Lost a girl :(

[kelidei]

Thursday morning went out to the coop and found one of my cornish girls dead. It was shocking since in the evening when we put everyone to bed no one appeared sick or injured. Then when I found her she was still pretty loose so I am thinking it happened in the early morning. She was perfect. Not a scratch, no unusual swelling and as I said every one was perfectly fine at bed time. I think maybe she injured herself, broke her neck if something spooked her during the night... does this happen? I found her under the roost. Can chickens break their necks fairly easily?

 

[chookchick]

Dark Cornish is a meat chicken, right? You might want to do some more research on her breed. From my understanding this birds were bred to be "harvested" at a young age, and start to have problems if they get older than about 2 months. Not a great way to breed a chicken IMHO, but that's what they are. You could also post or do some searching on Meat chickens forum.

 

[silkiechicken]

Dark Cornish is a type of Cornish, not a meat bird like a Cornish x Rock (Cornish x for short).

Sometimes birds just fall dead for no reason. If the rest of the flock look fine, they are probably fine. Heart attacks are not uncommon, and I would venture to guess more likly than a broken neck.

 

[KKatknap]

Dark Cornish are dual purpose. I have one and she's awesome - takes no guff from my cats! She has single-handedly trained the kitties to leave chickens alone.

I am very sorry for your loss...it makes it so much harder when it's inexplicable.

I had thought I might have heard something about chickens falling from their roost - I did a search on here and came up with a couple. Apparently that happens sometimes, and they can break their neck. Might explain what happened to yours.
Still - very sorry for you. I hate finding my friends that way.

 

[Happy Chooks]

I'm so sorry.

 

[Ms~Silkie~Girl]

Im sorry