dead chicken

One of our backyard chickens dropped dead the other day. It's such a bummer. We only had a total of 4 birds that we sneaked into our very small suburban backyard. She was the Americauna, the green egg layer! Our remaining 3 birds are brown egg layers. I'll really miss her green eggs! She looked perfectly healthy, her feathers were glossy, she was a giant chicken & was laying right up to the day she fell over. We noticed her acting lethargic & within a couple hours she was dead on the coop floor. :(

It's weird because we've only had 2 chickens die & they both were Americaunas! They were the only Americaunas we've ever had, one from a hatchery & one from a nearby farmer. And they both fell over dead without any symptoms before hand. Our Barred Rock has been seriously sick twice, and lived. What's with those "easter eggers"? Do they tend to fall over dead all the time or was it just coincidence??

Sigh. I'm not really sure what to do. I'd like to add another chicken to our wee flock but I'm not sure how that would work. It'd have to be an adult similar in age to the ones we have, and even then I fear she'd be picked half to death. Our chickens have always been super mean to any new birds I introduce.

Way, way off topic, I just made some banana pudding from scratch and OMG. It's delicious.