Meat chicken died before we could butcher, okay to eat?

[myguysmama]

I've got 24 6 week old meat birds, a mix of Cornish X, Pioneer and Red Ranger. We were planning to cull 2 of the Cornish X this weekend because they are having leg issues and it seems like it is very hard for them to get around. When I went out to feed them this morning, one of the two was dead. She was not completely rigid yet and none of the others had started picking at her at all, so I'm assuming she hadn't been dead for long. I cut off her head and tried to bleed her out. Her blood dripped out very slowly. When I processed her, there was a good bit of blood still inside her. Her meat looks quite pink.

Is she okay to eat, both because she dropped dead on her own and because her meat is so pink?

Thanks for your help. This is our first batch of meat birds and there is so much to learn!

 

[azelgin]

Have you ever been duck hunting? You shoot the duck in the morning and it's stiff and hard when you get it home. And you still eat it. Why would eating this chicken be any worse than that? At least that's my take on the subject.

 

[sdm111]

Thets one of the best analogies I've ever read. If the heart is not pumping it will not bleed out

 

[myguysmama]

I guess we're just a little worried that since we didn't kill it, maybe it could've been sick, and thus unfit to eat?

So, the extra pink is because she couldn't bleed out, so she'll taste a little off?

 

[Elke Beck]

If I don't know how it died, I probably would not eat it. It probably died of heart failure or something similar, but what if it ate something that was poisoned, like a grasshopper or a mouse that had eaten poison?

 

[azelgin]

If I don't know how it died, I probably would not eat it. It probably died of heart failure or something similar, but what if it ate something that was poisoned, like a grasshopper or a mouse that had eaten poison?

Insecticide poisoning is unlikely. Every body would be sick, as the likelihood of only one poisoned bug getting into the pen, would be pretty slim. Even so, you breath more insecticide, than what you would be eating.
My chickens eat mice, but none killed by poison. A chick of six weeks, couldn't eat a full sized mouse, without help from others. It would have to be a very small mouse, not yet weaned, to be eaten by a six week old, even if it were a larger Cornish X meat variety.
I watch my evil raptor chickens run around with dead mice all the time. The mouse has to be pretty well "tenderized", before they get it swallowed.
In hindsight, did you happen to notice the crop contents?

 

[myguysmama]

Just feed in the crop. She was def too small and slow, with her leg issue, to catch a mouse. I think we're safe to eat her.

Thanks all

 

[BigDaddyCraig]

Have you ever been duck hunting? You shoot the duck in the morning and it's stiff and hard when you get it home. And you still eat it. Why would eating this chicken be any worse than that? At least that's my take on the subject.

I know why the duck died.