labored breathing and pulsating vent = dead chicken in the morning :(

[ChickenLady2012]

I had a RIR named mystery that was appearently displaying odd signs for a day or two before she pasted this morning.... Last night while my flock was free ranging the yard I noticed mystery had her mouth slightly open and her breathing how heavy.... i noticed that her vent was pulsating ALOT.... I know my other girls will have alittle pulse to there vent but this was extremly noticeable... I placed her in a warm soak in the tub up in the house and did notice that right before i placed her in the tub the feathers around her vent were already wet.... she took a bath and then after i flipped her over and got a real good look at her vent and checked for any lumps to indicate that she might have an egg stuck....I didnt notice anything weird.... mystery's breathing got really heavy and she seemed stressed.... I placed her back with the rest of the flock, and she ate aton and acted relatively normal and roosted for the night....in the morning I checked on the girls and roo and I could find mystery... I checked the hen house and she was dead on the coop floor, one of my other hens, Bob...was sitting next to her and wouldnt leave her side, I had to physically remove bob from the hen house... I'm still reallt new at being a chicken owner and was completly suprised to find that mystery had died.... I dont have any real idea as of what caused her death, any insight would be greatly appriciated.... The overall health of my two remaining hens and roo look great with no signs of illness,ect... Now the hard part is breaking the bad news to my 10 and 6 year old that one of our beloved hens is now buried in the yard... Earlier in the spring our family was talking about getting baby chicks.... I see that our local farm store is going to have fall chicks available and was also curiouse as to the best way to intergrate new babies to the existing flock.... once again any info is greatly welcomed!!!

R.I.P Mystery

 

[Happy Chooks]

I'm sorry you lost her. My kids took loss of chickens really well. We lost my son's 1st chicken to a hawk and I was surprised how well he took it.

Best way to integrate younger birds with older birds is to give them an area where they can see each other but not get bullied. Depending on the space of your coop/run, you could let them out between 8-13 weeks of age. I frequently let mine out at 8 weeks, but I have a lot of space for them to hide/get away from the adults. If you don't have much space, wait until they are closer to 13 weeks before putting them together.