NY chicken lover!!!!

[marquisella]

Morning all. Woke up to two dead chicks and a dead hen. The hen was a red sexlink in the terrorist coop. Found her lying on the floor of the coop next to the feed bucket. No apparent cause of death. Was fine yesterday. The chicks were also fine yesterday. I examined the others. They are running around with momma. However, the splash hen in the coup is not looking good. She was fine yesterday but was hiding in a nest box this morning. I remember that someone else on this forum was having chickens drop dead for no reason and was having their birds looked at by cornell. Did you ever get an answer? My other hens in the terrorist coop seemed quite disturbed by their dead sister. No predators got in. I checked. I will isolate my silkie hen today. I am reluctant to give any kind of anitbiotic without knowing what the problem is. Everyone else looks fine. They are out and about doing chicken things. Ugh...I hate the not knowing part.

I think, and this is only my opinion, that when a bird is stressed and maybe its just not as healthy as the rest of the flock, say it has more worm load, etc. the heat will kill it faster than a healthier bird. When I find a bird suddenly dead, and pick it up, if it is thin and light, then something has been going on for a long time for it to have lost weight like that. We don't notice them because the feathers cover up the thinness and unless they are acting odd enough to notice, we usually don't see something is going on until its too late.

Its rare that I find a "heavy" bird in good weight suddenly dead. Especially a hen. When I find a suddenly dead rooster like that, then its most likely a heart attack.
Unless you do a necropsy, you will never really know.

And in the end, chickens die suddenly like that. We can't prevent them all. Just hope they enjoyed the life that you provided for them.

I would bet it is the heat. Last year with the heat we had, I lost more birds than ever. It was a tough summer.

 

[Lynzi777]

Morning All,
Another humid one out there today. Probably staying in most of the day getting two little ones bedrooms cleaned up

. I decided to move my incubator to my office. See if that helps at all with humidity/temp. I removed the water dish and filled the wells beneath the wire with water. Placed the sponge back in there but directly on the wire this time. If all goes well, I think I'll try placing some of the orp eggs in there when I return from my weekend away.

Pharm - so sorry for your loss.

 

[rancher hicks]

Morning all. Woke up to two dead chicks and a dead hen. The hen was a red sexlink in the terrorist coop. Found her lying on the floor of the coop next to the feed bucket. No apparent cause of death. Was fine yesterday. The chicks were also fine yesterday. I examined the others. They are running around with momma. However, the splash hen in the coup is not looking good. She was fine yesterday but was hiding in a nest box this morning. I remember that someone else on this forum was having chickens drop dead for no reason and was having their birds looked at by cornell. Did you ever get an answer? My other hens in the terrorist coop seemed quite disturbed by their dead sister. No predators got in. I checked. I will isolate my silkie hen today. I am reluctant to give any kind of anitbiotic without knowing what the problem is. Everyone else looks fine. They are out and about doing chicken things. Ugh...I hate the not knowing part.

What is the temp in the coop? This humidity can make it feel hotter. Strangely enough with all the worry about the cold in winter, the heat in summer can be worse on chickens.

1. is this just the one coop?

2. do they have access to more than one waterer and feeder? I decided a while ago to put two of each so those on the lower end of the pecking order don't get chase away from the feed. I've watched as some have been.

3. have you done anything different? treats? added vitamins, acv ? Contrary to some opinions acv should NOT be given with every refill. It can put chickens off from drinking.

4. do they range? I've been picking up pieces of tarp that has broken down and am rethinking their use. I've seen xrays of a chicken that swallowed a 1" screw. I'm learning not to use plastic grocery bags and other plastic that breaks down around my birds.

5. Do they have sufficient "non" soluble grit? I usually just dump some on the floor of the run as well as in the dish. As for oyster shell, I do not see adding this to feed if the quality of shell is fine.

6. Sometimes these things happen that without an autopsy can't be determined.

My question are just food for thought. I am sorry for your loss.

 

[stonykill]

3. have you done anything different? treats? added vitamins, acv ? Contrary to some opinions acv should NOT be given with every refill. It can put chickens off from drinking.

curious. Is this opinion? Something you read somewhere? Or has a double blind study been done on this?

I don't do acv but have many friends who give it every single day in feed and in the water and their chickens are perfectly healthy. That is why I am asking.

 

[Lapeerian]

Sorry for your loss Pharm.
Another late night getting home last night, but all the kids ran right into the coop when I opened it up.

