Lost My Flock - How to Replace??

[apryl29]

We brought home 6 new laying hens a little over a week ago - 3 Welsummers and 3 Americauna. They obviously were skittish of us and didn't have the friendly and curious personalities that the ones we raised from chicks did but we were hoping they would come around. Our plan was to keep them in the coop for a couple of weeks and then only let them out under close supervision while we attempt to trap the predator, which we now believe is a raccoon.

Unfortunately, four nights after bringing them home, the predator managed to get into the coop, which we thought was very secure but appears to have found an area of the chicken wire seam on top that it was able to squeeze between. In the morning, I found 2 of the hens dead, 2 injured and 2 traumatized. We have since moved the 2 uninjured chickens into a new stronger coop that my husband just finished building and they are still scared but doing ok. I feel that they are safe in there.

I tried everything I read on this site to save the two injured chickens. One, an Americauna, had a bite to the head and the stomach but I thought it had the strongest chance of survival because it was at least standing up but doing a speechless baulk. We brought them inside and kept them in separate dog crates near one another. I gave them water through a syringe. The Americauna spastically died suddenly in my arms when I was feeding it.

The other one, a Welsummer we named Fuerte, is a bit of a mystery. She only appeared to have a bit injury on her head but I suspect she also had internal injuries. She hung on until this morning. When we first found her, she could only open one eye but I cleaned it with saline and an eye ointment for chickens and she was alert with both eyes open but quiet and couldn't stand. She had movement on both legs and could pick herself up, if needed, but would soon topple over on to her side or face first so she mostly just laid there on her side. I was giving her water for a couple of days through a syringe by wetting her beak and she would take some but had no interest in food. She did have some bowl movements, which were pretty runny. I tried baby food last night as well as baby vitamins (Poly-vi-sol) but she would only take a little of both. I held her in my arms while I watched TV and she seemed comforted. When I found her dead this morning, her bowls had released and she was really smelly. Gross, I know, but I'm trying to figure out what had happened to her and what we could have done differently to save her. Any ideas?

Now, that we have the two remaining chickens in a safe coop that is nice and warm with a large run, I'm going to pick up four more from the same farm and will probably keep them in the coop and run throughout the winter. I'd really like to catch whatever is attacking my chicks but we haven't had luck yet.

Sorry about your chickens. Have you considered placing a live trap near the coop to see if you can catch whatever it was? Others have used trail cams to find out what animals are stalking their coops. Hopefully you'll have better luck with your new coop and your birds will be safe. I'm not sure if there's anything you could have done differently to save either of your birds. It sounds like you put in a lot of effort to try to save them. I think your suspicion is correct that she had internal injuries. If a bird has a fully formed egg inside them it's possible that the egg can break and result in internal injuries also.

 

[Amy Kurtenbach]

Sorry about your chickens. Have you considered placing a live trap near the coop to see if you can catch whatever it was? Others have used trail cams to find out what animals are stalking their coops. Hopefully you'll have better luck with your new coop and your birds will be safe. I'm not sure if there's anything you could have done differently to save either of your birds. It sounds like you put in a lot of effort to try to save them. I think your suspicion is correct that she had internal injuries. If a bird has a fully formed egg inside them it's possible that the egg can break and result in internal injuries also.

I hadn't thought or known about a formed egg inside injuring the chicken but that seems very possible. She was the best layer of the flock.

 

[apryl29]

I never experienced it personally, but I had read about it in other posts. One person had a bird that flew down from a perch and landed hard, breaking the egg inside them. Some people have said they were able to remove the egg, piece by piece, but you have to be super careful b/c the shell is very sharp and you have to worry about infection. Obviously, that doesn't help you now with this situation, but it's something to keep in mind in the future if one of your birds falls or gets hurt. Of course, when our birds get hurt the last thing on our mind is eggs. Months ago my only layer at the time was snatched up by a coyote. I was so mad b/c it was my fault. I didn't count the chickens after I put them in. She got left out and was a sitting duck.