Why do you think young chickens sometimes die for no reason?

[The Chicken Man]

If you let your chickens free range, they won't need as much grit, and you simply won't see them eat it that much. It's still a good idea to provide it, however, as they'll use it when they need it. As for oyster shell, that depends on your feed - does it contain calcium supplements? If so, oyster shell is not required. If not, then I would recommend supplying shell. Remember that your birds usually know what they need, and they'll take oyster shell liberally if they require it.

So sorry to here about your loss.

Good luck with your other chooks.

The Chicken Man

 

[bawkbawkbawk]

I just lost a 29-week-old seemingly perfectly healthy hen today. On Christmas afternoon. I am devastated.

She was fine this morning. Laid an egg early in the am. Was hanging out with the other three all day, everything normal. I went out to visit them mid-afternoon (we were very busy due to Christmas and I didn't spend as much time with them during the day as I usually do, which is haunting me now) and found her wedged into a corner of the coop, dead and stiff. The only thing I can think of is that she may have choked on something. We buried her immediately so I will never know what happened. There were no marks of trauma or any blood on her body.

Worms are one thing I don't know anything about. I would think you would see evidence of them in the poop, and I clean the coop every morning and have seen nothing unusual. I change their food and water daily, keep the coop very clean. They have access to grit and oyster shell. I just can't imagine what happened to her.

Have checked on the other three several times (annoying them by turning on the light in the coop as they try to sleep) and they are all fine. But I just dread tomorrow morning in case I lose more of them and just to go in there and see only three instead of four.

It's not so much fun having chickens now that this has happened.

 

[seminolewind]

Hi. I know how you feel. I lost 2 this year. There's always a reason, but sometimes we don't know what it is. And chickens were never bred to be strong and live long. They were bred to lay more eggs and gain alot of weight.

You should really work on not having the inside of the coop wet. And most people use shavings. You might be able to get wormer at the place you get your chicken feed, or Tractor supply. Try to look for Wazine. It's easy you just put it in their water for a day. Try to keep their feed dry. They can get sick if they eat rotten grain off the ground.

Hope that helps a bit.

 

[bawkbawkbawk]

Thank you for your input.

The coop is absolutely dry. No moisture anywhere - we just put in a drainage system so it stays dry even when it rains. And the last rain we had here was a week or more ago so everything is dry. I use pine shavings (no cedar) on the floor of the coop, which is concrete, and on the counter-tops. I change out any wet areas every day when I remove all the poop from the coop.

I will research worms but wouldn't there be some kind of symptoms of them?

 

[safarichick101]

Okay. Thankyou. Pine is what I need.

 

[cassie]

Babies of all species can die for now good reason. Sometimes they are just not strong enough to make it.

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

I used to manage a very large thoroughbred horse farm and we occasionally lost a horse to unknown reasons. I always got SO upset, of course. One day one of the men working for me said the following and it changed the way I felt about losing them: "When you have livestock, you're just going to have deadstock sometimes".

It's just the way it is. They certainly don't die of nothing...we just don't know what it is. I am sorry...I always cry when I lose a chicken

So, now going to your next question...what to do about your coop. Well, I live in Florida and our soil drains well, but I can give you a few suggestions. This is how I built our coops when I built new ones recently.

I built a floor using 2X4's turned on the small side, like roof rafters, every 2 feet and put a sheet of 3/4 inch outdoor plywood over it to make a floor. Then we put the walls up around the floor. This allows rain to run underneath the floor and the shavings that we use on top of the floor stay dry. I agree that if their food gets wet, you could likely lose a lot of chickens to botulism.

Keep us posted....