, sometime at young ages, for so many reasons. Hope your string of 'bad luck' is over...
Mary

 

[blklangshandude]

Yes. Raising chickens is very discouraging. I have found that it is a good idea to stick with the boring breeds (Rhode Island Red, Barred Rock, White Leghorns, etc.) to reduce casualties. Otherwise just accept death as part of the equation. Buy twice as many as you need. If more than half of them live you can always give away the extras. Another good alternative is raising ducks. I never had a baby duck causality. In my experience ducks don’t seem to be as fragile as chickens.

I have raised chickens on and off for several years. The discouraging thing is that I have never had a chicken that I hatched live to adulthood other than Rhode Island Reds. I have just started a new flock again in July and plan to give it another shot and planning for those uncertainties. You are not a bad chicken owner. These things just happen. The upside to fragile species is that they breed like crazy. Just think how many babies one hen could have if she had a rooster and you had an unlimited availability to an unlimited amount of incubators. So maybe you can see these deaths as a positive. It can feel like failure and to some degree it is. You didn’t buy enough chickens but just them dying doesn’t make you a bad chicken owner. It is just the optimism that you had that caused the discouragement. Baby chicks do have a higher mortality rate than other types of pets that we are used to having. Don’t give up.

 

[TinyRaptorDodos]

I had two hens that had Marek like symptoms, one died and the other I managed to save but it took up A LOT of my time, stretching her legs every 2 hours and force feeding her eggs with a dropper along with water and medicine…

Is there something they’re getting into and eating that could be making them sick? Or is it an illness spreading that effects them differently depending on their immune systems? I’m not too good with chicken illnesses yet but those seem like possibilities, food poisoning or some sort of deficiency can cause Mereks like paralysis, I think that’s what happened to my girls

The white one is the one that didn’t make it, she’d drink water but not eggs or eat, my silkie survived but she’s the one I had to force feed and water or she wouldn’t eat or drink, after talking to a couple people on here I was convinced it was not in fact Mereks but was probably something they ate, it did not spread to any of my other chickens and did not cause any after effects once Reaper was back out with the others, for Ghost it was just too late, she was completely stiff and staving so I had her euthanized.

Losing that many chickens for something you don’t know about must have been extremely upsetting and stressful

 

[Hip Hillbilly Acres]

Yes. Raising chickens is very discouraging. I have found that it is a good idea to stick with the boring breeds (Rhode Island Red, Barred Rock, White Leghorns, etc.) to reduce casualties. Otherwise just accept death as part of the equation. Buy twice as many as you need. If more than half of them live you can always give away the extras. Another good alternative is raising ducks. I never had a baby duck causality. In my experience ducks don’t seem to be as fragile as chickens.

I have raised chickens on and off for several years. The discouraging thing is that I have never had a chicken that I hatched live to adulthood other than Rhode Island Reds. I have just started a new flock again in July and plan to give it another shot and planning for those uncertainties. You are not a bad chicken owner. These things just happen. The upside to fragile species is that they breed like crazy. Just think how many babies one hen could have if she had a rooster and you had an unlimited availability to an unlimited amount of incubators. So maybe you can see these deaths as a positive. It can feel like failure and to some degree it is. You didn’t buy enough chickens but just them dying doesn’t make you a bad chicken owner. It is just the optimism that you had that caused the discouragement. Baby chicks do have a higher mortality rate than other types of pets that we are used to having. Don’t give up.

What a sensitive, useful response. It warmed my heart as a new chicken owner who recently allowed two sets of chicks go from brooder outside to coop (been a tad nervous this weekend). Thank you for this post.