Leghorn dropped dead at about 5 months

I was alerted by squarking from the girls half an hour ago & found Alice, one of our young leghorn pullets, dead on her side in the coop. She was fine this morning & laid her sixth egg only yesterday. She was still warm when I found her, but with no heartbeat or respiratory effort.

I'm gutted

Sorry to hear that. I had it happen once with a bird. We never knew why, but these things do happen. Not nice when you find them like that when they are young

Oh dear, how very sad, and what a shock for you.

So sorry to hear that, Icemaiden. Maybe a heart attack?
I'm facing the annual need to decide which of my oldies are ready for the Great Coop in the Sky, and wishing one or two of them would take the decision out of my hands and just die peacefully of their own accord!

I reminded of that old farmers saying "If you have livestock you have dead stock".
Such events are, I'm afraid, inevitable.

I in no way am suggesting this is so in your case but I am generally surprised in the chicken world by the amount of inbreeding that goes on. This is a very risky practise and often results in the production of stock with genetic weaknesses. I have found that the benefits of hybrid vigour far out way any attempts at selecting for productive capabilities.
But then that's one of my hobby horses!

I had one die under a bush, trying to lay her first egg. It was a lovely big light Sussex.

Oohh

Not much risk of that at least, with my Light Sussex pullet. She should have been in lay when I got her last autumn- red comb & all, but she still hasn't laid an egg. But then two Wednesdays ago I found her in the run with her head & wings stuck through a loop of string that had previously tied up some greens for the girls to peck at. She was virtually being hanged, the others taking the opportunity to pull her feathers out. Birds can be so horrible, can't they?

I unhooked the string, cut it off her & brought her inside in a box to warm up. She's pretty much recovered now, though I had to clip the feathers on a droopy wing to stop her from treading on them & she still can't use her wings to get up into the shelf in the greenhouse.

I'm dreading what's going to happen next Wednesday- both disasters have been on Wednesdays...

Do let us know .....all fingers superstitiously crossed!

Fingers crossed to. But do let us know.
It must be the breed. We have a Light Sussex who can get into all sorts of trouble without even thinking about it. Hence her name Dizzy Izzie. One highlight was deciding to dust bathe in mud then roll in some sand. Still she was a lovely apricot colour for a while

This morning I cooked Alice's last egg for breakfast (I didn't have the heart to let it go to waste). When I cracked it into the pan, it had not just one but three quite large blood spots on it.

If blood spots are caused by a blood vessel rupturing, does this suggest that a serious rupture may have caused her demise?

Oh, that is a poignant thing isn't it - a last egg as a memento.
The blood spots would have been included in the egg at least 10 hours before she died so it is more likely to indicate something going on that may have led to a heart attack (or hemorrhage maybe) rather than the fatal moment itself.
Something causing high blood pressure maybe? As said above, it was likely an unfortunate congenital defect.

Edit - Sorry Icemaiden, meant to say 10 hours before the egg was laid and the whole point is kind of obvious. Just thinking out loud.