mystery death

[dansmom]

I have 4 Buff Orpington hens and yesterday all were outside and acting normal and healthy. Tonight when I got home one was dead, lying inside the coop. She had no evidence of a predator, no runny eyes, no runny poop, no signs of any disease. She felt solid, was not as if she had not been eating. I have been getting 2 eggs a day for some time and don't know which are laying and which were not. I am a fairly new chicken owner and just bummed about this. Does anyone have any idea as to what might have happened? The other 3 seem to be fine.
thanks.

 

[CMV]

I am sorry for your loss.

Sometimes, seemingly healthy birds just drop dead. They are masters at concealing ailments/illnesses/weakness. The upside to this is that you truly know when one of your birds is ailing. The downside is that they will not infrequently just drop dead leaving you, as their keeper, with no clue as to what happened.

Monitor the rest of the flock closely for the next couple weeks. If you see no signs of a problem then you can probably just chalk this up to an internal defect specific to this bird.

Again- I am sorry.

 

[dansmom]

Thank you for your reply.