Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

One of our Columbian Blacktail chickens died today. She was in her third year of laying eggs and up until yesterday seemed totally fine. Animals (unlike some humans) will usually mask or hide any kind of illness or injury for as long as they can. There is one simple reason for this: in the wild a sick or injured animal is not able to be a successful part of the group and so is no longer of any use. They can make the rest of the group vulnerable by attracting predators or by holding them up if they are on the move. And they will eat food that a healthy animal could eat instead.
Sick animals (both in the wild and on a farm setting) will often hide themselves away so the rest of the group don't see they are poorly. This poor bird hid in the nestbox all morning, probably also to get some peace and quiet too no doubt. When we examined her she looked poorly, her feathers had lost some of their shine and she had quite smelly poo. We don't know why she died. It is unfortunately the time of year when some animals do start to go downhill as the wet and the wind and the rain get in the way of their normal behaviours and feeding habits.
We do now need to watch the rest of the flock quite carefully in case whatever this chicken died from could have been passed onto other birds! Fingers crossed!!