I don't know where to turn to.

[rstampa]

I just lost one of my 12 week old SLW today. She was fine in the AM but when I went out to let them free range at noon she was a little slow. Then I noticed that she just wanted to lay down all by herself. I kept checking on her and when I went out a 4 PM she was just lying on the grass. I turned my back for a second and when I turned around she was died.
I am upset and confused. I have her wrapped in a plastic bag in the refig..
She was so young and healthy from day one and now she's gone.

They always go back to their run and then in the coop. But tonight they were all huddled in front of the garage door. I couldn't get them to go in the coop. By now it is totally dark out and I have a flash light searching all over and in between everything. After almost an hour one buy one I picked them up and put them in the run. And now they are all huddled in the corner and won't go in the coop.
I checked the run and the coop to see if a visitor was in there or found a way to get in but everything is still predator proof.
Do they know that one of their sisters had died and are confused. She wasn't the leader but somewhere near the top of the order.

Very sad tonight.

 

[SilverStar]

I am so sorry for your loss!!!!!

I had a young New Hamp that just died for what seemed like no reason at all . Sometimes these things just happen. Sending you LOST of

 

[mrbstephens]

My guess is that a predator of some kind got your little chicky and the others witnessed it. It sounds like when my kitten jumped on one of my pullets and killed her with just one bite on her head. I didn't see the wounds until looked really closely. The others had scattered and one was missing for a while. Finally when they all went in the coop the one missing came out of her hiding place. It took a few days but they figured out their new pecking order.

 

[ThePamperedPullet]

So sorry to hear you lost a baby. Have you seen a snake hanging around your coop lately? Ours will cower like that if a rat snake has been near the coops. As for the one that died, I would watch the others really close to see if there are any early signs. Sometimes these things seem to happen so fast that it is really hard to tell what went wrong. Keep us posted.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Check the coop well and then put them in it. They need to know where home is. What confused them is a mystery.

Check them over for disease and check their food too.

 

[rstampa]

Quote:
I do have Black snakes which could be the same as a Rat Snake from time to time. But what ever kind they are a snake is a snake. The whole run and coop is inclosed with 1/2"x1/2" hardware wire.
I know when I when out to the run this morning around 7:30 I heard something hit the out side of the run high up somewhere near the roof but hit the mesh. I just thought it was a squirrel but the girls freaked out. Flutter all over the place. It took more then the usual time for them to settle down. They were in sheer panic.
I've never seen them act that way. Perhaps it caused one of my girl to have a heart attack. Not sudden death but she may have not recovered from the scare.
Just a posibility.

 

[rstampa]

Quote:
Oh yes I checked it a few time to see if there were any openings. But everything was as it has been for months now. All checked out fine.
Read my post above this one.

 

[PurpleChicken]

I think it's a scare and a pecking order mixup like was mentioned. Keep them all locked in the coop (assuming you are 100% confident of no snake) and they will get over this.

Losing chickens is a fact of life. It's never easy though.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Please only post once about a given situation. Creating multiple threads / topics about the same incident across multiple sections of the forum isn't appropriate. Focus your (and others) posts on one main thread.