is there any reason my pullet would've died?

[chickenlover0805]

hello! i have a coop of 18 (now 17) pullets/cockerels. i went outside to find one of my pullets dead this morning. they had food and water when my grandfather put them away last night, but this morning all of their dishes were completely empty. all the other chickens in the coop seem fine.


(sorry for the bad quality image) this is how I found her this morning, does anyone know what may have happened?

 

[chickenlover0805]

ALSO: I took their water feeder thing out to fill it and I found blood in it

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

We will need a little more information to help-like what kinds of injuries did she have (hard to tell from that photo but you didn’t say if she had physical wounds), if your coop is predator proof, what her health was like before this, etc. One other question I am particularly curious about is why they have food and water in their coop at night.

 

[chickenlover0805]

We will need a little more information to help-like what kinds of injuries did she have (hard to tell from that photo but you didn’t say if she had physical wounds), if your coop is predator proof, what her health was like before this, etc. One other question I am particularly curious about is why they have food and water in their coop at night.

So I analyzed her body and I didn't find any wounds, so I'm not sure what the blood is from, but her body was right next to the water dish where the blood was. We always have water and food in all 3 of our coops at night. Our coops are all predator proof as well. I believe their health was okay before this. I recently got a new job and my grandpa was caring for them.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Hmmm…interesting. I don’t put food or water in the coop as a general rule and never at night. I might leave water in the run but food in the coop is a predator magnet in my experience. I do know people that do it that way with no problems so it totally depends on your situation. If your coop is indeed predator proof and she didn’t have issues I would suspect some kind of respiratory or crop issue. A necropsy would be your best bet but if you don’t have the stomach for it (lots of us don’t lol) there are state labs that do it for a fee. Did you dispose of the body already?

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Also meant to say empty feeders and waterers make me think something is able to get into your coop and perhaps the hen interrupted it and was attacked. There is definitely a clue in the empty feed and water because chickens don’t eat at night. They like to roost before it gets dark and then stay on the roost. They are very unlikely to get up for a midnight snack so something else most likely ate the food and killed the chicken. I’m just not sure what.

 

[chickenlover0805]

Did you dispose of the body already?

Yes I did.

So the thing about my coop is there are 12 that are older by 2 weeks and 6 that are younger. The one that passed away was one of the 6 younger ones. The other 5 of the younger ones are refusing to leave the coop right now.

 

[TheFowlLine]

If she had a bunch of feathers pulled out and around her body she was probably beefing with something or one of her own? Sucks to wake up to.

 

[chickenlover0805]

I have a feeling the older ones may have been picking on the 6 younger ones and they may have been malnourished because they were scared to eat.

 

[chickenlover0805]

So update: I picked up one of the other ones are the same age as the one that died and they weigh a lot less than when I brought them into this coop. I'm going to try moving them to a different coop and see if they will eat