# Drowned chicken ever happen to U?



## starjj (May 2, 2005)

Tonight I went out to check the water level in the cattle water trough. One of my SLW hens was floating in the tank. I believe she must have gotten up there to get a drink and fell in and got water soaked and drowned. I do keep a pan of water for them so not sure why she decided to get water out of there.

Anyone else ever have this happen?


----------



## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

Yes, I lost a very big BBB tom turkey that way.
I guess he flew up there, to try and roost on the edge of the trough?
Over balanced and drowned. The turkeys waterpan was sitting right next to the trough too.

Sorry you lost one of your girls.


----------



## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

Yep.
Several times and in several different ways.


----------



## springvalley (Jun 23, 2009)

Yep, me also, have one drown in the cattle or horse tanks at least once a year. Figure it weans out the gene pool that way. > Marc


----------



## n9viw (Jan 30, 2005)

We've had ducks drown.


----------



## Blue Oak Ranch (Aug 23, 2005)

The weirdest? 

A friend's Buff Laced Polish roo got a foot tangled in a hay bale string. 

He jumped the pasture fence, caught the string at the top, hung down upside down with his head just under in a random bucket of rainwater. Drowned. 

I think he was trying to commit suicide. 

But yes, I've had turkey peeps try to drown themselves in a livestock tank. I started putting a cut section of hog panel in the troughs. I support the wire with 2x4s, so the wood acts as a float. The animals large and small can drink, but poultry can get a footing on the wire and hop out. Saved lizards this way, too. 

Cheers!

Katherine


----------



## 3kidsomy (Jan 6, 2008)

me too....he was a big Cornish x, so sad, he was week from butcher.


----------



## SilverFlame819 (Aug 24, 2010)

Our main trough at the coop was tall enough that if adults jumped in, they'd be up to their necks and could jump back out. I had a sort of "ladder" (looked like a dog agility ramp?) in the trough though, so that any chick that fell in could get out. Only had 1 baby drown despite the walkway up out of the water in all the years I had chickens. Didn't fill up the larger troughs elsewhere in the pasture until the chicks became large pullets who had good flight control and could easily jump up onto the trough without falling in...


----------



## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

I lost 3 in one week exactly that way one year. I cut a section of a cattle panel and leaned it against the back of the trough and wired it in place. It sticks up just above the surface and fits from front to back and side to side completely - haven't had one drown since.


----------



## Curtis B (Aug 15, 2008)

Had one just a couple of days ago. Seems like it happens 3 or four times a year.


----------



## tlag1986 (Jul 3, 2010)

Some birds are just silly. We have had many different types of roosting issues our last was roosting on feeder. The next morning have a stuck bird in the feeder.


----------



## lambs.are.cute (Aug 15, 2010)

I had one almost drown and then die. It was the middle of the winter and the chicken's heated water dish had popped the breaker so their water was frozen overnight (was on my feeding rounds and hadn't gotten to the chickens yet). I don't know how the the chicken gotten out but she was in the horse/sheep trough. The water was full so she had hooked her beak over the edge so she didn't drown. She died later of hyopthermia...........

Thats the only one I've had a problem with. I keep my trough right up full (with an extra chicken water bucket at the foot of the trough) so that if they fall in they can hang on the edge.


----------



## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

I doubt that they are actually after water. They cant see that it is a tank, they just see this object and think " hey, I'm gonna hope on this thing", not realizing that it doesn't have a top and is full of water.


----------



## Tiempo (May 22, 2008)

I had a near miss last spring, found a half grown cornish x in a half filled 5 gallon bucket that was on route to the goat pen, I had just set it down for a while.

Fortunately the bucket was only half filled and the bird was still able to stand up in it, and I found it in time,..it was pretty shivvery and miserable for a while.


----------

