One Year Old Silver Laced Wyandotte Dead for No Obvious Reason??

[nhbackyardchick]

We have 4 hens that we got as day old chicks last April and have very much enjoyed the last year of raising them in our backyard. We have I White Rock, a Partridge Rock a Barred Rock and had a Silver Laced Wyandotte. Everything has gone very smoothly with them over the course of a year...they free range in our yard and all have been great egg layers. There have been no signs of illness. The deceased bird was free ranging as normal yesterday and went to bed last night as usual. I went out to let them out this morning and she was sitting in the run, which is a little abnormal but her head was up and she appeared alert so I just assumed she was dust bathing in the sand (we have several yards of sand as the "floor" to their covered run). I noticed a few hours later that I only saw three of them in the yard and when I went out to check she was dead. I have no idea what could possibly have happened. If anyone has any ideas I would appreciate it. Should I be concerned about the other three birds? They all appear fine too.

 

[dawg53]

Welcome to BYC and sorry for your loss. There's no telling what it could be without symptoms in which you stated they were acting normal other than the one hen sitting in the run. It's possible she couldve been eggbound or perhaps parasites, maybe a heart problem. Sometimes they just die for no apparent reason even at that young age of 1 year old. Without a necropsy performed, there's no way of knowing. For now, keep a close eye on the rest of your birds for anything out of the ordinary.

 

[nhbackyardchick]

Thank you for the reply! I was just wondering if she could have been egg bound. We got 1-3 eggs every day this winter and there was the occasional day closer to spring that we got 4. Since the days have been longer in the past month we have been getting 2-4...I have a hard time telling who's eggs are who's though so I never really know which hen has or has not been laying. Yesterday we got none which is a rare thing and today there were 3. To be honest I don't recall how many we got on Saturday and have no way of checking as I cooked a lot of eggs this weekend (we have 3 kids). In any event she obviously went at least 2 days without laying since there were no eggs yesterday and I doubt any of the 3 we got today were hers. Do you know if there are any diseases that we should avoid eating the eggs until we rule out disease? I did have them all vaccinated fore the Mareks (sp) when I got them. We have a fenced yard and they have limited contact with wild birds since we don't feed them. We feel so badly...we buried her next to the coop

 

[dawg53]

Eggbound could be a possible cause of death. The eggs are safe to eat.