Well, turns out I was wrong about having 2 broodies. I just wasn't paying close enough attention, sigh. Turns out the second one wasn't broody after all, she was sick. She seemed fine when I shooed her out of the nest box yesterday pm and her normal self this morning or as normal as any of them were behaving with a bunch of strangers running around putting on a roof. They all went into hiding as I expected but later when I went out to check on them and give them a treat, Gravy didn't come out from under the bench. Odd. I scooped her out and put her on my lap where she promptly closed her eyes and went to sleep as I rubbed her crop. Not her at all. I eventually put her in the coop and hours later she was standing exactly where I left her. She finally now is laying down in the straw on the coop floor. I don't expect her to be alive in the morning. She is showing no outward signs, no wheezing, no limping, no hard crop, nothing except when I first put her in my lap I noticed her comb was tilted over and her one wing was trembling but stopped as I stroked her and of course the total lethargy. I am at a loss. Why am I losing my birds? The symptoms don't match up (Noodle who died a month earlier had an on again off again bad limp w/o reason for month prior to her suddenly going down hill and gone within 2 days). My girls are healthy happy hens until one at a time suddenly they are not. Oh, and the 3rd red I had that I gave to my neighbor a couple months ago possibly died the same way this one is going. She has some reds from the same batch of chicks mine came from so she isn't sure which one died. (She doesn't pay much attention to who's who in her flock) What I am afraid of is my rescue birds had more than just the CRD I worked them thru and were carriers of something worse. They were never fully healthy no matter how hard I tried and either died or had to be culled one by one. My last rescue has been gone more than a year now but both Noodle and my 3 production Reds were here before they were gone. Anyone have any ideas? My Cackle Aussies are 15+ months old now and have been perfectly healthy, except for taking turns being broody. I just hope whatever is taking my other girls is just not going to be passed on to them. I'm down to 4 birds going into winter but I just am afraid to add any more until I know for sure what is going on. ARRRGH!!!
