Poll for those who have had chicken deaths

[Cinnaminute]

Our two ten year old dogs have the run of the farm and the roosters are used to them being around. The most those two dogs do is follow them around guarding them so I figure they look at every dog as being as benign as they are. Bad judgement definitely. And very small brains.

Thankfully no losses to dogs, but this is exactly why we had to rehome our german shepherd. I feared a loss would come sooner or later. My 15 chickens are used to my Shetland Sheepdog prowling around with them and they seem to have a sudden trust in all dogs. I got a second Sheltie just last month and they are completely fine with her despite not knowing her. Thankfully she's good with them. But the german shepherd was so intent on those chickens. Her running loose and them in the coop/run: she'd sit with her head down staring at them for hours. Her in her kennel and them running loose: she'd pace her kennel and screech at them for hours on end. Probably drove the neighbors bonkers; I know it did me. Yet my poor sweet dumb hens would just walk right up to her. I'd find them right outside her kennel looking for tidbits, which drove her mad. One time I had to take her out on the leash with the chickens in the yard. They tried to walk right up to her despite her wildly lunging and nearly pulling me along. Not going to risk that.

I've been pretty lucky I think. Lost 1 hen during my first 11 months of owning chickens. She was my adopted White Crested Black Polish, passed away last month from unknown causes. Death was sudden overnight; nothing clued me in that anything was wrong. The people I got her from claimed she was 6 months old at the time so supposedly she was 1yr 3mo when she passed. We do have hawks, barred owls, a mean neighbors' cat (that stalks my chickens and actually tried to attack my first Sheltie when he was a puppy), and rats so I'm trying to stay as diligent as I can.

 

[Urb sustain]

Snakes taking young birds. Never get them down just find a half wet dead bird. Its a catch 22 here remove snakes fight rats and mice. Probably lost 6 to snakes out of hundreds and hundreds and more hundreds (acceptable in order to keep things in balance). My own crazy dogs, they test every predator system for us, if it doesn't pass thier test we find feathers (in thier defense they get fed alot of raw chicken, I think they think they are saving me a step?) Dogs and black roosters seem to keep airial predators at bay (never lost one to a bird of prey, and we range open plots?) Once had to alleviate a racoon of its energy, it was sitting in a tree watching the hens midday. I am always around also and after ten yrs of listening to chickens I know when they have a real problem (although they think the squirrel who steals sunflower seeds is a real problem)
Biggest loss, brought in some maran hens from ----- didn't quarantine because I was lazy and sure of the person I got them from. Upper respiratory infection wiped out the whole maran flock, entire population of austrolorpe 30-40 birds. Day by day,, dead bird here dead bird there, separated the healthy, just spread it to a different area it was very wet that yr and it didn't stop till things dried up and all the contacted birds died.. Amberlinks lived through it, dixie rainbows lived through it. Any other bird that went in that area died.

 

[Rose the Legbar]

my (now) two deaths have been due to natural causes. My first death was due to her eye being pecked and injure, the eye then slowly bulged out of her head until she became uncomfortable and showed signs of it. She was euthanized as I am a wimp.
my second was with my wyandotte. i believe a egg was broken/stuck higher up in her system and she died in 6 hours. there was yolk yellow goo coming from her vent.

 

[microchick]

I'm rethinking my birds being 'comfortable' around dogs.

This week I lost three pet roosters to a fox attack. The roosters were free ranging within 100 to 200 feet of the house in the orchard and barn. The fox took them within the triangle they hung out in, orchard, barn and coop. Within view of the house.

I'm thinking that maybe the roosters didn't see the fox as being a threat. Our two border collie mix dogs run around the yard when we are out supervising and the roosters move freely around them and sometimes within inches of them when they are lying in the grass. They have no fear of those two dogs and the fox is the color of our other four dogs which are red heelers.

Granted if Buck and Spotty Dog were outside at the time of the attack in broad daylight it wouldn't have happened, but I can't help but think that being unafraid of dogs helped contribute to their deaths.

 

[GCrumb]

what else do you call it when chickens commit suicide by going into a fenced in area holding four cattle dogs?

In statistics about human deaths, that sort of thing is often called "Behavioral Misadventure." I find this funny for some reason. Probably the grand and sweeping scope of chicken behavioral misadventures deserves its own thread.

 

[Lilybljm]

I’ve got ducks and not chickens but a mink got into my coop and killed fifteen of them. Thankfully we heard the commotion, but by the time we got out there it was a bloodbath. I had two males and two females left, and both males were injured quite badly. They made full recoveries but it was devastating. I’ve never wanted to kill an animal before that day. I had some of those birds for a decade and now I only have one original left. It didn’t even eat any of them. It just killed them. I wouldn’t have been nearly as upset if an animal had gotten in and eaten one or two. It’s happened before and I understand the animal needs to eat even if it’s a loss to me, but this thing didn’t even want to eat all of them. It just killed them to kill them. Horrible creature.

 

[Party_Chicken]

I lost three hens to a fox. One of them was dearly beloved by our family she was a gorgeous little mutt with a big personality and attitude. I was hoping she would go broody for the third time and raise the chicks. I miss her dearly she had the cutest little hair and the prettiest shade of lavender. We ended hatching chick’s from her I still think of her every day. And when we were hatching her chicks we had a failure to thrive chick that had splayed leg and some other issues. She was very sweet and held on for a few days but passed while we we’re away one thing that reassured me is that poppy will know she finally got her dream of having a little baby.

 

[Shabby Chic-Hens]

Cinderella was egg bound
Unnamed hen overheated on a very hot day
A bunch were taken by a predator.
Ruby was egg bound
A bunch more were taken by my dad’s dog.
Amethyst died from a dog bite (after the dog attacked)