Welsummer died, I'm a rookie

[jlamson]

Hello,
My wife called me at work earlier to tell me that one of our Welsummers was laying on the ground when she went out to put up the ramp before bed. I work weird hours, got home around 3 am and indeed found her dead on the ground, now in rigor mortis. I am terrified that it's something I did (or didn't) so I would appreciate your critique of my setup and maybe some advice on what I could do better.

I built a chicken tractor that's 4'x8' on top with 10 separate nesting boxes. The roof is on hinges at the top so I can lift up either side for easy cleaning and hopefully easy egg access in the future. I got my 8 birds around Easter and so far, so good. I built a ramp from the upstairs of the tractor to a run downstairs where they have about 8'x7' to roam and I let them free range for a few hours a few times a week - which I have to limit because my chocolate lab survived as a pup in the south by eating a farmer's chickens, so he still has that permanent drive for them. I covered the roof with corrugated plastic which collects rain water into gutters which then feed into a 3" x 6' pipe with 6 nipples on it to allow them to drink, and I fill a dog bowl with extra fresh water, but honestly I could probably do better with filling that up regularly. My goal was to get the water situation to be fairly automatic, but I'm considering abandoning this setup because I am afraid it's not very clean / stagnant by the time they get to it.

In the back of the tractor I built in a feed box which holds 100 lbs+ of store bought feed. It falls down into a trough as they eat it, and they've always seemed to eat very robustly. I checked that tonight and I did notice that there is a small colony of earwigs in there, but I'm really not sure if that would affect them at all? Since there's about $40 of feed left in there my plan would be to let them eat all the remaining food, remove any debris, clean it out, then refill. I move the tractor every couple days, they typically completely destroy the lawn they've been on in 2-3 days, and then after a couple weeks it grows back with no weeds and full and thick, which I love.

I last let them free range 2 days ago (my work schedule interferes with my whole life..sigh...), everything seemed fine except I do recall this one chicken did lay down on the grass a couple times when I was herding them all back into the coop. I had seen that behavior before after trying to get them back in, as if they were playing possum after chasing them about to get them back in, so I figured it was that same thing.

When I examined the dead hen it had no external signs of injury, the anus seemed clear, it seemed well nourished with no obvious parasites, the coloring was beautiful and the feathers robust.

Reading about chicken health here and on other websites is honestly overwhelming. I'm an ER nurse full time and the vast array of poultry related disease scares even me. I'm terrified there is some disease that is going to wipe out my flock and would appreciate your critique of my set up and advice on what to do moving forward. As I said before I am trying to be the best chicken dad I can be and just feel so guilty right now.

 

[Ohgrr]

Ugh, there is so much if this I don't know but I can try with a few things and hopefully others will add stuff as well

Water, with a system like that I could see how it might get dirty so I suppose there might have been something there.

Earwigs are a favorite of my chickens but keeping food that long could lead to mold and degradation of nutritional content. I have 8 chicks as well and I keep no more than 50lbs at a time.

My really rough guess, if there was no previous sign of distress, is some kind of digestive or eating issue. If you can manage to get to a vet maybe they could give you better advise.

Again sorry for the lack of info. I hope someone can expand on things.

 

[TXchickmum]

The first thing that comes to mind here is potentially heat. -not sure what your climate is like whereyou live, but if my chickens were kept in a similar scenario during the day in our heat, they would more than likely experience heat stroke. Within a matter of three hours after a fresh refill the water in the 5 gallon waterer is warm to the touch. We have to either refill every few hours, or place an old milk jug (filled with water and frozen) in the waterer in the morning and replace it with another by early afternoon. Also, you have 8 birds in an area that is 56 sq. feet (when they aren't on a nest box and laying). That is less than the 10 sq. ft. per bird minimum that most recommend, and again, that many birds in a concentrated space during the summer heat is a lot. (It also depends if they are standard size or bantam. Tha rule applies for standard size, and bantams can take a bit less room. Do you have standard or bantam Welsummers, or a mix of various breeds/sizes?) Is the tractor in the shade? If the water is warm, the sun is directly on the tractor a good bit of the day, and there isn't a lot of space, I would say the death is possibly heat related.