What do you think could cause this?

[joedie]

Every month or two I find one of the pullets dead in the coop. None have any signs of illnesses prior to finding them below the roost. It happens every 4-8 weeks. None of the others appear sick and all are laying well. They are about 10 months old. I usually find them in the morning but today I find an EE dead in the afternoon when I went to collect the eggs. She appeared fine this morning. This pullet had not started laying yet. Any ideas?

 

[gsim]

Quote:
I found one 8 mo old dead in coop, not molested. Had choked on something. I would guess that and if not, pull all neck feathers and check to see if a weasel got her. There can be times that a weasel may not appear to leave a mark that can be seen through the feathers. They are blood-suckers and sure-fire chicken killers.

 

[hen-thusiast]

Can you describe their food, bedding, housing? Have you checked for external parasites? Have they ever been wormed? I'm assuming you have also looked them over for signs of trauma.

 

[joedie]

No trauma. The coop is a 10 x 12 building that was used as a construction site office. It has 3 windows, insulation, drywall, electric. (They don't peck at the drywall either) I use wood shavings for the bedding and DLM. They eat milled chicken food and fresh water daily and have access to a large covered run surrounded by 1/2" hardware cloth dug 12" deep around the perimeter of the run and coop. There really isn't any ammonia smell in there. No signs of mites. No I've never wormed them but they don't have any bloody poo or signs of worms.

 

[hen-thusiast]

What type of wood? I know that cedar is harmful to chickens. Mites can be difficult to detect sometimes they can hide during the day and some people say to go out at night with a flashlight and check the roost, nesting boxes, everything then. You don't necessarily have to see signs of worms or bloody poop to indicate worms. It might not hurt to worm them, just in case.

Other than that, I have no idea. Sorry.

 

[joedie]

The shavings are pine but thanks all for your thoughts!

 

[Country4ever]

Do you check the crop size and see if their abdomens are swollen? How many have you lost?
Could they be jumping off their roost and breaking their necks? That happened to a couple of my hens. (I'm assuming, since they were fine the night before and perfectly healthy).
Is it possible that they are internal layers or were eggbound?

 

[cedar post]

I had this thing going on last fall could it be pine shavings. Any thoughts.. Someone told me that the pine shavings can clog their crops and they slowly die. Mike

 

[joedie]

Quote:
I wish I had checked the crops but didn't even think of it. My husband found the latest one the other day and I didn't even see her but I think I'm going to switch to straw or something else and see if it keeps happening.