Question Why did my new chickens die?

[SusanH]

Welcome to PTO! Looking forward to hearing more from you.
Sorry for mysterious loss of Lisa and Marie. You obviously did everything right, so, as others have implied, it might be something genetic or a disease in the home flock. Try asking the person you got them from if others from the same flock suddenly expired.

[WLLady]

hiya and welcome to pto!!
the fact that both had just come into lay recently may have had something to do with it...its a lot of energy for new birds to start laying and sometimes they can have genetic things and laying puahes them over the brink. did you by chance find them upside down on the floor? on their backs and feet up? sounds morbid...sorry...but this a tell tale sugn of heart failure in young birds. they suffer a heart attck on the roost and fall headfirst and land on their backs. this can be a genetuc thing and the stress if a move and starting to lay and then the heat we have been having might have just been too much for an underlying syndrome.....otherwise as tomk said a necropsy (like an autopsy) is really the only way to maybe see anything but quite often with young birds they dont give any clues either. sorry for your loss....
the other things on the checklist would be mouse bait/poison, fertilizer (i had one lady bouth 12 chicks from me and they fertilized the lawn and the next day the chickens went out and ate all the little round fertilizer balls and killed themselves), dead mice that had been poisoned, bad compost raiding, mites....but that would be a very heavy infestation....crop impaction (but the bird looks off for a few days with this one)...of sepsis from bumblefoot of an infection like fly strike....
coccidiosis you will smell befire you see it....its gross....
otherwise it coukd have been genetic. were they the same breed?

[Ontario Chick]

Because the birds that you lost were new introductions, it's possible that your home flock is resistant to whatever may be lurking around
(and in case of chickens there is always something lurking around)
and the two new birds weren't resistant to it.
Added stress of the changes in their environment might have just been the last straw.
From reading your post I don't see anything that you have done, that would have caused their sudden demise.
Hope things go better from now on, and to PTO

[Jetsko]

Thank you to everyone for your input & suggestions - there are things I will check in the coop/run & yard in more detail, although I didn't notice anything dangerous or odd when I checked yesterday. My old girls are red, of unknown age & not sure where they are from - previous owners don't remember.
I purchased the new girls from a local farm co-op that sells both chicks and ready to lay hens in the spring. They called these girls Red Sexlinks. I spoke with their chicken experts today, and the one guy told me about his son's experience two years ago. A weasel had raided his chicken coop leaving 2 hens alive. He added three young hens to his flock, within a month 2 of the three were dead just the way it happened to me. Because one survived he believes its a combination of 2 bully old girls and a genetic weakness in the young ones. They couldn't handle the stress of a new flock plus being bullied. He told me his son successfully introduced 3 young hens last year and 6 this year without any loses or changes to the introduction process.

I will watch my old girls very closely over the next couple of weeks especially in this heat. Going forward I think I will need to research different breeds and sources for young hens. I wondering if it would be better to get hens from a private flock instead of hatchery.

[Killerbunny]

We have many folks on this site that have heritage type breeds available if/when you decide what you want. Heritage tend to laying less but for a longer period of their lives.
Where are you located. If you put that in your profile (just roughly) that gives an idea of other members in your area.

[windwalkingwolf]

Welcome to PTO, sorry your introduction bring such sad news

I think between what you've already done yourself and the suggestions of the members here, there's not really much more I could add, except for one thing: possible Infectious Bronchitis.
Red sexlinks are awesome birds, they're great if raised up from day olds, tough as nails, and even make great ferociously protective mothers once past their laying "prime". Bought as "ready to lay" from feed stores, however, they usually come with a latent case of Infectious Bronchitis, which can cause various problems and sometimes sudden death. It's endemic, and manageable; but if you tend to get attached to your hens, can be frustrating or even heartbreaking as they get older and develop reproductive problems.
Infectious Bronchitis is a chronic disease that can sometimes resurface when affected birds are under stress of any sort, and to a chicken, that includes a heat wave, or the sounds or smells of a nearby predator, or a coop move, a freak thunderstorm or cold snap, a neighbours' dog coming to say hello, or any number of things. It is contagious during these times. Watch for rattling noises, wrinkly egg shells, or hens suddenly dropping weight for seemingly no reason.
Egg "binding" and egg yolk peritonitis are particular concerns for ready-to-lay birds (it's because of how they are raised before sale to co-ops and feed stores, nothing to do with breed or age) and are very common problems for them quite young.

[Farrier1987]

This discussion is exactly why I like this forum. Everyone chips in to maybe pinpoint a problem. And even if not found precisely, lots of good points made.

As to this particular one, I mostly agree With WWWolf above. Not a terrible thing, but if you can stay away from hatchery raised, you will probably be better off. I do like my broody hen mother to raise and educate the kids. When raised in such close confines, they pick each other and don't know the coop social hierarchy thing. And I am sure most here know, but that is where the term pecking order comes from.

Anyway, welcome to PTO. Ask questions, give answers or opinions, tell a joke, post a wanted or for sale, enter and vote in the photo contest, join my fan club, whatever you like, or not. Welcome.

[baronrenfrew]

Good day and welcome eh! (sheesh I haven't been here for a month!)

Also possible your old birds were immune to something that the new birds were not; i.e. Mareks disease. Marek's Vaccine, Bad idea?

use the search function on this site (top right) and years of threads are sorted through - I just did that with Mareks to get this thread.

bringing new birds to an established place is always stressful to birds - thus its best to have a separate coop/shed to quarantine new purchases - and feed a variety of foods (including veggies) - and supplements (from a feed store - most you add to water)

the good news (and bad news) about chickens is that they are (usually) cheap and replaceable. This is tough for some people to adjust to - the cycle of life and death is the reality of animals on a farm; you don't have to like it, just to accept it.