What happend?

[shawneesas]

We have some chickens that are about four months old (hens just started laying, yay!). We have six bantams, three hens three roosters, and we had eight full size (seven hens, one rooster). A little while ago, we wnet to feed them all, and we were missing the big rooster. Sometimes if we close the coop during the day (goats and chickens share a barn, but chickens have half the barn to themselves where they slee. goats are at fair so chickens get whole barn for a week) the bantam hens fay to the rafters, but it wasnt that late and the big hens rarely fly and the rooster never did. We go to get the food, thinking he will come out. when we find him. He was at the bottom of the feed bin (we have a plastic trash can, but the lid was on it upside down for some reason today), dead. we don't know what happened. his neck was curled, but not overly. Hismouth was full of food, but there was barely any food left in the bin (about 1/2 an inch, cracked corn) before so I don't think he suffocated. The can is light enough that the hens sometimes knock it over by roosting on it, and the inside (above the corn) was wet, like condensation. We were thinking that the lid tipped and he fell in, but how did he die? did he panick? why the food in his mouth? how did he get up there ( couldn't/didnt fly), and why was it wet inside? there are no marks on him that we noticed. Any one know what could have happened?

 

[Eggcessive]

So sorry for your loss. He may have become dehydrated after gorging, or suffocated. I had a mishap with a bantam rooster once who jumped into an almost empty metal garbage can holding scratch. I had left the lid off after grabbing some to go catch some young cockerels that a friend was taking to his house to butcher. When I came back to the coop, I just replaced the lid, and since it was nearly empty, I didn't see him. The next morning, 12 hours later, I opened the can and found him barely alive, not able to stand, and comb was blue. He recovered, but it was almost too late. I'm sure he nearly suffocated, plus was dehydrated from eating his little heart out. I felt like a dog, but I always double check the cans now.