Silkie hen went for a swim. . . frozen.

[emilyenorris]

Yesterday I came home from work and found my free range silkie hen in the goat water bowl. It was in the 30s yesterday. Her head was dry. I am guessing she fell in and could not get out. It is one of the rubber bowls that are about a foot deep. I have never had one fall in that I am aware of. I have heard of chicks drowning, but not 1.5 yr old hens. Has anyone ever experienced anything like this? I am putting a cinder block in the bottom of the water. Not sure if they are smart enough to use it to get out, but I will try. Was this just a freak accident?

I will miss Goose, my silkie. I know she lived a great life for a pet chicken.

 

[TwentyOneChickens]

Yesterday I came home from work and found my free range silkie hen in the goat water bowl. It was in the 30s yesterday. Her head was dry. I am guessing she fell in and could not get out. It is one of the rubber bowls that are about a foot deep. I have never had one fall in that I am aware of. I have heard of chicks drowning, but not 1.5 yr old hens. Has anyone ever experienced anything like this? I am putting a cinder block in the bottom of the water. Not sure if they are smart enough to use it to get out, but I will try. Was this just a freak accident?

I will miss Goose, my silkie. I know she lived a great life for a pet chicken.

I am so sorry!

Maybe the goats pushed her in or something... I’ve never heard of anything like this before!

 

[CatWhisperer]

That’s horrible, poor thing. Condolences.

 

[chickens really]

She became water logged possibly..
Sorry that happened.

 

[Nor-Cal Chickens]

I am so sorry!

Maybe the goats pushed her in or something... I’ve never heard of anything like this before!

Quite possible! Farm animals can be cruel to each other on occasion. I saw the after effects of a small goat get stuck in the mud and a cow laying on top of her to stay dry or warm. poor goat suffocated in the mud.

 

[TwentyOneChickens]

Quite possible! Farm animals can be cruel to each other on occasion. I saw the after effects of a small goat get stuck in the mud and a cow laying on top of her to stay dry or warm. poor goat suffocated in the mud.

Once, my chickens were terrorizing my neighbor's goats. The goats came into our yard every day while our neighbors were at work, and once they went into the backyard. Our chickens ran up to them and chased them home.

 

[AsaDotJava]

I am so sorry for your loss

My first chickens I kept as a kid were Silkies and I tell ya, I pulled hens out of the water troughs SO MANY TIMES. They DO get water-logged and just cannot get out. I can recall sitting on the trampoline in the sun with two hens and towels, trying to dry and warm them. Those two did survive... others did not

If you don't want to compromise the amount of water your trough can hold by adding cinder blocks, you can do what I eventually did - I added no-rust fencing on my troughs and pushed it down about 4" into the water. The stock can all drink from it still, and anything that falls in will have a perch to get their bearings. This saved several lambs at the ranch I worked on last year, too!

 

[Tacampbell1973]

Oh no! That's awful! Yup, Silkies have the wierd feathers with no barbicels so they would be pretty much stuck. But still I am so sorry to hear that Closest I have had to that was thankfully not my Silkies but rather one of my Cochin babies. I had run a bath and I usually shut the bathroom door but I didn't. Bath was filling up and I was wandering around the house getting my coffee probably for bathtime. My white Cochin hen Angel was living in the house at the time. I heard Angel making a racket in my room so I go running to see. I am positive that one of her two chicks are in trouble from her panic sounds. I race to the bathroom expecting to see a dead chick in the tub. I look in and I'll be damned if that month old baby wasn't paddling around the tub like a pro! I laughed for days but still it was a close call!

 

[Birdsong 82]

Wow. I am so sorry for your loss ..thats something I never would've even thought but I've never owned silkie but I guess it's possible with any small or young one. My chickens with walk on my goats and the goats couldn't care less but my girls are pretty chill (for goats) my guess is she fell in and couldn't get out. I am so sorry

 

[Ted_Harrell]

Emily, sorry for your loss sounds as though she had a great life...