Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[nin-chicken]

oh my goodness what a shock

When I got home from work an hour ago they were all fine, then I heard a kerfuffle while I was eating my lunch and looked out there, thinking it might be a fox but didn't see anything. Wish I had looked more thoroughly now . just went out to hang out some washing and there was marigold lying dead on the ground. I checked her over but couldn't see any injuries, although there is something coming out of her vent, maybe a prolapse? Her neck is very floppy but I don't know if its broken.... Her comb is very pale too.

Now I'm worried that she was poorly and I didn't notice . do you think one of the others might have killed her? Or a heart attack? Or maybe she fell from the perch?

I've got a spate of weird behavior at the moment - one very grumpy on/off broody girl, one laying softies & one laid an egg on a perch yesterday evening which smashed onto the ground.

Help please! Am I doing something wrong??

[Olly]

Sorry to hear it, but please don't panic - sometimes this just happens. It is possible that she was ill and concealing her symptoms, hens are good at this, but the likelihood is that if she'd been hunched or withdrawn or off her food you would have noticed. The fact that you hadn't spotted anything unusual tends to suggest that she was behaving normally up till then.

 

It could have been a prolapse although that doesn't usually cause sudden death - it's more likely to have been heart failure or something similar. It's a horrid shock when this happens, of course you'll keep an eye on the other girls to see if there's anything going on but the chances are this is just one of those random things. It's very unlikely to be anything that you have done, or that you could have done anything about - afraid it's just one of those things with chickens.

[nin-chicken]

Thanks ollie for your quick reply. I feel terrible about poor marigold. She was behaving totally normally until this. She always was my 'worrier' so maybe something did give her a fright. Also she hasn't laid for a couple of months but seemed in perfect health. She was a gorgeous fluffy girl, I will miss her

Thanks again xx

[Chickabee]

Oh that's very sad sorry to hear that.

 

With regards to your others, you could try giving them a tonic. I give mine oregostim but there are lots of others. I also feed mine black sunflower seeds. They are very high in selenium and protein so very good for them

[nin-chicken]

Thank you. I will put some water in their tonic right away and I have some black sunflower seeds so will go and scatter those around too. At least I will then feel that I am doing something.

I've just put my broody girl in a crate, it was quite a palaver catching her but I had to do it as she was snuggling herself down under the cube. She was already scared of me and now I'm sure I've made it worse. Oh dear, I feel like a terrible chicken owner.....

Thanks again xx

[coco]

Sorry about Marigold. This happened to me a couple of years ago. I had let the girls out as usual but spotted my ared siljielying dead in the run about an hour llater. The only thing I could see was a slight prolapse. I presumed she had a heart attack. My other hens were fine.

[Luvachicken]

Poor Marigold.

I'm sorry you found her that way.

I found one of mine had died after a big thunderstorm and she had been perfectly fine too.