Arrrrhhhh my lovely Matilda has passed away


. I just went down to get my little guy an egg for his brekkie and I saw her in the corner of the coop. I didn't get her out as I'm still in my PJs and I didn't really want R getting all upset before he goes to school so I'll have to go and get her later. She is a black sex link type chicken - I did notice she was on the nest box a lot yesterday and I thought I'd double check on her and give her an all over today but it was obviously something serious

I know these hybrid layers are not going to live as long as heritage breeds and are prone to reproductive issues but she was only 16 months old, I thought I'd have her a bit longer than this

. She was one of my original 3 I got to start my flock Christmas 2017 and they were my babies, I carried them and handled them a lot (thier coop origianally was in a lean too on the house and thier run in the garden so until they learnt to follow me back and forwards I carried them). She was so lovely - probably my favorite of the 3

. Now I think of it the only thing I noticed was that she had feathers that seemed a bit thin on her butt (one of the things I was going to check on today), I'm now wondering if it was swelling. Devestated I didn't want to disturb her on the nest yesterday, she might still be here.
RIP Matilda
I'm considering doing an autopsy to try to find out what went wrong.