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

[WestTNriverrat]

I voted predator, but in reality it is chicken ignorance because the chickens for some reason want to continuously fly into the dog’s fenced in area. Sometimes she ignores them others not so much.

 

[KaseySnow]

Our flock is mostly 8-10 year old (possibly older) hens and many have been dying of old age. We tried to introduce 10 pullets a couple summers ago, and that's when we found out our flock carries Mareks. Only one from that pullet group is still alive: an anti-social blue cochin named Hippo. The rest that we could necropsy in time were all diagnosed with Mareks except for one that had some kind of heart condition.

In fact, in the three years I've worked with these birds, the only hens that have died of anything other than from old age have all been introduced. These old chooks must have immune systems of steel, they rarely get ill. I've been thinking of asking the program director who oversees the flock whether we might try to breed some of them and get some super chickens. If they can even reproduce, that is. Poor old girls have probably never even seen a rooster, they might have heart attacks when he tries to mount them.

 

[preciouspanda]

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".

View attachment 2553138

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!)

Couple years ago I lost half my flock to heat stroke. I call it the heatstroke massacre of 2018. Lost some to hawks and racoons, and couple baby chicks to snake or two and than I don’t know what got my turkeys still except one of my turkeys what ever got him couldn’t even get the turkey over the fence after it got it same week it got another turkey (smaller one) a in broad daylight it got a giunea right in front of its house and a chicken or two all in same week and couple from upper respiratory infection

 

[McKeownkd]

Mine has unfortunately all been disease. Marek's specifically, which my flock is positive for and flared up because of a bad bout of Cocciodosis that thrived when our run started flooding after the neighbors did some construction in their yard. In the few months between that problem starting, and our new coop being delivered to its new location we lost 3 of our 6. Hopefully moving forward, things won't be so difficult. It's so heartbreaking.

 

[marsmallowthesilkie]

Racoons and hawks, only 2 died

 

[MadamContrary]

Stray dogs have been the top problem this year, they literally chewed through my wooden fence and the coop framing and then rammed and yanked on the hardware cloth to get into the coop, totally destroyed two coops, the only one that they couldn't get into was my smaller steel framed sentinel coop from TSC. Racoons and possums were my issue a few years back. It seems I'll forever be fortifying against something

 

[the_peanut_coop]

:/ Mine died of broken ribs because some adorable people hug to hard.

 

[Kaddi143]

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*

I hate hawks my baby was just killed in front of me by a red tail I am still crying for last month.

 

[LavenderMotherHen]

Dogs mostly. We’re working on securing our backyard to keep the chickens in and the dogs out. We are also making a new coop. We did have one Orpington just die mid step. I think it may have been a heart attack or something. She was healthy before that.

 

[jonalisa]

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".

View attachment 2553138

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!)

Mostly internal laying, but lost a couple to cancer and older one to slow crop issues.