My chicken suddenly died

[ButtersPA]

We rescued 2 bantam chickens last year from a neighbor who just set them free.

We got so attached, that this spring we got 4 new peeps. We introduced the new ladies to our bantams and all was well until we realized we had a rooster, so we had to move the 2 bantams to their own pen. Mr. Rooster kept trying mate with them & is 2x their size.

Long story short, we went to let the ladies our this morning @ 6am & found one of the bantams dead on her back as if she just fell off the roost. Her pal who was always very protective of her, seemed un phased and wanted mealworms.

Questions;

We think that she was at least 3 years old, and chalked it up to old age. There were no signs of blood or distress so we buried her. Now I am having second thoughts, should we have spent the money on a necropsy. Every one else seems fine.

We moved the remaining bantam back with 2 of our other hens, and mr frisky barred rock rooster into the smaller pen with the other barred rock hen. Does seam the best?

Thanks for your help

 

[seminolewind]

Sorry you lost her. There's always 100 different different reasons why they die. You may never know.

I think you're doing the right thing.

There are so many I could have sent for a necropsy. But didn't. Lately I've sent a few. Just send the next one is you want to know why.

 

[ButtersPA]

Thank you very much!

 

[cafarmgirl]

Three years is definitely not old but at the same time there are many common ailments that can affect chickens, especially hens, at about this age. And since chickens are so good at hiding any illness until they are very sick sometimes we don't see any signs of illness until they just die.

You might check around to see where in your state you can send a bird for a necropsy by a state lab when you loose another at some point. Some states do them for free. I've had a couple done, especially when cause of death is not obvious because I want to know what's going on in my flock, it's nice to have the answers.