We lost one of our hens this morning and I am hoping someone here may have a clue as to why?
We recently acquired three new barred rock sexlink chicks to add to our flock of three RIR/comets. We were extremely careful per directions here, treating and feeding the big girls in thier seperated coop and run before feeding and caring for the new chicks in their own seperate tractor about 30feet away. We had washing buckets on hand to clean our tools and hands before and after handling the two groups of birds. About 5 days ago, having passed the 30 day quarantine for the chicks, we closed off the fence gate between the run and the coop and moved the chicks into the run which has its own day coop for them to shelter in. They are now about 4 months old and fully feathered, just much smaller than the older flock. It was still to early to let them mix.
After three days of letting them hear each other through the solid fence, we replaced the run gate to the Adults coop with a sheet of wire so the birds could see and even interact without chance of injury or full contact. This seemed to work fantastic. The new birds would stand at the gate and chirp at the hens on the other side. One hen, Lucy, seemed to like to watch them more than the other two, who have been a lil broody for the last few weeks and hanging in the coop and nests.
Last night, all the birds were fine and hungry. Everyone ate, acted with the normal amount of energy and seemed to be fine. But this morning, we found Lucy prone on the floor of the coop, her head in a puddle of saliva. She appeared to be too weak to raise her head. this was early morning and though the nights have been warm (80s) recently, the coop is well ventilated and has the wire doors open to the breeze during summers. Around her were diahreah piles of yellow excrement, almost yolk like in color and consistency. Wanting to get her away from the other two girls quickly, we cleaned and prepared the chicken tractor and moved her into her hutch with some clean hay. She roused to lift her head when I picked her up but when placed on her nest hay, she just rolled over and layed her head down. a few minutes later we heard a thrashing and when we went through the fence to investiage, she had expired. This was less than 12 hours from healthy active bird to sudden death. No marks or injuries seen on the body but I didnt have the heart to pluck her or the money to necropsy her. I am praying it was heat stroke and not a disease vector from the chicks. Its not unheard of for healthy birds to be carriers of other vectors your birds may have no immunities for, but this was way to sudden for a viral or respiritory disease. Any ideas on what it could be?
We cleaned the coop thoroughly and changed bedding hay, food, water, etc before scrubbing out floors and ramps of coop with light peroxide water. Not sure what else we can do to protect the other two adults. At the moment, no one seems the worse except for the bird that died. Yep, you guessed it, we are more pet owners than livestock raisers, but we do know a bit about chickens from our youth and this sudden death puzzles and worries me. Thanks for any help you can offer. TIM
We recently acquired three new barred rock sexlink chicks to add to our flock of three RIR/comets. We were extremely careful per directions here, treating and feeding the big girls in thier seperated coop and run before feeding and caring for the new chicks in their own seperate tractor about 30feet away. We had washing buckets on hand to clean our tools and hands before and after handling the two groups of birds. About 5 days ago, having passed the 30 day quarantine for the chicks, we closed off the fence gate between the run and the coop and moved the chicks into the run which has its own day coop for them to shelter in. They are now about 4 months old and fully feathered, just much smaller than the older flock. It was still to early to let them mix.
After three days of letting them hear each other through the solid fence, we replaced the run gate to the Adults coop with a sheet of wire so the birds could see and even interact without chance of injury or full contact. This seemed to work fantastic. The new birds would stand at the gate and chirp at the hens on the other side. One hen, Lucy, seemed to like to watch them more than the other two, who have been a lil broody for the last few weeks and hanging in the coop and nests.
Last night, all the birds were fine and hungry. Everyone ate, acted with the normal amount of energy and seemed to be fine. But this morning, we found Lucy prone on the floor of the coop, her head in a puddle of saliva. She appeared to be too weak to raise her head. this was early morning and though the nights have been warm (80s) recently, the coop is well ventilated and has the wire doors open to the breeze during summers. Around her were diahreah piles of yellow excrement, almost yolk like in color and consistency. Wanting to get her away from the other two girls quickly, we cleaned and prepared the chicken tractor and moved her into her hutch with some clean hay. She roused to lift her head when I picked her up but when placed on her nest hay, she just rolled over and layed her head down. a few minutes later we heard a thrashing and when we went through the fence to investiage, she had expired. This was less than 12 hours from healthy active bird to sudden death. No marks or injuries seen on the body but I didnt have the heart to pluck her or the money to necropsy her. I am praying it was heat stroke and not a disease vector from the chicks. Its not unheard of for healthy birds to be carriers of other vectors your birds may have no immunities for, but this was way to sudden for a viral or respiritory disease. Any ideas on what it could be?
We cleaned the coop thoroughly and changed bedding hay, food, water, etc before scrubbing out floors and ramps of coop with light peroxide water. Not sure what else we can do to protect the other two adults. At the moment, no one seems the worse except for the bird that died. Yep, you guessed it, we are more pet owners than livestock raisers, but we do know a bit about chickens from our youth and this sudden death puzzles and worries me. Thanks for any help you can offer. TIM
, and we keep a close eye on health and feeding and brooding behaviours to nip problems in the bud. Its gotta be a lot harder with 50 birds!!! Natural fed and Free Range birds have a lot fewer issues than birds on 100% feeds, so add lots of greens to keep the diet varied if your birds dont free range. Its inevitable that we will all lose a few birds here and there, but I am now convinced that DIET is a huge issue in longevity and overall helath and we are trying to focus on improving THAT above all else! Here's hoping you have no more dissapointments and a Healthy Flock! Thanks for posting! Be sure to get more info on GMO and GE feeds and the impacts on your pets and lovestock at Mercola.com
