I went out to the coop early this morning to do chores and found Mr. Poof dead. Mr. Poof is/was my daughters 9 month old bantam white chochin rooster. He was laying on the coop floor and was already stiff when I found him about 6:00 am. When I loooked him over everything looked ok, nothing noticable wrong.
We did trade some of our daughters chickens for 4 others about 3 weeks ago. They were from a member of the forum, the new birds have been healthy, both the ones in the barn and chicks in the brooder in the house. The 4 new chickens have been kept seperate from ours and about a week ago we have been working the older rooster into our group. Mr. Poof was not keen on the idea so he has kept seperate when we have been introducing the new guy to the others. Mr. Poof spent a few hours yesterday afternoon in our unheated coop, has a little door attaching it to the main coop. Day temps outside were 29, so even the unheated coop was plenty warm, they can go in there to "play" on nicer days. I did notice yesterday that his comb did not look as nice and red as our other white cohin rooster when I closed the coop dividing door. Also when my husband went in just after dark to let him back in with the others and put the new roo away he said that Mr. Poof was not on a perch but was sitting on the bedding. I did feed them 3 chopped up ham and cheese sandwhiches yesterday afternoon, I work at out kids school and they get lots of left overs. Poof had some sandwhich when he was seperated.
So question is: what could it have killed him? All the other chikens are doing fine. Any ideas. We will be having a chicken wrapped up in the basement freezer until we can burry him in spring!
We did trade some of our daughters chickens for 4 others about 3 weeks ago. They were from a member of the forum, the new birds have been healthy, both the ones in the barn and chicks in the brooder in the house. The 4 new chickens have been kept seperate from ours and about a week ago we have been working the older rooster into our group. Mr. Poof was not keen on the idea so he has kept seperate when we have been introducing the new guy to the others. Mr. Poof spent a few hours yesterday afternoon in our unheated coop, has a little door attaching it to the main coop. Day temps outside were 29, so even the unheated coop was plenty warm, they can go in there to "play" on nicer days. I did notice yesterday that his comb did not look as nice and red as our other white cohin rooster when I closed the coop dividing door. Also when my husband went in just after dark to let him back in with the others and put the new roo away he said that Mr. Poof was not on a perch but was sitting on the bedding. I did feed them 3 chopped up ham and cheese sandwhiches yesterday afternoon, I work at out kids school and they get lots of left overs. Poof had some sandwhich when he was seperated.
So question is: what could it have killed him? All the other chikens are doing fine. Any ideas. We will be having a chicken wrapped up in the basement freezer until we can burry him in spring!