The GLW hen was missing, but figured she was roosting in the pine tree for the night. When she wasn't around this morning, I went looking and found her in the road. Of course she was one of my excellent layers. And something had already started eating her backend last night

Told hubby that we need to cut off one of our egg customers, as the remaining 8 laying hens can't produce the 3+ dozen per week to sell plus have some for ourselves. The new kids (8 pullets) should start laying in the next month, then we can start selling more again.
Luna brought her babies out of the nest this morning after everyone else left the coop. And I counted 6 chicks. Think another one got crushed, as the fresh hay/shavings had some nasty squished looking thing mixed in and had the most awful smell. Dumped and refilled the nest as she had the babies out, then put them all back in the nest when she decided to lay over them on the open wire floor. Dopey bird.
Glad summer has arrived, but the heat/humidity was awful already this morning. Everything smells bad.
And the Golden Blue Maran roo has started to crow. Now I know what everyone is talking about with the kazoo sound.

Last year's boys started with crowing and just got louder, not the little sound that is coming out of this boy.

 

[stonykill]

Morning all. Woke up to two dead chicks and a dead hen. The hen was a red sexlink in the terrorist coop. Found her lying on the floor of the coop next to the feed bucket. No apparent cause of death. Was fine yesterday. The chicks were also fine yesterday. I examined the others. They are running around with momma. However, the splash hen in the coup is not looking good. She was fine yesterday but was hiding in a nest box this morning. I remember that someone else on this forum was having chickens drop dead for no reason and was having their birds looked at by cornell. Did you ever get an answer? My other hens in the terrorist coop seemed quite disturbed by their dead sister. No predators got in. I checked. I will isolate my silkie hen today. I am reluctant to give any kind of anitbiotic without knowing what the problem is. Everyone else looks fine. They are out and about doing chicken things. Ugh...I hate the not knowing part.

Usually when I hear of sudden chicken death I think either a) Cocci (especially with our recent weather) or b) got into something they shouldn't. I am no expert, obviously!

Sorry to hear this Pharm.

Some of the symptoms that you may observe during an outbreak of Coccidiosis are as follows: Ruffled feathers, droopy or sleepy eyed appearance, birds may drop one of both wings, birds may become lethargic and reluctant to move even when prodded. Some birds may show an uncoordinated gate or appear to stagger of walk as though they are trying to step over something when there is nothing in front of them. Some birds may have a chilled appearance as well. There may or may not be blood in the droppings depending upon the species of Cocci that is affecting the birds. Weight loss as well as loss of appetite and mortality may also be observed.

So if they were fine yesterday you can pretty much rule that out. Is the dead hen an about 10 month old pullet? 10 to 12 months old seems to be the age where any internal abnormality they were born with kills them. Such as heart or liver failure. If you feel up to cutting open the hen a heart attack is pretty obvious. The heart will feel softer than usual and there will be a lot of blood around it.
Is it at all possible the hen died and accidentally sufficated the chicks? Just thinking outside the box.

Also were they free ranging yesterday and got into some kind of poison?

If it were just one hen I wouldn't worry too much. It is more figuring out why the chicks died as well.

good luck

 

[rancher hicks]

Lapeerian - I am sorry for your loss. If there is anything I can do don't hesitate to ask. I have broodies on eggs and chicks running around.

I've given each EE three eggs each. One has three Dels and one has three marans. Come fall time I will be getting rid of any thing that doesn't fit. My coops can only hold so many in winter even though they do go out.

 

[Nuttyfrom6kids]

Morning all.  Woke up to two dead chicks and a dead hen.  The hen was a red sexlink in the terrorist coop.  Found her lying on the floor of the coop next to the feed bucket.  No apparent cause of death.  Was fine yesterday.  The chicks were also fine yesterday.  I examined the others.  They are running around with momma.  However, the splash hen in the coup is not looking good.  She was fine yesterday but was hiding in a nest box this morning.  I remember that someone else on this forum was having chickens drop dead for no reason and was having their birds looked at by cornell.  Did you ever get an answer?    My other hens in the terrorist coop seemed quite disturbed by their dead sister.  No predators got in.  I checked.  I will isolate my silkie hen today.  I am reluctant to give any kind of anitbiotic without knowing what the problem is.  Everyone else looks fine.  They are out and about doing chicken things.  Ugh...I hate the not knowing part. 

So sorry about the losses

 

[Nuttyfrom6kids]

Ok so far number 5 did make it and we do have a number 6 as well. 3 more eggs left in the bator

 

[Glasshen]

Glad to hear of the chicks hatching, and so sorry to hear of the hen and chicks deaths. I had an unexplained sudden death on Easter. A lovely large less than a year old hen who had been fine and active the day before appeared to have died in her sleep.

My flock have been panting and keeping their wings out to stay a little cooler the last few days. It is hard to acclimate to the temp fluctuations we have been having. My dh and I spent all weekend working on the siding for the coop. Although the thunderstorms cut us short a couple of hours, it is almost totally done. Finally it looks like I wanted, not like green zip walls. Wish I could post pix, but this new camera doesn't get along with anything I know how to do. Maybe a trip to
RaLins to figure it out.