- Nov 9, 2012
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A couple of weeks ago, we received three New Hampshire Reds from some friends. We had already introduced 1 chicken from them to our flock about 6 months ago without any incident. We assumed that the same would be true of these three. They integrated well once they found their place in the pecking order.
We have a flock of 11 chickens. Last Friday I spent a good bit of time trimming beaks, claws and wings and dusting with Sevin for fleas, mites, etc. At this point ALL chickens seemed to be the picture of health.
Last night I went out to collect eggs and everyone was roosting. This morning I went back out to feed and one of the new chickens was lying on the floor of the coop dead. I know she was on her roost late last night b/c I checked her when I went to get eggs. I haven't noticed anything odd with her behavior nor has she shown any visible signs of sickness.
Any ideas about what could cause an otherwise healthy looking chicken to suddenly die?
One note that may be of no consequence...we use a hanging feeder in our coop. When I fed on Monday, I discovered a couple of rat pellets in the feeder. If she had eaten one, would this possibly prove fatal to her? I doubt that is the cause, but that's the only thing I can think of that is out of the ordinary.
The only other thing I can think is that, possibly, the new hen could have caught something from one of my original hens to which they've developed an immunity? Again, everyone looks and acts really healthy.
A little more about our flock:
10 hens - 4 New Hampshire Reds, 2 Cinnamon Queens, 4 Americaunas
The Cinnamon queens are about 2 years old, NH Reds about 1 1/2 years old and Americaunas are about 7 months old.
We're getting four eggs a day right now which seems a little low, but I'm assuming that some of the Americaunas haven't reached POL
The 3 newest NH Reds were given antibiotics as chicks and pullets, but none of my original flock have had any medications
Any ideas would be great. I need to know if I should be looking for something that I'm missing. Thanks!
We have a flock of 11 chickens. Last Friday I spent a good bit of time trimming beaks, claws and wings and dusting with Sevin for fleas, mites, etc. At this point ALL chickens seemed to be the picture of health.
Last night I went out to collect eggs and everyone was roosting. This morning I went back out to feed and one of the new chickens was lying on the floor of the coop dead. I know she was on her roost late last night b/c I checked her when I went to get eggs. I haven't noticed anything odd with her behavior nor has she shown any visible signs of sickness.
Any ideas about what could cause an otherwise healthy looking chicken to suddenly die?
One note that may be of no consequence...we use a hanging feeder in our coop. When I fed on Monday, I discovered a couple of rat pellets in the feeder. If she had eaten one, would this possibly prove fatal to her? I doubt that is the cause, but that's the only thing I can think of that is out of the ordinary.
The only other thing I can think is that, possibly, the new hen could have caught something from one of my original hens to which they've developed an immunity? Again, everyone looks and acts really healthy.
A little more about our flock:
10 hens - 4 New Hampshire Reds, 2 Cinnamon Queens, 4 Americaunas
The Cinnamon queens are about 2 years old, NH Reds about 1 1/2 years old and Americaunas are about 7 months old.
We're getting four eggs a day right now which seems a little low, but I'm assuming that some of the Americaunas haven't reached POL
The 3 newest NH Reds were given antibiotics as chicks and pullets, but none of my original flock have had any medications
Any ideas would be great. I need to know if I should be looking for something that I'm missing. Thanks!
