HuskerHens18
Crowing
My beautiful Partridge Cochin has been battling the heat. I've done everything I can, I've read articles and done it all.
At first I wasn't surprised when I found her collapsed in the chicken coop. Then I got closer.
My coop door is left open and so is the window straight back. The window has wire on it, it was untouched. There's ventilation through the whole center of the coop where I found her.
The run looked fine, but strangely I could not unlock the gate. It was jammed, so I had to hit the lock back in place to open the door.
Where the hen was laying, there was a pool of blood about the size of a tennis ball, still leaking fresh out of her beak when I walked in.
She was still barely warm when I found her, but her wings and legs had begun to get stiff already.
There was a small poof of feathers next to her.
I started looking her over and found scratches on her body, but in odd places. There were scratches under her wings and some extended up to her chest. There were some light ones near her keel.
Her abdomen appeared bruised? It was deep green, but it didn't appear well I'm photos.
Her comb was purple and a bit bloody, but her face itself looked fairly normal minus the blood smeared on it.
There's a patch of feathers gone off the right side of her back, but there aren't any scratches or blood in that spot at all.
I don't know how to check for a broken neck? Her neck was extremely limp and floppy, has shown no signs of stiffening up. To me it seemed a little stretched out, but I'm not used to handing freshly dead birds.
She was laying on her stomach, feet behind her.
My first thought: One of my roosters mated her to death.
Why I don't think so: I've known my flock for a long time, this hen was pretty high up in the pecking order and was rarely mated. When she was, she never fought. Even if she had, my King Rooster would not have tolerated that at all.
Second thought: She died from heat, then another chicken attacked her body(I've seen it before).
Why I don't think so: She had access to cold water, it's cloudy and nicely breezy today too. The way she was laying, all the exposed parts were spotless. That one featherless spot had no damage done at all to skin.
Third thought: Something got in there and killed her.
Why I don't think so: My dogs never alerted me, they go nuts when the chickens are upset. There are over 20 chickens in this pen, they're all wound free and seem happy-go-lucky as always. I've got a slow, recovering chicken, why not go after her instead?
I'll attach pictures of the body, so I hope something jumps out to you that screams "I know what killed her!"
This is her funky neck. It stretched and flopped a little too much in my opinion. But I've never held an animal with a broken neck before.
The strange, deep green bruising? Or something else?
The spot where feathers were missing. No wounds on the skin. It's right behind her right wing.
Her purple comb, bloody head feathers came from what leaked out of her mouth.
Under her left wing is where the scratches are.
Scratches.
Wet feathers.
More green between her legs.
Does anyone have any clue what happened? Even if you can't confirm what predator, can you confirm Natural death or Murder?
I'm in NE Nebraska, we've got just about every predator there is. Except bears.
At first I wasn't surprised when I found her collapsed in the chicken coop. Then I got closer.
My coop door is left open and so is the window straight back. The window has wire on it, it was untouched. There's ventilation through the whole center of the coop where I found her.
The run looked fine, but strangely I could not unlock the gate. It was jammed, so I had to hit the lock back in place to open the door.
Where the hen was laying, there was a pool of blood about the size of a tennis ball, still leaking fresh out of her beak when I walked in.
She was still barely warm when I found her, but her wings and legs had begun to get stiff already.
There was a small poof of feathers next to her.
I started looking her over and found scratches on her body, but in odd places. There were scratches under her wings and some extended up to her chest. There were some light ones near her keel.
Her abdomen appeared bruised? It was deep green, but it didn't appear well I'm photos.
Her comb was purple and a bit bloody, but her face itself looked fairly normal minus the blood smeared on it.
There's a patch of feathers gone off the right side of her back, but there aren't any scratches or blood in that spot at all.
I don't know how to check for a broken neck? Her neck was extremely limp and floppy, has shown no signs of stiffening up. To me it seemed a little stretched out, but I'm not used to handing freshly dead birds.
She was laying on her stomach, feet behind her.
My first thought: One of my roosters mated her to death.
Why I don't think so: I've known my flock for a long time, this hen was pretty high up in the pecking order and was rarely mated. When she was, she never fought. Even if she had, my King Rooster would not have tolerated that at all.
Second thought: She died from heat, then another chicken attacked her body(I've seen it before).
Why I don't think so: She had access to cold water, it's cloudy and nicely breezy today too. The way she was laying, all the exposed parts were spotless. That one featherless spot had no damage done at all to skin.
Third thought: Something got in there and killed her.
Why I don't think so: My dogs never alerted me, they go nuts when the chickens are upset. There are over 20 chickens in this pen, they're all wound free and seem happy-go-lucky as always. I've got a slow, recovering chicken, why not go after her instead?
I'll attach pictures of the body, so I hope something jumps out to you that screams "I know what killed her!"
Does anyone have any clue what happened? Even if you can't confirm what predator, can you confirm Natural death or Murder?
I'm in NE Nebraska, we've got just about every predator there is. Except bears.
