Death of family chicken....

[EasyToEatTiger]

She was a bog standard orange egg-laying girl aged about nearly 5, and she died in the night. My ignorance about chickens is profound and I fear I have let her down. We have 2 chickens left. How long can a chicken expect to live, and what do you do if you suspect one is not well? I find the ducks easier to look after.

[Nigglenaggle]

Sorry for your loss :( Lifespan depends alot on breed/type for chickens, but I dont think 5yrs is unreasonable...

[EasyToEatTiger]

Thank you! I'm just concerned that I know so very little about chickens and how to look after them properly. We once considered the option of taking her to the vet. It would have cost £80 being a weekend. We could have replaced her nearly 80 times. It doesn't feel right to have such a regard for an animal.

[Nigglenaggle]

Hope this doesnt upset you too much given your recent experience, but on that note if you ever feel one is suffering and you arent able to get to the vet or dont want to pay a call out fee if its at the weekend/at night, it is considered humane and normal to wring its neck yourself. The vet will be used to hearing of people do this if they have lots of backyard chickens on their books.(Its actually a requirement of the code of welfare for poultry for large scale intensive keepers that birds are regularly culled in this manner if they are unwell) Get someone more experienced to show you, but it isnt difficult and is as quick an end as the vet could give (and doesnt involve the stress of a visit from the birds point of view). Obviously you have to then make the decision of will they get better or not without a second op from the vet on that (which might have been hard in this case), but its better than watching them suffer if you are sure things arent going well.