My Chicken just died

[mother hen 13]

Its really sad to hear about all these dearly loved chickens passing away = but nice to know you are not alone.
loosing my little black orpington bantam is what lead me to this sight it happened yesterday and i just haven,t been able to sleep.
I keeep thinking i should have been able to help her - but the more you read the more you realize they are quite fragile and you can only do your best.
however i agree the comment its only a chicken is not at all helpful. my husband and kids cant see how i can love a chicken - i had to hide in the wood store to have a good cry.
i think we should all try to comfort ourselves with the fact that our chickens had the best life we could give them

 

[Baygirl]

I have been reading everyone's post this morning. I walked into the chicken yard to feed my chicks and noticed that one of my girls wasn't with them. I thought she must be laying and so I went into the coup. I found her in the corner dead. She was my big talker and loved loved to be held. I am so sad and still can't believe she is dead. It has been cold in the south lately but they have a heater in the coup. They as you all know flock together to stay warm. I am just wondering if they flocked so close that she couldn't breathe. I just don't understand how you have a healthy girl at night and dead in the morning.

 

[mother hen 13]

Dear baygirl
I know now you feel. Its like losing a friend
You could be right about flocking too close, I'm sure I have read about that somewhere.
Hope your other girls stay well
mother hen 13

 

[Taniamarie]

I haven't had any more sad losses since I have religiously poured a splash of apple cider vinegar into their water. ??? Bloody good internal tonic I reckon. Good for us too, with water on the rocks – Yum!

 

[roxyanddutches]

Today my chicken died. I have had her for about 4 months. I only have two chickens so this is devesttating. I went to feed and give them water this morning and jane was lying dead. What could have caused this? Is my other chicken in danger? Please help!!!!

 

[thailand]

So sorry for everyone's loss.....I understand completely how you all feel about your chickens.

I just lost my oldest (3 1/2 year old Brahma) hen this afternoon. She had been absolutely fine, not showing any symptoms of anything whatsoever. She was always a screecher when it came to laying her eggs....everyone knew "thats Matilda laying an egg for us".

This afternoon she was in the nestbox for a very long time, perhaps over an hour. I noticed that she was panting quite a bit but thought nothing more of it. After finding her dead a while later in a corner of the coop (the other chickens were all outside free-ranging) we also discovered that she had laid four eggs!

I'm suspecting two things:

1. She was obviously overheated. Don't know why she stayed in the coop so long though because she had free access to come and go as she pleased.

2. Laying four eggs within an hour or two - wow. That's got to be a serious problem right?

She will be very missed. She was a firm favorite and it just won't be the same without our sweet Tilly.

From tomorrow we are all on serious hot weather alert and will be organizing some fans for the girls!

 

[DogChickenDad]

We lost our favorite 2 year old Red Sexlink named Nesty last Saturday, we found her dead in her dirt bath, my daughter cried for 4 hours, it was her pet.

Tonight I went out to gather eggs and found a 1 year old RiR dead in the nesting box. It is very frustrating to find healthy birds like this. I have close to 100 birds, I hope that something is not spreading through the flock.

 

[KLC0623]

I got six chickens June 23, a RIR, a barred Plymouth Rock, a regular and bantam Easter egger, and two australorps. They were all alive when they started laying, then one day one of the australorps, Clara, was gone, a fox took her during a thunderstorm. The other one, her blood related sister with whom she was inseparable, was devastated. She kept running around looking for her, calling out in despair. A few weeks later she got over it, but I hadn't. This winter was rough, we got a lot of snow, but my remaining five girls kept laying through the ten degree weather. One day, when there was a foot of snow, Amy, aka chainmail,, the barred Plymouth Rock, was burrowing n the snow, and my dog attacked her. There were no fatal wounds, but she was going to freeze, so we brought her inside. He warmed her up with towels and hair dryers, cleaned the wounds, and tried to get her to drink some water. Her eyes fluttered open a few times, but one time she opened them up, looked right at me, then died. She was the sweetest girl ever, almost like a dog, coming when called, enjoying when people petted her. That was February. Skip to today. The chickens have gotten over their leader dying, have mellowed out and have started enjoying spring. The other australorp, Sarah Jane, has been broody the past few weeks, we'rethinking of getting some chicks for her to raise. They follow people around and are very curious about what's going on. Yesterday we had a constant downpour, and today it was still raining, so I left the chickens shut in their run. However, someone let them out. One of them, Donna, my full sized Easter egger, is missing, a fox took her or she wandered away and will return. The bantam Easter egger, Martha, I found dead, my dog probably killed her. I heard her this morning, squawking, but they always do this so I thought things were fine, and sine I was running late didnt have time to check on them before I left. I keep blaming myself, and feel like I failed them. Now we're down to two.

 

[neon]

MY CHICKEN DIED. I AM HEARTBROKEN. SHE IS MY SWEETHEART

 

[neon]

I KEEP BLAMING MYSELF. IF I COULD HAVE DONE BETTER, MY PET CHICKEN WILL STILL BE ALIVE. SHE IS ALL I HAVE, MY MOTHER DIED, THEN MY BROTHER DIED, MY FATHER DIED. SHE HEKPED ME TO GO THROUGH ALL THOSE DIFFICULT MOMENT. I CANNOT STOP CRYING. GOD, HELP ME. WHAT HAVE I DONE WRONG TO DESERVE THIS?