10 chickens dead in one night, 3 left.

[nicolejme]

I'm still sort of a "newbie" to chickens, I've had 4 very spoiled chickens for over a year now, and in March, we brought home 10 new babies.

This morning I went out to let the girls out of their coop, and all of them but 3 (one of the old girls, and 2 babies) were laying on the floor of the coop dead. No blood, no sign of an attack or anything. I searched them all for bite marks and that and there was nothing. I felt their necks to see if they were broken, from something scaring them and they tried to fly about, but didn't find anything amiss.

My concern is for the last 3 that are left.. They are all very shook up over all of this, and won't even come to me for a treat. If they were poisoned, or sick somehow. Is there any diseases that would kill an entire group of chickens in one night? I mean, they were all acting fine and happy when they were put away last night, so it is a huge surprise to me.

I'm pretty good at checking them for diseases and things, to the point that they loved hopping up on my lap for me to check them over. I really think they liked it So any help would be very much appreciated.

 

[leadwolf1]

Was there a heat lamp in with them?

Check very closely for any small bite marks on their necks.

 

[gickelvolk]

Is your coop lighted? Heat-Lamp, perhaps?

If so, check if your bulb has a "Shatter-Proof" coating on it. This coating gives off a toxic fume........

This is not very well known but does happen.

 

[Kay56]

Oh so sorry...I know you must be terribly upset. Hope you figure this out. Did you put in a new red heat lamp? Several months ago this happened to someone on the forum and it ended up being a shatterproof red heat bulb that was toxic.

 

[CorinneP]

I Hope you can Figure out the Cause I am so Very Sorry For your Loss ! That is Tragic ..

 

[nicolejme]

I do have a light out there, it's the same light I've been using for the last year.. It does say R-shield (or R guard ... I forgot that fast) on it, is that shatterproof? I don't see any coating at all on the bulb.

I'm going to pick up new food and new feeders today while I'm in town, I'm scared that their food might be contaminated now.. I did go back out and check the chickens again for bite marks and still didn't see anything at all.

I'm just glad my daughter didn't go out to let them out like she usually does.. she would have been devastated. She's going to be heartbroken when she gets home from school today.

 

[gickelvolk]

Was it maybe "Shat-R-Shield"??? That is a protective coating for high use bulbs....

If so, that's likely your culprit..... You wanna make sure your bulbs are uncoated.....

 

[nicolejme]

Yes, that was it.. I'm really sad that I didn't know about what those bulbs could possibly do to my girls. Thank you guys for all of your help! I'm going to start there, and finish up going around the yard looking for something they possibly could have gotten into as they were free range too.

 

[gickelvolk]

Sorry for your loss.... truly. You meant only to do well for your chix.

Live & learn......

I learned about that when I was looking to using a heat lamp in the coop on extreme cold nights. I came across an article about the noxious fumes emitted by these coatings.

Good luck in the future....

 

[tracylo09]

So sorry you have lost so many of your girls in such an awful way, maybe your post will help some other people who didn't know about the fumes emitted from these bulbs & prevent them from making the same mistake by changing them after reading your sad story.