Jersey Giant Death

[Baxter's Chickens]

Hello,
We had one of our Jersey giants suddenly die! One of the sweetest girls. One morning, when I went to let them out of the coop, she was up on the roost, then later when I went to check on them she was in the corner of the coop. She did not seem able to get up, so we picked her up and brought her into the house, put her in the dogs crate. Ate a bit of yogurt with oyster shell. But just sat there (Pooped a few times!) but didn't seem able to stand on her legs. I checked and nothing seemed broken or painful, the she died! She did not seem in pain. I feel so bad not knowing what to do. Any ideas? This was a few weeks ago. All the other chickens seem fine.

 

[chicknmania]

We just lost our sweet Black Jersey Giant to complications from capillary worm infestations and coccidiosis. Chickens tend to hide symptoms of illness until they are very ill. Have you deworme your flock, and if so, with what? If not, you definitely need to. If you want to be sure before you deworm, you can ask a vet to do a random fecal sample evalution or two, from your flock. But deworming and treating for cocci (without doing the fecal test)will not hurt them. Just use a broad spectrum dewormer. You can also have a necropsy done on your hen, if she has been dead less than 24 hours, and is not frozen. It is worth It to check these things out, I can tell you from experience. Have you noticed anything unusual about droppings from your flock? Weakness is one sign of parasite infestations. So sorry for your loss.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

I am sorry about your hen. It can be hard to determine the cause of death after the fact. As said above, they do tend to hide illness. Of course things like strokes and heart attacks can affect chickens, too. I'm glad your other chickens seem to be doing fine.

 

[Baxter's Chickens]

Hi thank you both for your response. Sorry I was out of town for a bit. All the other chickens (5) seem to be doing great!
Except the other Jersey Giant (We has two) all of a sudden the started to "crow" in the morning! As soon as I let them out for the day, she comes out crowing!! My neighbor asked if we had added a rooster. She is almost 4 years old, never done this before. She has always been a good layer, (Although she is in her winter strike from laying.) She is eating and running around with the other hens and is friendly as usual. Any ideas on this one?

 

[chicknmania]

Wow. Well, I have read about hens crowing but I've never experienced this. As long as you're sure it's crowing, and not a respiratory thing that might be causing her to make a weird noise?

You could start another thread on hen crowing and see what others have to say about that...or just search it on here.
Our JG pullet doesn't crow, but she's not quite a year old yet.

Glad that the others seem fine! Let us know what you find out, if anything.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

Hi thank you both for your response. Sorry I was out of town for a bit. All the other chickens (5) seem to be doing great!
Except the other Jersey Giant (We has two) all of a sudden the started to "crow" in the morning! As soon as I let them out for the day, she comes out crowing!! My neighbor asked if we had added a rooster. She is almost 4 years old, never done this before. She has always been a good layer, (Although she is in her winter strike from laying.) She is eating and running around with the other hens and is friendly as usual. Any ideas on this one?

I'm glad the other chickens are doing fine. I have an older hen who now lays more sporadically (I call it henopause) who had a crowing period. She would crow when the others were in the chicken run, and she was inside the coop, but I have not heard her do it in a while. I think a drop in the female hormones can occasionally lead hens to crow. I also saw a video of a hen who had slowed down in laying according to her people and started crowing. Try to get some video of her crowing just for the fun of it. She may stop crowing once the days get longer and her female hormone levels increase again.