About 2 months ago, one of our RIR roosters (he wasn't old enough to crow yet but he was almost there) died, suddenly. We had been outside all day and he was free ranging. Then out of no where, that evening he started acting lethargic,wobbly and not really wanting to do anything. He started breathing really shallow and then he couldn't really move. My husband had to put him down because he was just suffering. This happened all within an hour MAYBE an hour an half. We didn't really know what to think about it.
He was with a group of 4 chick that we purchased at 2 days old. Two RIR and two Barred Rock. They were all 4 roosters. We had sold two of them and we had one of each left. The Barred Rock had completely flourished and he was/is SUPER beautiful and healthy. The RIR was very big and healthy too. About two days leading up him passing, we thought maybe the Barred Rock was beating up on the RIR and he wasn't being able to eat. We separated him out with his own hens and he seemed fine.
We kind of chalked it up to not knowing what happened and moved on.
Now, at the end of July our Silver Duckwing Bantam hatched her first clutch. Five out of six hatched. They have all been HAPPY, beautiful and healthy. Absolutely THRIVING. We got two rooster and three hens out of the clutch. They were 8 weeks old this past Wednesday the 11th. We have had absolutely no problems with them, whatsoever. Yesterday, my husband picked up one of the chicks (a hen) and made a comment that it felt sort of light but we know that she was eating and she was running around, very active, eating and drinking. We just let it go. Today, while me and my husband were outside building chicken pens, we went over to check on the mama and her babies. Mama and all 5 of her chicks were just fine. All eating, drinking and acting normal. Around 8:30 pm, we rounded everything up and we were getting ready to head inside. I went inside and my husband went back out to make sure all of the chickens were in the coop and all of the babies were too. He opened up Bonnie's (our silver duckwing hen) nesting boxes door to count all the chickens. He noticed that one of the chicks was in the back corner (where she normally slept) but she didn't look "right." He knocked on the side of the coop and she didn't move. So he went in the pen and grabbed her out of the coop and she was dead. He said that she was still warm so that she must have just passed. He also said that she was flat on one side (the side she was laying on). Now, we don't know if the two incidents are related because we weren't really watching the chicks closely. We didn't have any reason to believe that needed to be watched closely.
So what in the world could be going on? None of them were showing any signs of being sick at all.
He was with a group of 4 chick that we purchased at 2 days old. Two RIR and two Barred Rock. They were all 4 roosters. We had sold two of them and we had one of each left. The Barred Rock had completely flourished and he was/is SUPER beautiful and healthy. The RIR was very big and healthy too. About two days leading up him passing, we thought maybe the Barred Rock was beating up on the RIR and he wasn't being able to eat. We separated him out with his own hens and he seemed fine.
We kind of chalked it up to not knowing what happened and moved on.
Now, at the end of July our Silver Duckwing Bantam hatched her first clutch. Five out of six hatched. They have all been HAPPY, beautiful and healthy. Absolutely THRIVING. We got two rooster and three hens out of the clutch. They were 8 weeks old this past Wednesday the 11th. We have had absolutely no problems with them, whatsoever. Yesterday, my husband picked up one of the chicks (a hen) and made a comment that it felt sort of light but we know that she was eating and she was running around, very active, eating and drinking. We just let it go. Today, while me and my husband were outside building chicken pens, we went over to check on the mama and her babies. Mama and all 5 of her chicks were just fine. All eating, drinking and acting normal. Around 8:30 pm, we rounded everything up and we were getting ready to head inside. I went inside and my husband went back out to make sure all of the chickens were in the coop and all of the babies were too. He opened up Bonnie's (our silver duckwing hen) nesting boxes door to count all the chickens. He noticed that one of the chicks was in the back corner (where she normally slept) but she didn't look "right." He knocked on the side of the coop and she didn't move. So he went in the pen and grabbed her out of the coop and she was dead. He said that she was still warm so that she must have just passed. He also said that she was flat on one side (the side she was laying on). Now, we don't know if the two incidents are related because we weren't really watching the chicks closely. We didn't have any reason to believe that needed to be watched closely.
So what in the world could be going on? None of them were showing any signs of being sick at all.