Why has my young hen died?

[lighthouse]

At the very beginning I got four chickens —a rooster, two hens and a chick (Moño) I didn’t know if male or female.

My two hens went broody and that put them out of the market for a long while so the rooster started raping the chick Moño that wasn’t a chick anymore but a young 6/7 months old hen.

Last week one of the broody hens stopped taking care of her chicks and got back to business.

Yesterday Moño was kind of quiet the whole day, no mingling much with the others but nothing really that said she’s sick. Sad perhaps? At night she didn’t want to come in to sleep so I took her and kept her on my lap for quite a while —she was always VERY scared of me so I was astounded she played along a very relaxed all the time— and then I brought her with the other chickens.

This morning she was dead.

WHY please? What can be the reason?

 

[Hei 20]

At the very beginning I got four chickens —a rooster, two hens and a chick (Moño) I didn’t know if male or female.

My two hens went broody and that put them out of the market for a long while so the rooster started raping the chick Moño that wasn’t a chick anymore but a young 6/7 months old hen.

Last week one of the broody hens stopped taking care of her chicks and got back to business.

Yesterday Moño was kind of quiet the whole day, no mingling much with the others but nothing really that said she’s sick. Sad perhaps? At night she didn’t want to come in to sleep so I took her and kept her on my lap for quite a while —she was always VERY scared of me so I was astounded she played along a very relaxed all the time— and then I brought her with the other chickens.

This morning she was dead.

WHY please? What can be the reason?

I'm sorry for your loss

 

[AllenK RGV]

Ok I just have to say this she was your favorite. Nature was then forced to take her from you. It has happened to us consistently if I like a hen too much for some mysterious reason she will die.

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry for your loss. It would be hard to know exactly why your pullet died at such a young age. A necropsy/autopsy done after death will sometimes give you clues when you look at the organs. Certain diseases will cause changes in the organs. Heart failure, reproductive infection, and coccidiosis or intestinal infection are some possible problems. Usually there will be some early symptoms.,

 

[Chicalina]

she may have been egg bound. it is quite common in newly laying pullets.

how are the chicks doing?

 

[lighthouse]

she may have been egg bound. it is quite common in newly laying pullets.

how are the chicks doing?

i thought of that and before i buried her i touched her tummy and butt but didn’t feel anything there.

would i have felt the egg bound if it had been that?

 

[lighthouse]

Sorry for your loss. It would be hard to know exactly why your pullet died at such a young age. A necropsy/autopsy done after death will sometimes give you clues when you look at the organs. Certain diseases will cause changes in the organs. Heart failure, reproductive infection, and coccidiosis or intestinal infection are some possible problems. Usually there will be some early symptoms.,

i see.

thank you.

 

[Chicalina]

i thought of that and before i buried her i touched her tummy and butt but didn’t feel anything there.

would i have felt the egg bound if it had been that?

You can't always feel the egg if you only touch gently. You have to really prod and poke sometimes (internally and externally).

 

[lighthouse]

You can't always feel the egg if you only touch gently. You have to really prod and poke sometimes (internally and externally).

i definitely didn’t prod and poke —she was already hard when i found her and you know, death strips living beings from all their dignity and i couldn’t watch that for long and even less prod and poke at it.

IGNORANCE KILLS MORE THAN HATRED.

i’m SOOOO fed up of killing my animals because of my ignorance really. i never had chickens before i arrived in this country nor doves or fish and all of them had been victims of my deep ignorance. after you said the “egg bound” option —i was thinking she might have had an “egg stuck“ but then you gave me the word— i looked up a couple of youtube tutorials and it would have been so easy to help her...

what really kills me was the fact that she was resting on my lap for so long and so relaxed before i brought her in the bathroom and she had always been SO scared of me.

 

[Chicalina]

You mustn't blame yourself. These things happen and if your hen was eggbound then she was just unlucky. You may not have been able to fix it anyway.

Much of the time, we don't realise how sick they are until it is too late because they hide it. Since they are prey animals, that is a survival instinct.

If a chicken is unusually quiet, fluffed up and lets you pick it up when normally it would run away, and lets you pet it when normally it would fight you, then it is not relaxed, it is sick. Chicken keeping is an ongoing learning experience and we have all been there at the start, not knowing much, trust me. We've all made mistakes in this learning journey, but it is what we do with that knowledge that matters.

You don't know for sure what she died of, and it could be any number of things. You should watch the rest of the flock very carefully for the next few weeks because if it was a disease then it may start showing in the others.

BYC is here to help, advise and educate. It is a brilliant forum with loads of really helpful and wise people. Keep posting when you need to. No question is too silly to ask.