I was asked to feed elderly neighbours chickens

[TheHullabaloo]

One has died 😟

My neighbour went away this weekend and asked me to feed his chickens for a few days, I've done this a couple of times in the past. When I went in yesterday one was looking rather lethargic, but this morning I found it dead. I've put it in a cardboard box and removed from the coop, but do I need to do anything else?

All the others seem fine thankfully so no idea what happened. Now I have to wait for neighbour to return to break the bad news. They're very elderly and don't own a mobile phone, so are currently blissfully unaware that I appear to have inadvertently killed off one of his hens.

What you have done is fine. Hopefully they are understanding about the chicken.

Unfortunately chickens die, sometimes rather unexpectedly. My Dad once had one which was perfectly content eating some treats, seemed healthy, she jumped up a bit in the air to grab some more from my Dad and literally died mid small jump. She wasn’t even old.

I’m sure your neighbour has had them die before, they won’t blame you.

How long until they are home? Sounds horrible but if it’s going to be more than a day or two you might want to either dispose of the body yourself or pop it in several bags and put it in the freezer. They decay quite quickly.

Due home later today thankfully, but I might follow your advice and put it in a bag too. Although I know I didn't do anything wrong, I was only going and topping up their feed, I can't help but feel guilty!

Thanks FuzzyStripes, I'm not going to be able to relax until he gets home, but he's a lovely man so I'm sure he'll be understanding.

@TheHullabaloo it must have been horrible for you to find, I hope it doesn’t put you off looking after chickens 😊

It’s always horrible when something happens on your watch, whilst looking after someone else’s animals but there was really nothing you could have done. I hope your neighbour isn’t too upset when they come home (I don’t mean with you, as you’ve obviously done nothing wrong, I just mean at the loss of their pet).

Thank you, it was sad, they're very cute friendly chickens with big fluffy feet and funny hair, quite characterful.

Condolences to you

Many years ago DH had an employee who offered to feed our cat while we were away for 2 weeks. It was before mobile phones, and we arrived home to a note asking us to call him urgently. It turned out the cat had died (she was quite old), and the poor fellow had spent 10 days panicking that we'd blame him (we didn't, obviously).

These things happen, I'm sure your neighbours will be fine.

Thankfully neighbour was very understanding, said it was getting on a bit and that chickens do just die out of the blue sometimes, I still feel guilty though. I'll have to see if he ever asks me to look after them again!

Chickens have a habit of this unfortunately - "falling off the perch". You haven't done anything wrong and if they are experienced chicken keepers they will understand. Might be worth putting a plan in place if they go away again and one is unwell

If you don't own chickens it's hard to know if something is wrong preceding their deaths. Even if you do own them it's not always obvious.

Things like sour crop etc, when undigested food sits in the crop of their neck and ferments instead of being digested, almost impossible to know unless you know about chicken health. It sounds like they might also be silkies, so very fluffy and hard to see what's going on behind all of those feathers so unless you're picking them up and giving them a good once over every day and know what to feel for then I don't think this is something you could have foreseen.

I'm sure your neighbour will understand. Chickens are prey animals, they're not very strong of constitution, and you are just a neighbour doing a favour.

Had chickens for a long time and they can often die quite suddenly. There is no rhyme or reason. Even when we know a hen is unwell we often don't know why, plus a lot of remedies are old wives tales that only work some of the time. Vets don't really treat chickens unless you are running a commercial enterprise or they are a friend and you have other pets registered with them. Even then the answer is usually cull, so it's not like a vet would have helped. It's unfortunate but nowhere near as bad news as the death of a pet dog or cat. Life expectancy of hens really varies from 1 year to 6 years in my experience and if the owners had hens for a while this won't come as a surprise.

If the deed is not already done, probably best to tell them immediately on their return. Don't beat around the bush and let them go on about their trip or the traffic. Tell them straight away and let them know you feel awful..Just say you found the hen dead. I wouldn't mention that the hen seemed 'off' before dying. You don't need to start a 'what if' chain of thought in their head.

I wouldn’t worry, you have done all you need to do. Hens are good at dropping dead with no notice! Your neighbours, if they have had hens for any length of time, will know this is quite normal!
I have had one look slightly off and die and hour later….. it’s one of the downsides of chicken ownership

Chickens are not a hardy species - they really do just drop dead at the drop of a hat. Don’t feel guilty at all. They are a delight to raise and will charm you no end with their silly behavior but longevity is not something they’ve really mastered. Your friends will know this.