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One of my hens died this morning and I don't know why. I had three hens; a speckledy, a black rock and a bluebell. I got them at 16 weeks old and all three had just started laying. Now at 28 weeks I found the speckledy dead in the co-op. The remaining two hens seem happy enough although the black rock appears to be sneezing. Can anyone advise on why she died? Should I consult a vet?

Hello and welcome to the vine mrs moo. Sorry your first post was a sad one. I would recommend taking the deceased chook to the vet to have a post mortem done. There have been a couple of unexplained chook deaths reported on the vine recently and nobody has come back to say what caused the problems.

Hope it is just one of those things and you get reassurance from the vet. Look forward to hearing back from you some time.

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

sorry to hear your news mrs moo, I agree with shirley, get a post mortem it costs but at least you will know if its anything infectious that the others could get.

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Yo an' Bob
Walk lightly on the earth
take only what you need
give all you can
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Hello Mrs Moo,
I'm sorry to hear of your loss - how are your other hens today? Black Rocks are known to be very hardy and rarely succumb to any major diseases, but if you are concerned then a good vet will do the proper tests (be sure to find one that knows about chickens, many don't!). Sneezes and snuffles can be common for hens over the winter, they dislike cold damp weather as much as we do. Sneezing can be a sign of more serious ailments like mycoplasma infection - the hen would sound wheezy and rattly in her chest. Myco is really infectious, so keep a close eye on the other hens - if any look hunched and miserable or her symptoms are getting worse, then isolate her immediately and get an appointment with the vet.
If it is just a low-level cold, then there are additives you can give hens to help them get over the winter blues. Poultry spice is a mixture of different vitamins and minerals which help give the hen a kick-start. You can also put a clove of crushed garlic in their water, it's a good tonic. Make sure their shelter is warm and dry, and clean it regularly. My final bit of advice is just to say that unfortunately sometimes hens do just die - and there's very little you could have done to prevent it. Hope this helps.

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Dwell simply ~ love richly

I've just been out with trepidation to open up the coop and am happy to report that the remaining 2 chooks clucked their way out happily and healthily. Will keep an eye on them and will contact our vet to find out if they are clued up on hens if so will look at going down the pm route. Thanks for your advice it's been reassuring.

Mrs Moo

Glad to hear all is well with the other two, thanks for the update. Good luck with the vet.

__________________
Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

Hi Mrs Moo, are your remaining girls still ok? I lost my speckeldy just befor Christmas to 'unexplained causes' - it was suggested that she was egg-bound and I just never noticed - did you get any oddly shaped eggs?

Can hens die from being egg bound? Crikey........................my two died of diarrhoea related upsets i think as their bums were dirty.......but one of them always had long eggs and then stopped laying......chickens eh who'd have em?

One of my previous flock got poorly last year and I wondered if she was egg-bound, turns out she wasn't but when I read up on it it can be very serious if undetected and treated and can lead to death.
Hen was put on anti-b's by vet but fox got her just as she was starting to improve.

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updated 14 May 2008

What causes a chicken to become egg-bound?

Just reading this thread, one of our chooks is laying long pointy eggs, definately an odd shape, is this a bad sign? She is also being bullied by the others, I don't know if there is any significance in this.

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I'm not entirely sure, from the info I have read - and yes, quite a lot of that was very recent! - it can be a number of causes. Age is the main one, older hens tend to lay fewer eggs, longer apart, which means that the egg is in the system for longer and will therefore get a thicker layer of calcium deposited. It is this thick/uneven shell which seems to be a major contributing factor.

Other causes are stress, chilling, poor diet. Basically it is amazing that such an unlikely creature manages to survive at all!

The signs to watch out for are a miserable hen off her food combined with repeated visits to the nest box with no egg produced. This may mean nothing, or it could be a potentially fatal problem - as far as I can tell the only way to find out is to wait and see if an egg is produced or the hen keels over! Very useful!

My Katie Thear suggests that a hen in this condition can be helped by putting vaseline around the vent then gently steaming the hens rump! The principle is to relax the hen and especially the vent area so that the egg can be passed.

From other forums I have discovered that a hen with a tendance to very large eggs is more inclined to have problems, and that should you have a hen that gets egg-bound then it is likely to do so repeatedly.

Thanks for all that info. I was a bit worried that one of mine may have been eggbound as she usually lays one a day and repeatedly visited the nesting box without laying. She's layed now so that's a relief, don't fancy katie's suggestions!

Kind regards
Tracey

[quote=TPeers;158983]

My Katie Thear suggests that a hen in this condition can be helped by putting vaseline around the vent then gently steaming the hens rump! The principle is to relax the hen and especially the vent area so that the egg can be passed.
[quote]

Wow! You've got your own Katie Thear!! What I couldn't do with one of those!!!

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Dwell simply ~ love richly

[quote=Birdie Wife;159337][quote=TPeers;158983]

My Katie Thear suggests that a hen in this condition can be helped by putting vaseline around the vent then gently steaming the hens rump! The principle is to relax the hen and especially the vent area so that the egg can be passed.
She comes in a neat little package from Amazon!