Official BYC Poll: What Are The Top Causes of Death in Your Backyard Flock?

[BYC Project Manager]

The fact that just about everything eats poultry, that predators fall from the sky, come creeping out from behind every bush, and wag their gleeful tails while moments later wreaking carnage on beloved hens is a tough reality for most poultry keepers. However death sometimes also occurs as a result of our own mistakes or oversight while some may also process their backyard flock for food purposes.

Whatever the cause, in this poll, we'd like to find out: What Are The Top Causes of Death in Your Backyard Flock?

Feel free to choose multiple answers and please elaborate in the comment section if you choose "Other".

Further reading:

• Coping With Death In Your Flock: 4 Actionable Steps
• A Checklist to Avoiding Casualties in the Flock
• Hens Passing Away Due to Old Age: What to Expect
• Do Poultry Mourn Over The Loss Of A Flock Mate?

(Check out more Official BYC Polls HERE!)

 

[JustAChickenLoverOverHere]

It makes me feel so bad that I've NEVER had a chicken die of old age. It was always a dang opossum or raccoon or bird. One almost did, she was 4, but she got taken by a hawk. In our backyard. I cried.

*I don't know if it was a hawk or an eagle*

 

[FreckledEggs]

All of our but hens that have passed on caught some sort of disease, the other one went missing, there was LOTS of squawking, and my dad only saw a flash of orange and she was gone. She was such a beautiful hen (French Copper Maran). A few months later her best friend passed. I will always love you Muffin and Cluck

 

[humblehillsfarm]

Well, I've only culled one rooster from the laying flock for meat, but I have culled 20 CX so far. For the remainder of the laying flock, I lost one to illness, one to sudden unknown cause, and three to predators (one to coyote, two to bear). So I guess the true number one cause is processing, number two is predator, and number three is illness.

 

[3KillerBs]

So far, with my limited numbers of chickens, it's been processing.

I've had a 4-day old chick die from the current flock -- she'd been the boldest and most active of the chicks until her yolk ran out and then, though I had seen her eating and drinking she became lethargic and died. I have to assume that she had some kind of internal issue that caused failure to thrive.

In the previous flock I had a hen somehow manage to wedge herself into a corner between the block I had for the shorter flock members to reach the feeder and the wall and be unable to back out. I presumed that she suffocated since birds need to have their ribs move in order to breath. I have no idea how she accomplished it because there was nothing she could have been physically caught on, the block was only 6 inches above the bedding, and I was able to lift her out -- still slightly warm -- without any resistance.

I also had one 2yo hen die of unknown causes. One morning I didn't see her in the run. She was cold and stiff under the roost with no evidence of any disease or injury. I was working overtime and didn't have the time to do a necroscopy.

I'm sure I'll hit new categories as time goes on. Death is a part of life.

 

[BDutch]

Predators:
I had 2 Dutch chicks that didn’t survive a visiting rat. 1 chick escaped through a fence and was lost forever (probably a neighbour cat), And one 6 year old Dutch was probably taken by a buzzard.

Disease:
The first chicks I bought 6+ years ago suddenly died for unknown reason (maybe cociodosis).

Other:
But most are gone because they where cockerels and I couldn’t keep them. I gave them to someone who wanted them for protecting a flock, for breeding, 2 as pets for two brothers and other reasons but never for meat. There wasn’t even enough meat on them for a proper meal, so maybe some/most of them are still alive.

 

[Willow2253]

Predators, by a long shot. The neighbors dogs killed 11 this year, I lost two this week to some predator, and 1 other to an unknown predator when we first moved to this house with our first flock. I’ve only lost 2 or 3 to other causes.

 

[ShannonsChimkens]

Eagles/hawks are the number one cause. Just recently lost 3 within the last month to bald eagles. A pair has been checking out the bird’s area quite a bit. The eagles just swoop down, pick up a chicken and take them off into the distance. Hawks have made a couple recent attempts, but with emus watching, the hawks don’t get a chance to complete a kill. The emus stomp on anything that moves too much/flaps around.

This leads to cause of death number two... the emus unintentionally have stepped on a couple chickens. They didn’t survive the injuries unfortunately. The flock has figured out to run or move when they hear them coming. So it hasn’t happened recently. Still won’t move the emus out due to them stopping hawk attacks.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

Miraculously we’ve only lost 1 out of the 18 chickens we raise from 3 day old chicks. We’ve only had ours about a year now. We lost one BR hen to an unknown predator while free ranging. Main suspects are hawk and neighbors dog.

 

[CraftyHen]

We've lost a couple to unknown causes; 1 because she was meaner than heck. Others have been processed for food.