Should I be Concerned?

[lmdengler]

Good Evening All -
In late May I started with 9 young chickens, 4 year and half old hens, and 1 young rooster.
Daisy got sick but she survived (I'm happy to say). 3 of the young ones died - each about a 3 months apart. And today one of the older hens died. I can't tell what is happening if anything. I can't tell if Bob the Rooster is picking on them. No one appears sick (given my limited knowledge). But does losing 4 chickens inside of 5 months seems like a lot? The first one I blamed on flying into the coop. The second one got wedged under the roost. I'm not sure about these last two. They just seemed to die. I'm really getting scared.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I would only get concerned if they either appear to die in th same manner of multiple birds are dying at the same time. Chickens do have a way of dropping dead for no apparent reason. I have lost multiple birds within a few months time and think nothing of it because they all went from different things and in different ways.

You also don't know your birds history before you got them. What breeds are they? Breeds like sex links are notorious for dying at around 2-3 years of age. Things like getting good nutrition when young, and not being exposed to all kinds of diseases can help birds live longer too.

 

[lmdengler]

The one that died today was a almost 2 year old sex link. The other 3 that died were barred rock born March 2017 girls. My husband asked if it is Bob because he pounces on them whenever he has the “need”. The other thing I noticed that whenever Bob does his thing (regardless which Chicken) - the other sex link (one in particular) pecks at the head of the hen Bob has pinned down.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Sex links in general are prone to reproductive cancers because of their high production, so 2 years is an average age for one.

Other breeds seem to live on average from 4-6 years with some going on to 10 or more. I have had younger hens just die. I recently lost a year old hen who was fine one day and dead the next. It happens.

In general it can be hard to know if a bird has an internal problem like organ failure by looking at them. Chickens have a higher heart beat rate, higher blood pressure and sugars than humans, so to me chickens seem like ticking time bombs. Many seem to go by heart attacks.

Every rooster is different, but in general breeding isn't pleasant for the hen. Some times a crabby dominant hen will peck a lower ranking hen as the rooster mates her, sometimes even the rooster will do it after mating, those roosters don't last around here. The hen doing the pecking I swear is jealous, but I can't prove that.

Bad behaving roosters can be stressful, but don't usually cause anything that leads to death.

I think what you have seen is mostly normal, and what I would call a bad run of luck.

 

[lmdengler]

I took a closer look at the hen that died and her head was bloody. I think they pecked her to death. Which seems gruesome. But this story just got worse. The day before yesterday one of the barred rocks was raspy and sneezing. I took her out. Brought her in the garage fed her electrolytes vetrx and antibiotics. She died last night. I’m so worried about the flock. No one else seems sick.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

When a bird acts odd or sick other chickens will sometimes start to peck them. I think to drive them and their illness out. Sorry about that.

I sometimes see respiratory problems in the fall due to migrating birds bringing stuff in and the shifting weather can stress the immune system.

Not much you do about the rest of the flock but watch them.

 

[lmdengler]

My daughter's boyfriend who has a little more experience with chickens then I do - says it's not likely the chicken got "pecked" to death. But - everything I have read says the contrary. So I am not feeling confident about what he said. I have read they will peck at other hens until they die. It seems if she got pecked in the head enough times she'd die pretty rapidly - their heads are pretty small. I am off base on this?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

You are right on the money. I have had birds pecked to death. One got his skull opened up, one got the vent opened, and I've had the backs pecked pretty badly. All due to confinement. I no longer confine any of my chickens and I haven't had a problem since. I personally prefer to risk predators over that anymore. So it definitely can and does happen. That's why birds that are stuffed into production situations are always debeaked, otherwise they will all kill each other.

 

[lmdengler]

Typically they are free to run every evening. They look forward to it! As soon as they see me they are “chest bumping” the run to get out. I was away for a week and my husband didn’t let them out - he wasn’t confident it getting them back in. But their run is quite roomy. I am just so sad.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

That unfortunately can trigger the behavior. Hopefully it doesn't happen again. Seems there's always bumps in the road before you get a good chicken system going. My first few years and flock were a mess until I learned a bit more. Many lessons were learned the hard way. Hopefully you don't get too discouraged. Once you get it all figured out chickens can be easy.

Chickens are extreme creatures of habits. Any changes will cause stress to them. Sometimes they act out and sometimes it just stresses their immune system.