RIP baby chick - what should I look out for?

[Scottish-Hen]

we lost one of our chicks (from the clutch of 13) through the night. The are about 3 weeks old now... No obvious sign of trauma or illness.

Anything I need to check for before she's laid to rest after school today? What about the rest of the chicks and mama. They're still in an inside coop.

Is there anything I should be mindful of ?

 

[emmaie892000]

Sometimes chicks just have something wrong inside them. Are there any bloody poops in the coop?

 

[Scottish-Hen]

Sometimes chicks just have something wrong inside them. Are there any bloody poops in the coop? 

Not a thing and I cleaned it all out today to check and make sure nothing strange.

 

[KayTee]

I'm sorry for your loss, Scottish-Hen. If there is no sign of illness and you didn't spot any changes in behaviour of the chick before you lost it then maybe it is just 'one of those things'. The only other thing I could think of is that with 13 chicks under one hen it could possibly have become suffocated in the heap of chicks under the mama overnight. I have never experienced that myself, but I have seen other threads on here where people have talked about it happening.

All you can do now is keep an extra close eye on the mother hen and the other chicks, just in case there is another cause, but I am crossing my fingers that it was just an unlucky one-off incident. Best of luck to you and your flock.