NZChookdom
Chirping
Lost our first chook last night/this morning. I know many of you have been here, so will not go into that. But I wonder what happened.
She, with others, had recently (the past weeks) stopped going into the coop at night. Others do. When a mild night I just let it be. Can't herd chickens!! But I was wondering if too warm, too cold, mites, etc. There is heaps of ventilation and the coop is well sized. Powdered down for mites, again (ongoing issue). They have been no problems for months until recently when some want to stay outside. I put this down to installing a high ladder in the run for fun and that is higher than the coop perchs.
Anyway, last night Mary Rhae (brown shaver) was outside with the others. I talked to her, she was standing looking me in the eye. Seemed absolutely normal. Later it started to rain and they are so dumb that we went and put them in the coop. About 15 minutes later she was appearing to gasp for breath and stretching her neck. Very upsetting. I thought it was because she could no longer get on the perch as too dark in the coop. Tried to place her in a nesting box overnight. Stroked her, but she keep looking like she wanted to say something, but no sounds came out.
This morning she was in a corner of the floor coop dead.
She was about 14 months old. Had been laying daily since March of this year. This month she had stopped daily, more erratic. But still 5-6 a week. She had just laid the last 3 days in a row with good eggs.
On an "up" note: I noticed from my chook cam (!!) that Laney the Orpington went down to her around 4am. She was still alive breathing on the shavings of the floor, but Laney sat with her. And when she died she pecked at her as if to say - hey, wake up!
She, with others, had recently (the past weeks) stopped going into the coop at night. Others do. When a mild night I just let it be. Can't herd chickens!! But I was wondering if too warm, too cold, mites, etc. There is heaps of ventilation and the coop is well sized. Powdered down for mites, again (ongoing issue). They have been no problems for months until recently when some want to stay outside. I put this down to installing a high ladder in the run for fun and that is higher than the coop perchs.
Anyway, last night Mary Rhae (brown shaver) was outside with the others. I talked to her, she was standing looking me in the eye. Seemed absolutely normal. Later it started to rain and they are so dumb that we went and put them in the coop. About 15 minutes later she was appearing to gasp for breath and stretching her neck. Very upsetting. I thought it was because she could no longer get on the perch as too dark in the coop. Tried to place her in a nesting box overnight. Stroked her, but she keep looking like she wanted to say something, but no sounds came out.
This morning she was in a corner of the floor coop dead.
She was about 14 months old. Had been laying daily since March of this year. This month she had stopped daily, more erratic. But still 5-6 a week. She had just laid the last 3 days in a row with good eggs.
On an "up" note: I noticed from my chook cam (!!) that Laney the Orpington went down to her around 4am. She was still alive breathing on the shavings of the floor, but Laney sat with her. And when she died she pecked at her as if to say - hey, wake up!
