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kirkcudbrightOne of our hens died this morning. No idea what happened. They don't get handled every day, so our first clue (yesterday) was that she wasn't using the perch, but roosting on the floor. When I picked her up, she had lost a shocking amount of weight - down from about 6 pounds to maybe 2. She remained so fluffy that it really didn't show. No other obvious signs of distress other than the weight loss (and death, of course) - eyes were fine, feathers were fine, legs were fine. We don't know how old she was - hadn't laid in several years, so not young - so it might have been old age related.
The others appear to be healthy, but they all have a touch of diarrhea, so I wormed them today. This means we can't eat the eggs for a couple weeks, but they mostly haven't been laying anyway. When it gets a little warmer, we're going to strip the coop and dust for mites (regular spring cleaning).
This is a bit distressing, and mysterious, but we're just going to keep a close eye on the others for the time being.
The others appear to be healthy, but they all have a touch of diarrhea, so I wormed them today. This means we can't eat the eggs for a couple weeks, but they mostly haven't been laying anyway. When it gets a little warmer, we're going to strip the coop and dust for mites (regular spring cleaning).
This is a bit distressing, and mysterious, but we're just going to keep a close eye on the others for the time being.
