Illinois...

[chickendreams24]

Walked outside just now to the coop and back and on the way back found one of our slw cockerals dead in the yard with no apparent cause. He was not stiff and had no injuries that I could see, other than being a little thin. Of course it had to be probably the nicest one of the four we are growing out. Ugh. Darn.

Came out carrying an egg from our legbar and saw that, boy did it rain on my parade.

Only two things I can think are I had just thrown them a bunch of large tomatoes did he choke on a bite, possibly get in a scuffle over one that I didn't see or hear and have his neck broken??? I'm thinking maybe he choked because he was happily eating with the rest of the flock when I walked away to go into the cooler coop.

Is this possible? What's the likelihood that he would just drop dead of no reason?

 

[jerryse]

Walked outside just now to the coop and back and on the way back found one of our slw cockerals dead in the yard with no apparent cause. He was not stiff and had no injuries that I could see, other than being a little thin. Of course it had to be probably the nicest one of the four we are growing out. Ugh. Darn.

Came out carrying an egg from our legbar and saw that, boy did it rain on my parade.

Only two things I can think are I had just thrown them a bunch of large tomatoes did he choke on a bite, possibly get in a scuffle over one that I didn't see or hear and have his neck broken??? I'm thinking maybe he choked because he was happily eating with the rest of the flock when I walked away to go into the cooler coop.

Is this possible? What's the likelihood that he would just drop dead of no reason?

Could be a heart attack . I have had a couple over the years drop dead during a photo attempt . Got excited and dropped dead .

 

[rfreedlund]

Could be a heart attack . I have had a couple over the years drop dead during a photo attempt . Got excited and dropped dead .

Or something like that, I agree. After I had a predator get one of my chickens the other ones were so scared they wouldn't leave the coop for almost two days. The day after the attack I went into the coop and found one of my "older" hens (2 1/2 years) dead for no apparent reason. I think that was the reason she died was because of the stress. There was no visible damage otherwise.

 

[Junibutt]

Walked outside just now to the coop and back and on the way back found one of our slw cockerals dead in the yard with no apparent cause. He was not stiff and had no injuries that I could see, other than being a little thin. Of course it had to be probably the nicest one of the four we are growing out. Ugh. Darn.

Came out carrying an egg from our legbar and saw that, boy did it rain on my parade.

Only two things I can think are I had just thrown them a bunch of large tomatoes did he choke on a bite, possibly get in a scuffle over one that I didn't see or hear and have his neck broken??? I'm thinking maybe he choked because he was happily eating with the rest of the flock when I walked away to go into the cooler coop.

Is this possible? What's the likelihood that he would just drop dead of no reason?

Sorry to hear about your loss!

 

[chickendreams24]

Walked outside just now to the coop and back and on the way back found one of our slw cockerals dead in the yard with no apparent cause. He was not stiff and had no injuries that I could see, other than being a little thin. Of course it had to be probably the nicest one of the four we are growing out. Ugh. Darn.

Came out carrying an egg from our legbar and saw that, boy did it rain on my parade.

Only two things I can think are I had just thrown them a bunch of large tomatoes did he choke on a bite, possibly get in a scuffle over one that I didn't see or hear and have his neck broken??? I'm thinking maybe he choked because he was happily eating with the rest of the flock when I walked away to go into the cooler coop.

Is this possible? What's the likelihood that he would just drop dead of no reason?

Could be a heart attack . I have had a couple over the years drop dead during a photo attempt . Got excited and dropped dead .

Or something like that, I agree. After I had a predator get one of my chickens the other ones were so scared they wouldn't leave the coop for almost two days. The day after the attack I went into the coop and found one of my "older" hens (2 1/2 years) dead for no apparent reason. I think that was the reason she died was because of the stress. There was no visible damage otherwise.

Sorry to hear about your loss!

Thank you all. Even if he was a little thin? I figured he would only have a heart attack if he was overweight.

He had no symptoms and seemed entirely fine as I walked into the cooler coop. Could his excitement over tomatoes have killed him? I heard nothing from inside the coop and he was only 10-15 feet off the back porch laying in the middle of the yard on his side. I actually walked up and nudged him with my toe expecting him to jump up and run off.

He's from Laura Kershaw's line and his five siblings I have confirmed are eating drinking and acting normally.

Any other insights?

 

[Faraday40]

Thank you everyone for the experiment ideas. Of course, I'm happy that the teacher is allowing her to do a project with animals. (It was highly frowned upon in the school district where I taught.)

I'll likely be asking around at the smaller ethnic grocery stores & Trader Joes /Whole Foods to see how they can help. DD already hatched an egg from our Fridge. (Some of you may remember our Omelet story from 2014 & how that pullet got her appropriate name.) DD also did an experiment about how shipping affects incubation, so she already knows it's possible but difficult, I think my work of finding fertile eggs at a store will be the hardest part.

 

[Faraday40]

Thank you all. Even if he was a little thin? I figured he would only have a heart attack if he was overweight.

He had no symptoms and seemed entirely fine as I walked into the cooler coop. Could his excitement over tomatoes have killed him? I heard nothing from inside the coop and he was only 10-15 feet off the back porch laying in the middle of the yard on his side. I actually walked up and nudged him with my toe expecting him to jump up and run off.

He's from Laura Kershaw's line and his five siblings I have confirmed are eating drinking and acting normally.

Any other insights?

Sorry for the sudden loss. I lost my Biele Boy in the same way you described. He was fine at 10pm coop check & found stiff in the corner 8am. The only odd thing I noticed was that his comb was pale. (No signs of injuries, blood, mites, etc. He seemed healthy.) My best guess was heart attack or heat stress- since he was a giant of a chicken. Below pic was taken 3pm the day before he died.

 

[Faraday40]

I had a friend who did this in WI...but the Traders Joes eggs were labeled as fertile eggs and she had 3 of the dozen hatch. I would try those quail eggs and see what happens. My daughter did a science fair project on comparing hatching via incubator and broody... Broody had a better hatch rate ( back when we used a styrfoam incubator) and they got bigger faster. Fun to do

She did the same broody vs incubator experiment. Her results were inconclusive b/c when she averaged the data they were the same. Of course the hen is easier, so whenever we have a broody available, she gets put to work. LOL



BTW- If we do hatch quail, does anyone want the results???

 

[chickendreams24]

Thank you @Faraday40

Well this boy while a big boy wasn't mature yet and wasn't fully grown. I'd have to check but I believe the group is 15-16 weeks old. I don't really think he could have had a heat related death while the sun is intense today he was outside and it's nice and breezy put today.

Unfortunately we plan to keep two of the boys for our blue laced silver project(one as a back up-something I had decided to to do before we lost the one today) one has a single comb so is headed to freezer camp at some point the other three we'll keep the best of but man it sucks that we lost him. Don't get me wrong it could have been a much much worse loss not that I don't care as he was a stunning and good boy but I would rather lose a cockeral than a pullet any day.

 

[chickendreams24]

If I can convince DH2B we've discussed quail but that's not the time of the year we had planned on them lol. Now if you did some of your orps we might be able to sneak them into the flock without him noticing. Or more CL if meepbeep had some refrigerator eggs.

Oh btw today's egg was the second egg from the CL, white sport, now laying again in 4-5 days. Must just be working out kinks.