My alpha chicken dead in coop

[Henriettamom]

Hi,
This afternoon I came home to find my biggest chicken dead in her laying box. When I lifted her up she had her head tucked in her chest and an egg half way out.
She had not been acting at all strange before this. Could this be egg-bound? She was only just over 1 year old. This is my first loss since getting my flock just over a year ago and I’m devastated.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Hi,
This afternoon I came home to find my biggest chicken dead in her laying box. When I lifted her up she had her head tucked in her chest and an egg half way out.
She had not been acting at all strange before this. Could this be egg-bound? She was only just over 1 year old. This is my first loss since getting my flock just over a year ago and I’m devastated.

She possibly hemorrhaged internally somehow.

Doing a necropsy may give you the answer.

 

[Iluveggers]

Anyone else exhibiting symptoms of anything? When was the last time she laid an egg before that? What do you feed your chickens?

 

[azygous]

This is one of the more tragic occurrences for a laying hen - dying on the nest while laying an egg.

Two things may have caused it, one or both. First, there's the possibility she had been struggling to lay this egg and it had blocked her cloaca long enough to obstruct poop as the egg sat there too long. The other, just as likely, was sudden death syndrome where her heart stopped due to a sudden calcium drain from her blood as the egg sucked all available calcium in the blood as it met an inadequate supply in the shell gland.

If her egg was thin shelled, this would give added strength to this theory.

 

[Buckingham Palace]

I’m very sorry about your hen

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry for your loss. It might be helpful if you are up to it, to open her abdomen and do a simple necropsy to look for anything unusual. If you do this, tey to take some pictures of findings, and post them here for help.