Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

...Ok..Part question, part lament... Came out to the chicken chores this morning and found a dead Rock... Backwards in one of the nesting boxes and stiff... Took what little time I had because I've got to go to work and checked her over and it seems like she could not pass an egg because just inside her vent was the egg... Anybody got any ideas why this happens because the egg itself was not overly large

Aw I'm sorry Tom. I found a black sex link like that a couple years ago-was the picture of health until I found her stiff in the nesting box with a medium size egg right there. Totally a guess but heart attack?

Aw, snap, Tom, that is sad. I have no idea why that would happen. Is it possible that the egg is a red herring ; i.e.,it was just coicindental that she was about to lay an egg when she died and her death was due to something else? Like a hesrt attack, as Happy suggested?

Aw, sorry Tom. I had that happen to my EE hen Buffy. I opened her up because I'm weird and I HAVE to know...and her belly was full of blood...she had blown a blood vessel. Aneurysm most likely. Could be the same with yours, or could have been a heart attack...sometimes those happen in young birds for seemingly no reason...but luckily not often.

Thanks for the opinions...I'm not sure what happened but hope it's a one time thing...Had one of the Rocks die on me suddenly at about 8 months old..Just dropped dead off the roost..I guessed that to be a heart issue...Maybe this was a similar thing...Just sad...They are sweet birds