my chickens are dying! help!

[Chickenfur]

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what i meant is that we know she was OLDER than one and a half probably more like over two years, (we got her as a adult, and she molted soon after), thanks for the advice!!!

 

[ruth]

There was one person on BYC who had a hen who was 18 years old and still laid an occasional egg. "Old Age" for a hen would be ten years or more.

Your hens are dying due to cannibalism. I didn't see how many you have and how large an area but I think I understood they have been cooped up together for a long time.

As has been suggested, you need to have a large run for them or allow them to freerange some. You'll need to provide things for them to scratch for and work for so as to divert their attention away from eating one another alive. Throw some black oil sunflower seeds, or scratch, on the ground and cover it with hay or straw or leaves so that they have to dig and scratch for it. But, in my opinion, the only way to treat cannibalism is to let them freerange.

 

[Chickenfur]

i still don't understand, how did my CM die?

 

[ruth]

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Same way - they killed her. You said it looked like she had prolapse. They can all jump her and the stress/fear/trauma can kill them before the being eaten alive does - actually better for them that way.

I'm sorry. But, now that it's started it will be difficult to fix.

How many birds do you have and how large is the coop? Is there a fenced run? How large is it?

Don't worry about the cold/snow - chickens can take quite a bit of freezing/low temps and snow -- let them out.

 

[seramaland2]

Make sure you don't have any rats getting in, too.They will chew on the hens at night and sometimes even kill them.Take a flashlight and go out in the middle of the night and look around.If they start a wound the chickens will go after it.

 

[Chickenfur]

Quote:
Same way - they killed her. You said it looked like she had prolapse. They can all jump her and the stress/fear/trauma can kill them before the being eaten alive does - actually better for them that way.

I'm sorry. But, now that it's started it will be difficult to fix.

How many birds do you have and how large is the coop? Is there a fenced run? How large is it?

Don't worry about the cold/snow - chickens can take quite a bit of freezing/low temps and snow -- let them out.

the CM didn't look like anything was wrong with her, no blood, no missing feathers, nothing, it was the EE that we thought had a prolapse.

 

[Chickenfur]

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i don't think we have rats, we do have have mice though, could they cause a problem?

 

[Chickenfur]

Quote:
Same way - they killed her. You said it looked like she had prolapse. They can all jump her and the stress/fear/trauma can kill them before the being eaten alive does - actually better for them that way.

I'm sorry. But, now that it's started it will be difficult to fix.

How many birds do you have and how large is the coop? Is there a fenced run? How large is it?

Don't worry about the cold/snow - chickens can take quite a bit of freezing/low temps and snow -- let them out.

the CM didn't look like anything was wrong with her, no blood, no missing feathers, nothing, it was the EE that we thought had a prolapse.

it's all free range, but, my chickens won't go out in the snow, i've opened the door, and they will go out for like 5 seconds, but then they go back in, i still open it occasionally though.

 

[jerseygirl1]

How big is the coop and how many hens in it?

 

[chickletranch]

It's not really possible for us to say what killed the Marran without more information. Saying she had no symptoms and no trauma makes it difficult. There are many diseases that can kill a chicken. Does not seem related to your EE situation.