[northfifeduckling]

I left my daughter to do the head count last night and sadly found our first homegrown hen dead near the compost this morning....no injuries. she was only 3. could she have eaten something that didn't agree with her? She's the one I caught eating rhubarb leaves but I thought they'd know what is poisonous to them. the chickens being free range I just can't eradicate or fence off everything doubtful! 

[happygolucky]

  Thats always the case, life can be tough for a free range hen but at least she had a good and free life 

[sh3ph3rd]

At least she's had ten times the quality of life of many other hens, you can rest easy knowing she didn't die in a tiny cage having never experienced anything else, so you've done well by her.

Sometimes even free range chickens make mistakes, usually first or second generation from the cages, their instinct is incompletely recovered and they encounter many species of plant and insect that their most recent hundred ancestors may not have. It's hit and miss but since they're freeranging you're on the right track, they ought to get there. Best wishes.

[northfifeduckling]

I'm amazed that nothing had eaten bits of her as roadkill pheasants don't make it past a few hours before the crows get them. Her comb was blueish, but obviously I can't tell if that was the cause. it must have come on suddenly as she was fine yesterday morning and I do look out for comb colour. I hope it was nothing contageous....I'll miss her, white daughter of a ginger hen and a black dad 

[HesterF]

Was this the one that was scouring last week? How was her weight? Wondering whether it might have been a longer term illness. Certainly nothing you could have done to prevent it, even if you'd done the head count - it wasn't a fox or other predator,

H

[jaykay]

Doesn't sound like anything you could have prevented. And she has had a good and happy live. I'm sorry you've lost her 

[northfifeduckling]

I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary...there's always doubts though, isn't there. she really went for my rhubarb, I think more than the others. she also did lay the biggest eggs I'd ever seen, last one day before yesterday. I really hate this bit about having animals as each one is a personality to me although I do avoid giving them names (the has a name)

[Marches Farmer]

If combs are blue-tinted I would suspect heart attack.  You sometimes see combs blueish then the colour comes right again but inevitably find them dead a few days or weeks later.

[chrismahon]

Blue comb ,as MF says, is a sign of a heart attack. We've had several go with those symptoms, fine one minute and dead the next. Rhubarb leaves, I have read, are very poisonous. Perhaps eating the leaves caused the heart attack?

[northfifeduckling]

there are so many different opinions about rhubarb and hens, some folks say to leave it as they know what they can eat. others even recommend it as a natural wormer. Doubts remain....the chickens also jumped my fence and scratched about in my veg patch the other day. Tree spinach is also toxic uncooked, who knows. Maybe it was just the cockerel jumping her from behind as he likes to do and she got a fright....I was not expecting her to go so early, such a sad head count each night now...................................................

[mab]

Sorry to hear about that.


I must admit I rely on my birds knowing what to eat or not. Earlier in the day this pic was taken the chicks were using the rhubarb as a sun shade.

[sh3ph3rd]

I rely on my birds knowing what to eat or not

Which is fine unless you've got chooks from a hatchery/commercial breeder. Instinct can be bred out or modified. They don't know much once they've the products of ancestors who've spent the last hundred generations only experiencing concrete floors and mesh, pellets and same-sex, same-age groups. Then you have all the new breeds and cultivars of plants, there's no chook that can be 100% reliable. On a random note I have one pekin silky mix who feeds various unidentified toadstools to her babies. Hasn't lost a single one yet.