Issues

[Sonny2019]

Hello,
I am at a point that I do not know what to do! We have had our chickens for 6 months with little issues, all of a sudden today one drops off for no reason. I have been looking on the internet everywhere to find an answer. Then when we went to check on them tonight my other half found blood on a roost, I found this could be a broken feather, mites, worms, or just about anything, I need help.
Does anyone here use DE? Peepers in the winter?

 

[orloffer]

I am so sorry you are having this issue with your flock! Could you post any pictures of the chickens and their coop? I am not an expert with these things personally, but it might help others to better identify the problem.

 

[bobbi-j]

Before you start trying to treat anything, it's best to find out what you may need to treat for. Did your chicken have symptoms of any kind? Had it started laying yet? What color were the combs and wattles? Have you seen any injuries on any of your other birds? Are they eating, drinking and pooping normally? Acting OK?

 

[Sonny2019]

The comb and wattles were normal color (red as the other Austria Lorp's are), they are eating and drinking fine, she was running around as normal this morning. We are having a bad wind storm today so I was checking on them every hour to two hours. They all decided to stay outside for the day and not go in. I found her after securing the tarps we put up for winter on the kennels to help secure them for winter and the snow we will be getting and the very cold winds. I found her in the treat kennel where I hand lettuce for them to peck at as they love it. There were two of the Sussex pecking on her, I was mortified and got her out of the kennel barley alive, then she passed a few minuets later.

 

[bobbi-j]

This is different information than in your first post. From that it appeared that you had an apparently healthy chicked suddenly drop dead, and there was a mysterious blood on a roost. Way different than a chicken in a kennel being pecked at by two others. Anyway...

Have you had an issue with bullying in your flock before? What are the dimensions of your coop and run? How many chickens, and what are their ages? It could be that a predator injured your chicken and the others were pecking at the injury. Another possibility is overcrowding (of course, this is just speculation without knowing your coop and run sizes and how many chickens you have). Chickens will develop bad habits like feather picking and possible cannibalism when they're too crowded. Without all the details, it's really hard for us to make helpful suggestions.

 

[Sonny2019]

They have more than enough room in their coop, it is 8x8 coop with a feed room and 2 10x6 kennels connected together for 15 chickens. There was bullying and she was one that had peepers on for plucking, it was the smaller ones that were pecking on her when I found her. There were no evidence of predator's around inside or outside the kennels. I thought maybe she was spooked by the wind and had a heart attack or something, it rained hard and kennel was mucky, i put straw down in the kennel now to soak up the water. They were all raised as babies together also, so this is where I am stumped.

 

[Sonny2019]

They also are spoiled and get probiotics and vitamins in their water, dried worms and crickets, extra proteins for the plucking of others, sunflower seeds ( shelled and unshelled) Kalmbach scratch and crumbles, oyster shells, sometimes in the morning they also get scrambled eggs cooked in bacon grease. they get all sorts of vegies, I could just go on.

 

[ackie]

Your speckled birds are gorgeous.

 

[Aapomp831]

They also are spoiled and get probiotics and vitamins in their water, dried worms and crickets, extra proteins for the plucking of others, sunflower seeds ( shelled and unshelled) Kalmbach scratch and crumbles, oyster shells, sometimes in the morning they also get scrambled eggs cooked in bacon grease. they get all sorts of vegies, I could just go on.

I would seriously cut back on the treats - esp the bacon grease. Cook them scrambled eggs in a little olive oil / coconut oil and don’t season them. Too many treats will cause them to not eat their own vitamin and mineral fortified food. I don’t think this had anything to do with your chickens death; it really does sound like it was killed by the other chickens - possibly the stress of the wind storm? Or maybe there was an injury sustained, something fell on her and she got out but the others came and finished the job because they saw blood - chickens are a**holes.

 

[aart]

I thought maybe she was spooked by the wind and had a heart attack or something,

Or she may have panicked while being pecked on and ran into the wall breaking her neck.

Agrees, feeding too much 'stuff'.
What's their basic chicken feed?