Sudden deaths

[chicknmania]

I know this is probably a hopeless question, just need to vent. But wanted to see if anyone else has experienced this.
Last month one of our big beautiful black hens, less than a year old, died. My son found her lying on the barn floor
when he went to feed breakfast. Not a mark on her. We thought maybe she had fallen from the rafters and broken her
neck, once in a great while they do fall if they start scuffling with each other up there. But usually they can at least save themselves, we have only had one other hen in past years do that, and she was old, so we think in her case she just died of old age, and fell..
Now today, another one. She was three years old or so. Same or similar parentage as the hen last month..She was still warm when I found her this morning. It is hard for me to believe that two could fall from the rafters in such a short space of time, without some other contributing factor. But I am at a loss as to what. They have been healthy, and all going out every day. There's not really much forage for them outside yet, so that kinda rules out something they ate. Right now they are eating cracked corn which we alternate with scratch, mixed grains or occasionally flock raiser. And they free range. Just dewormed with Safeguard in January. And two or three times a week throughout the winter they have VitaproB vitamins or organic ACV in their water. They have all been very healthy as far as I can tell. Any thoughts?

 

[CMV]

Their diet doesn't seem sufficient to meet their nutritional requirements. They should be eating layer pellets or a specialized diet of mixed grains and additives (vitamins and minerals). A diet of corn is like feeding them candy all the time. They love it, but it provides few nutrients and makes them fat. Free-ranging this time of year would not provide enough forage to alleviate any deficiencies they may have.

Could someone else be living in the barn with them? Different birds spooked off the roosts in the middle of the night, makes me wonder if maybe they have company.

Sorry for your losses. I hope you figure out what is going on.

 

[chicknmania]

There is no "specialized diet of mixed grains and additives" offered where we live. What I listed is what is available for poultry
in this area. Our flock has been extremely healthy, NOT fat, and we have several chickens who are six or seven years old now, and we have had them since chicks. They do not need layer and we do not feed it because it is bad for the roosters. Flock raiser, which we do feed, has vitamina in it and other nutritional requirements for chickens. WE also feed ours healthy table scraps, which provide variety and some other stuff that they can't get in the winter from foraging. I don't think it's dietary.

Thanks for your input.

 

[chicknmania]

Also, there's nothing else roosting with them in the barn. We close the barn at night. Not that it's Fort Knox, but it would be very difficult
for a raptor to get in and up there with them. If there'd been a predator on the ground this morning, we would have heard the flock.
they would have let us know. And there would have been evidence. Not a mark on either bird.