"Zombie" Chickens (Coming back from the dead?!)

[Bird-Whisperer]

Hi y'all,

I'm not sure if this is the place for this post, but I was just in the BYC facebook page, and saw someone posted about their hen "coming back from the dead".
Here's a link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BackyardChickensBYC/permalink/10162392132344734/

The comments were loaded with people who've had similar (some, more extreme cases) of this happening - made me feel bad for throwing all my dead birds in the freezer before giving them a couple of days to "come back", LOL!

Anyway, everything on this site for "zombie chicken" just comes up regarding color, and I'm curious if anyone here is familiar with this phenomena; I've never heard of this before so if anyone knows more about this, I'd love to hear about it!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Hi y'all,

I'm not sure if this is the place for this post, but I was just in the BYC facebook page, and saw someone posted about their hen "coming back from the dead".
Here's a link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BackyardChickensBYC/permalink/10162392132344734/

The comments were loaded with people who've had similar (some, more extreme cases) of this happening - made me feel bad for throwing all my dead birds in the freezer before giving them a couple of days to "come back", LOL!

Anyway, everything on this site for "zombie chicken" just comes up regarding color, and I'm curious if anyone here is familiar with this phenomena; I've never heard of this before so if anyone knows more about this, I'd love to hear about it!

Someone is telling tales. Social media is good for that.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Gotta love Facebook ignorance

 

[Bird-Whisperer]

Someone is telling tales. Social media is good for that.

I thought there may have been a phenomena where chickens go into somekind of "coma-like" state that resembled death that I was unaware of so I wanted to ask here - I guess I was too quick to assume it was true

 

[abpatchy]

My neighbor told me a story that happened to her. She came to the coop and had a couple of chickens laying there, dead. She put them into her trash can. The next morning when she wanted to put out a bag of trash the chickens were alive and looking at her.
She believes it might have been too hot and they went into shock. It looked like they were dead. I mean did you ever check for a pulse on a chicken you believed dead? I haven't!
So I do think the stories are true, but very rare.

 

[Bean1028]

My neighbor told me a story that happened to her. She came to the coop and had a couple of chickens laying there, dead. She put them into her trash can. The next morning when she wanted to put out a bag of trash the chickens were alive and looking at her.
She believes it might have been too hot and they went into shock. It looked like they were dead. I mean did you ever check for a pulse on a chicken you believed dead? I haven't!
So I do think the stories are true, but very rare.

My in laws had a rooster that was attacked by a predator & they honestly believed him to be dead, but for whatever reason (pure guilt) took him to the vet. She gave him smelling salts & he snapped "back to life." The vet told him the rooster was just in that deep of shock & it wasn't uncommon.

 

[Loving my girls]

Ingrid’s place of burial was dug up less than a week after she had been buried.
I suspect fowl play…

 

[SamLockwood]

I thought there may have been a phenomena where chickens go into somekind of "coma-like" state that resembled death that I was unaware of so I wanted to ask here - I guess I was too quick to assume it was true

There's actually videos on how you can "hypnotize" chickens. It's not really hypnosis, but they do go into a "cataleptic" state when they're under certain kinds of stress. They'll go limp and look dead, but it only lasts a few minutes.

I haven't had any others "come back to life," and when rigor mortis sets in they're definitely not coming back.

 

[Bird-Whisperer]

There's actually videos on how you can "hypnotize" chickens. It's not really hypnosis, but they do go into a "cataleptic" state when they're under certain kinds of stress. They'll go limp and look dead, but it only lasts a few minutes.

I haven't had any others "come back to life," and when rigor mortis sets in they're definitely not coming back.

ah yes, now I have had this happen before! I had a rooster tangled in a net and was hanging upside down when I found him (no idea how long he was like that) and I definitely thought he was dead. But as I was untangling his body he blinked; I brought him inside and after about 15 minutes he suddenly realized where he was and FREAKED OUT poor guy, but he was a-okay after that!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

mean did you ever check for a pulse on a chicken you believed dead? I haven't!

I do when I'm trying to warm a bird up from freezing. If I don't feel anything, I stop, if I feel anything that might be a heartbeat, I continue.