Dead chicken

[pigsinmud]

Oh dear. Just been out to let the chickens out in to the garden for a bit of a free range. I noticed only 3 were out in the run and the one missing had been in the nesting box at 7am when I opened the coop - she seemed ok then. She's dead in the nesting box. The other 3 have been in and laid eggs next to her.

She's had egg laying problems over the past 5 months - laying very soft shelled eggs. I tried various things to try and boost her up, but nothing worked. She was fine yesterday - eating and prowling round the garden. I need to get her out the nesting box, but am feeling a bit wimpish and don't want to.

[beakerandburette]

It's always sad when you lose a hen but happens quite frequently unfortunately :( we've lost a fair few girls to manky foxes and 6 hatchlings last week because the brood bulb blew in the middle of the night.

Very glad your DD wasn't too heart broken.

[pigsinmud]

Dd1 very upset for a few minutes, bit OK now. She doesn't want to get another chicken as it would seem like we were replacing her.

[HiawathaDidntBotherTooMuch]

Aaaaah, I'm very sorry. Next door's cat died of natural causes in our garden a few weeks ago. He was curled up in the corner between our house and the side gate. I hadn't used the side gate for 3 days, so he could well have been there for all that time.

I used gloves and put him in a box as gently as I could.

If your hen was ok yesterday, you will be able to move her. I know it will be upsetting and it isn't a pleasant thing to have to do, but the earlier you move her the better. I'm very sorry.

[hellymelly]

Oh dear. That is sad. My dds have each had a chicken die, one had to be pts because she was dying of respiratory problems, the other was taken by a fox. One of my dds was more upset than the other, but they were both sad. We buried the first hen in our garden , and dd put a little vase of flowers there, so perhaps you could have a little burial ceremony if that would help your dd. Very sorry.

[pigsinmud]

She's just 2. I must go and move her - feeling a bit squeamish about picking her up. Dreading telling dd1 as it's her chicken.

[hellymelly]

Poor you. This hasn't happened to me yet, but I think it is relatively common that chickens can die quite suddenly. Was she an older hen?