This is one of the odd moments of raising chickens. Never ever did I dream I’d write “The Danger of Railings with Chickens”, but here I am to warn others.

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny, warm day! Nothing out of the ordinary, all seemed right! I put a pool into the pekin ducks’ enclosure. I went around, cleaning the other pools and waterers on the property.

When I went to the last pool. I dumped it, cleaned it out, and started to refill it. For some reason I looked up to the deck.

Our house looks like a one story home in the front and a two story home in the back because of the basement. Our deck is long, so in the back it’s level with the first floor. We have an old futon on the deck (waiting to become repurposed), sitting right next to the railing.

I look up and see a chicken stuck in between the railings! The chicken wasn’t moving, just laying there, limp. I move to another point, seeing the chicken has already passed. The comb, wattle, and face are black from no oxygen.

Its wings and head were through the railing. The hen had been unable to get her butt through the railings, eventually dying. The body was still intact, so nothing had messed with her.

We had been home all day and the day before. Nothing seemed unusual. We think maybe she couldn’t find her way out from behind the futon and tried to squeeze in between the railings, resulting in her getting stuck.

Just a heads up to keep this in mind with railings!