What happens to layers when they stop laying~WARNING: GRAPHIC PICS

[CrealCritter]

I don't want to be mean to my chickens so I rotate them every year in the fall. None of my hens are more than a little a over 1 1/2 years old now (spring hatch) and now that it's cooled off a little - I'll be processing them pretty soon. My layer yard rooster is going on 2 1/2 years old now though.

 

[Hinotori]

Stupid hawk tried to get a hen a few days ago. Well actually the hawk succeeded but I heard the screams and ripped open the back door yelling at the dogs to get them since I thought it was a coyote. Hawk hadn't been able to carry the hen far and I saw it and started screaming "Goose" which is dog command to run to that area and chase off birds. Hawk saw the dogs and took off.

The hen only had minor wounds to the wing and a lot of plucked feathers. The hawk seems to have killed her anyway. All the stress and now she's acting egg bound and won't eat. I'll give her until tomorrow to see if she passes it. If not I'll put her down.

 

[milkmansdaughter]

Sorry...

 

[Beekissed]

I don't want to be mean to my chickens so I rotate them every year in the fall. None of my hens are more than a little a over 1 1/2 years old now (spring hatch) and now that it's cooled off a little - I'll be processing them pretty soon. My layer yard rooster is going on 2 1/2 years old now though.

Not too sure it's being mean to a hen to let her live past 1 1/2 yrs of age or not. A production hen, maybe, but not a simple heritage breed hen that's still laying in regular cycles during the year. I keep mine for as long as they will produce eggs in the spring flush, molt and then return to laying sometime during that year, regardless of age.

 

[Beekissed]

Stupid hawk tried to get a hen a few days ago. Well actually the hawk succeeded but I heard the screams and ripped open the back door yelling at the dogs to get them since I thought it was a coyote. Hawk hadn't been able to carry the hen far and I saw it and started screaming "Goose" which is dog command to run to that area and chase off birds. Hawk saw the dogs and took off.

The hen only had minor wounds to the wing and a lot of plucked feathers. The hawk seems to have killed her anyway. All the stress and now she's acting egg bound and won't eat. I'll give her until tomorrow to see if she passes it. If not I'll put her down.

It's likely the talons penetrated the bird and punctured internal organs. I had a few hens grabbed by owls last season~but foiled by the dog and lived~ and I couldn't find anything like a wound on the outside...saw a little bit of blood on the feathers but couldn't see anything I'd call a wound.

Those hens stood hunkered down for a few days...I thought maybe they were just in shock. I killed one because she seemed worse and then the other died the following day. Still couldn't see that the injuries were bad enough to kill them, but I think the talons must have pierced them deeply enough that the holes sealed over and didn't bleed much after the talons were withdrawn.

 

[Hinotori]

That could be. She has refused to get on the roost since but was holding her right wing oddly. I checked it but it wasn't dislocated. It's upsetting as she's my little cuddler and the first ameraucana hen I ever got.

Her brother died last year. He went downhill fast. Looked a little under the weather then the next day I find him laying in the pen barely there. He spoke to me and cuddled into my arms when I picked him up like he loved to do. He was so happy to snuggle again. Within 10 minutes he gave a small shudder and was just gone. He was the best large fowl rooster I ever had.

 

[sumi]

I'm so sorry @Hinotori It sucks when it's our favourite, or friendliest birds that go I had hawks take 2 of mine, some years ago. One tried to take some of a broody hen's chicks one day. I heard a commotion and ran outside, just in time to see the hawk take off empty handed and the hen shaking out her feathers and calling her chicks back to her. We didn't see that hawk again lol

 

[frustratedearthmother]

So sorry Hinotori...sometimes 'even' a chicken can crawl into our heart and leave a hole when it leaves.

@sumi - ya gotta love a tough broody like that! Hope that hawk thinks twice before taking on a mama hen again!

 

[sumi]

That hen was a rescue and the night I realised she's going to make it, I thought of what to name her and saw it was a full moon, so I named her Luna. After the hawk incident, that became Lunatic!

 

[ChickenMomma91]

For you folks who have hens die but never open up your birds to find out if you can see the reason why, I encourage you to do so if you ever want to learn, really learn, about chickens. I know it's gross and especially if you really liked the chicken, it's hard, but it's worth it if you will ever learn how to prevent illness, suffering, parasites, etc. in your flocks.

Here's another hen that was kept well past her laying life by my sister, who will NOT kill a chicken, even when they are suffering horribly...she just keeps them for years until predators get them or they die of illness related to aging out of laying. She's had a LOT of birds die over the years and never had a clue as to why, though the descriptions she gives me of the symptoms prior to death, all were preventable by just culling her flock on a regular basis. Oh, she'd try to give them antibiotics and such and sometimes that extended their life a month longer, but eventually the reproductive issues caught up with them again.

Death is death and all creatures will die~us included~but being able to control the nature of the dying is the gift a human can give their animals. It's called stewardship and it's our responsibility, once taking on the care and life of another creature, to insure they have a good life and a good death.

This hen had severe reproductive cancer that had spread throughout her abdomen, was attached to all her organs and even the walls of her body cavity. When she arrived here I noticed her comb was purple, she had a massive abdomen and she was gasping for breath, but she died before I could even give her the hand of mercy.

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I lost a chicken this past spring, she had laid a double yolker a week or two before we found her dead in the yard. I can't do necropsy because I live in town and it would fall under butchering to the city officials who are buttholes.