My hen suddenly died and puked up these things.... no idea what they are

Hey LilacLes I am so sorry to read of your loss

I have not personally experienced anything like that and even though the circumstances are awful, I am a little intrigued.

The first picture, I have no idea, but the second one, I am leaning towards cocoon, maybe a moth.

I am going to research some more today [Friday’s at work are always quiet ] and see if I can come up with something.

 

Wow. I'd love to know what you find out!!

 

me, too.

 

Hey Les, you are welcome.

My girls are my pets also, each with their own little personality and yep, I bawl like a baby when I lose one.

I hope we can work out what this insect was in case it may be a risk to your other girls.

So, it is not a cocoon, it is a pupae but I am still unable to find out of what .. it could be moth, fly or wasp etc.

Anyways, in an effort to narrow it down, when you get a chance, can you let me know what country you are in?

I will keep looking.

Edited to add: looking at the top picture, I am leaning towards ruling out wasp as most seem to have long legs tucked up to them in this stage and that guy has shortish, stubby legs.

 

Hey Les .. still looking!

Do you feed your girls meal worms?

I am not finding anything that matches the larvae [first pic] with the pupae [second pic] and wonder if they are, in fact, connected. All the larvae research I have done points towards beetle larvae on that little guy.

The first pic looks very much like a meal worm and while I can find fly and wasp pupae that look similar to the second pic, none of the larvae fit with the first pic.

Also posting in an effort to keep this thread going so that others may join the search

 

I would suggest that you contact either your local farm bureau or extension office and show them your pictures. Somebody will recognize what the are and whether they killed tour girl or she just dined on them prior to dying.

I grieve with you on your loss.

 

OK, I have way more knowledge about larvae and pupa than I did a few hours ago

I am sorry Les but I was unable to come up with anything concrete.

The best I can guess is that the larvae is a beetle larvae of some description and the pupa is a moth of some description .. I could not find anything to match both together.

I agree with microchick that some local knowledge might be helpful.

Please keep us up-to-date if you find out anything?

 

I wanted to add that our hens and roosters eat larvae all the time with no ill effects. We heat with wood and when we do our processing, we oft times find some really big and juicy larvae in the wood when we split it. Usually we lay the split wood sections with the side up that has the larvae visible in it and the chickens go to work pecking them out.

Sleeping on this one question came to mind. Is the cocoon soft shelled or hard? If hard could she have caught it in her throat?