Our hen died.

[magistradomina]

We are not sure exactly what caused her death. She seemed to be trapped between our coop and a cinder block when we found her this morning. She wasn't beat up or anything, (exept for a bald head from the roosters) she had been laying eggs so I don't think she was eggbound. I think she might have been trapped then got stepped on by another chicken so she couldn't breath. She will be 1 year old in Augest. I was wondering if maybe she could have gotten sick from the roosters beating her up? Any suggestions?
Thanks!

 

[Falcon61]

She didnt want to give it up and your rooster didnt know how to get it. Drove her to distruction. If your not hatching eggs you could put the rooster out of the pen, he wont leave. If he's a different breed than the hens may be the problem? A big roo cant catch a small breed hen and a small roo may not be strong enough to handle a large hen.

 

[bawkbawkbawk]

Not necessarily trapped. One of my pullets died and I found her wedged in a corner of the coop - very unusual place for her to be. I think she was dying and crawled back in there to be alone. No idea how/why she died - we could only surmise that she choked on something or was inadvertently poisoned, although our other three girls were/are fine.

So sorry

 

[speckledhen]

You said "roosters". How many roosters and how many hens? Yes, a rooster can kill a hen and she may have been trying to get away from them if you too many. If hens are being abused badly, the rooster should be removed.

She didnt want to give it up and your rooster didnt know how to get it. Drove her to distruction. If your not hatching eggs you could put the rooster out of the pen, he wont leave. If he's a different breed than the hens may be the problem? A big roo cant catch a small breed hen and a small roo may not be strong enough to handle a large hen.

Breeds do not matter. Roosters will mate with any breed and so will hens. Normal mating does not kill a hen. An aggressive breeder or too many roosters can. A big rooster CAN catch a small breed hen and a small rooster CAN mate a large breed hen, trust me.​

 

[Cetawin]

<------ *shaking her head*

 

[geebs]

I agree with speckled hen... There is no reason such nice girls should be subjected to torture when there are so many roos going in the stewpot.

 

[magistradomina]

Thanks everybody for your replies! We have 2 roosters and (now) 14 hens. I had seen her the day before we found her dead in the same spot as when we found her dead. She kept opening and closing her eyes and I was worried about her. I checked on her later and she was still in the same spot, but I (stupidly) didn't think to check her out. Our roosters and hens are Australorps. We had let them free range a day before she died and I'm thinking that the hen that died ate somthing she shouldn't have. I noticed today that they had been free rangeing in an area were piosonuos mushrooms used to grow. Maybe that had somthing to do with it? Our other chickens seem to be fine though.

Thanks again for the help and sorry for bad spelling!