goodbye, Auntie Mable

[tim&fatima]

Yesterday I got up to check on our Four chickens, and our silver wyndotte bantam (auntie Mable) was on the floor with her legs in the air. she was the last chicken to come and live with us,( last september) so she was at the bottom of the pecking order, the other three did tend to pick on her a lot, and she was always the last one to eat, drink and go to bed at night.
I feel maybe they bullied her to stay outside when we had some sleet and snow over the last couple of days. we have only keept chickens since last august.
Do chickens just die? the other three seem fine, should we be worried? do we need to get someone in to discover the reason?

[red]

You know its sad but chickens do sometimes just die. Any idea how old she was?
Unless the others are looking peeky.. or start keeling over, I would just accept it as 'one of those things' and move on.
Remember she had a better time of it than those battery hens.

[Wotta Wally]

Echo what Red said. One of mine - Mrs Pringle - did exactly the same few months ago. Really sad but at least I knew Mrs P had 15 months free-range (she was an ex-batt).

[Stonehead]

Do chickens just die?

Yes. One of our Scots Grey did just that last week. She was fine at 5.30pm and dead on her back at 7pm when we went to lock them up.

There's often an obvious cause (signs of them sickening, egg bound, injuries, etc), but from time to time they just keel over and die.