[Marches Farmer]

Just heard from someone I sold some hens to last month (all home bred 100% healthy 2014 birds and laying well).  One off colour staying in henhouse since yesterdeay and lying flat with tail a bit raised.  She picked up the hen, which promptly died and then" a lot of smelly liquid came out of her beak".  She wondered if the hen had been egg bound.  Didn't think it sounded like egg binding but never had an egg bound bird nor one that died in this manner so throwing this out there in the hope someone has an idea what the problem was.

[fsmnutter]

Sounds like sour crop

[devonlady]

Yes, I would say the same. Usually, but not always, caused by not enough grit in the diet. Poor old soul

[chrismahon]

Sounds like a digestive impaction that has resulted in slow digestive transit and therefore food in the crop has built up and gone sour. They drink a lot of water to try and clear it themselves. Effectively the bird gets poisoned, rather than dying of starvation. The usual cause is putting hens onto grass for the first time when they have empty crops. We lost two like that, because in the temporary shed they got bullied off the feeder and were put out hungry -of course they gorged themselves on grass and impacted their gizzards.


So if you sold hens last month Marches Farmer and they were reared on soil, then the new owners put them straight onto grass, that may be the problem. The timing is about right perhaps -ours died two weeks later.

[Marches Farmer]

Thanks for your replies - I saw from the Facebook pics of her new hens that the run had lush grass, so that fits the bill.  Nothing around here is that long after the sheep have been on it all Winter.

[chrismahon]

Its a well known rule that chickens should never go onto long fresh grass because of the high risk of gizzard impaction. Ours used to be short mown first and later grazed by sheep. So I think the problem is down to the buyer Marches Farmer and in no way are you at fault. The risk is to the lowest in the pecking order being bullied off the feeder(s) or to any hen that is particularly greedy in our experience. A worm burden compounds the problem because the digestive system can be already partially obstructed as a result.

[Marches Farmer]

Thanks for that.  The hens are regularly wormed, that batch a fortnight before sale.  I did mention they shouldn't have too much greenery but she's a new poultry keeper and may think of things like cabbage rather than grass as being "greenery", alas.