Two Adopted Hens Dropped Dead!!

[Wyorp Rock]

I agree, likely heat and stress.

 

[saintolgahomestead]

How far is that? This is important.

The chicken wire fence was separate in the far corner of our chicken yard we sectioned off a small area and made a 5ft by 4ft corner with rock border. I've kept it closed off so our RIR can't get in there until I know what to do to ensure nothing is going to be contagious in there for them.
My husband wants to burn the grass and feces out in there with his torch and dig the dirt out just to be sure. Any thoughts?

 

[nuthatched]

The chicken wire fence was separate in the far corner of our chicken yard we sectioned off a small area and made a 5ft by 4ft corner with rock border. I've kept it closed off so our RIR can't get in there until I know what to do to ensure nothing is going to be contagious in there for them.
My husband wants to burn the grass and feces out in there with his torch and dig the dirt out just to be sure. Any thoughts?

So they were just decided by a fence? You're husband can torch it if he wants but if they were that close, they've already been fully exposed. Hopefully it was just heat and stress.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

If the new chickens were within just a few feet of your existing flock, and had something contagious, they were not adequately quarantined to protect your existing flock. They would need to have been separated far enough away that airborne bacteria and viruses could not be transmitted to the other flock. I'm just guessing but I would think a couple hundred feet would do it, not just the other side of a chicken wire barrier. Burning the grasses where they were is a moot point now, IF they had something contagious your flock has already been exposed. Let's hope heat is the culprit.

I learned a lesson many years ago in New Mexico when a lady caught several of her chickens with a wire hook around the foot on a hot summer day and sent them home with me in a dog crate. It wasn't the trip home that did some of them in, but the chase in the heat. When I told her that about half of them had died on the two-mile trip home, she agreed to replace them - but this time I went after dark and she simply plucked them off the roost after they'd gone to bed. It made all the difference.

 

[SourRoses]

The chicken wire fence was separate in the far corner of our chicken yard we sectioned off a small area and made a 5ft by 4ft corner with rock border. I've kept it closed off so our RIR can't get in there until I know what to do to ensure nothing is going to be contagious in there for them.
My husband wants to burn the grass and feces out in there with his torch and dig the dirt out just to be sure. Any thoughts?

Anything communicable would have already been transmitted to your chickens.
Most contagious poultry diseases are viral. So airborne transmission via aerosolized droplets, or dander are common.

I would only avoid the flock contacting the poo of the dead hens because of parasites your flock may not have been exposed to. I'd leave it fallow, sectioned off for some time, and just keep an eye on your hens for symptoms. Digging out the dirt sounds like a way for your husband to give himself heatstroke and get burned out on keeping chickens.
Next time you get new chickens, quarantine them far from your existing flock, preferably on the other side of a building to avoid the wind blowing in particles.