2 days and 6 dead chickens later ugh!

[Mrs. K]

Get them through the worst of winter, days getting longer, a few eggs showing up. Yesterday morning, a older bird, dead on the bottom of the coop. It happens, disappointing, she was a good bird, but quick and painless. This morning things were fine. They were still roosted up when I did chores, and checked for eggs. Tonight, 5 are dead. UGH! Three were on the roost! In fact, I didn't immediately realize one of them was dead. Saw one kind of caught between the roost and the wall, and was thinking dang it, when all at once I realized things were not right.

None of them look stressed, no tears, no wounds, no thrashing or extended wings, just like they are sleeping.

It must of been something they got into? I have let them out the last couple of days, and I have had chickens roaming around for years... will be looking more carefully tomorrow. The one hen that is left? She is the sole survivor of a horrible coon predation. Should hatch her eggs, she is my oldest hen and a survivor.

Sometimes this hobby is just not fun.

Mrs K

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Oh no! I'm so so sorry! I hope that you can figure out what's going on quickly!

 

[Soy Milano]

Are you protecting them from the cold? If not, they're probably dying from the extreme stress on their bodies. You may want to consider providing them some sort of heat source, other than a heat lamp...http://www.poultrydvm.com/featured-infographic/dangers-of-heat-lamps-in-chicken-coops

 

[centrarchid]

Toxin or very virulent disease. If former, how is your feed? Can you go out and check them odd for behavior on the roost?

 

[David61]

I have already contacted my county farm agent about something like this happening to me. She said bring her the dead birds asap for testing.

 

[Mrs. K]

I am thinking maybe rodent poison. Not in my coop of course, but up in the cattle barn, we had quite a problem. It has been so nice, I have been letting the chickens out to roam.They generally don't roam clear to the cattle barn, but they must have. My husband found some that had been drugged out from where he had it, he thought he had it all picked up. I am going to look really hard all around tomorrow. It sucks that it was my chickens, but it was not my grand children.

We generally are very careful with this stuff. But coons can be very handy. We will be looking carefully.

As for the birds, they were not stressed and absolutely no sign of sickness. They literally just looked asleep.

 

[David61]

Rat poison is blood thinner. They bleed out from the major organs. It takes a day or two and may even take more than one dose depending on how much was eaten. Knowing chickens, they don't give up on a meal.

 

[chrissynemetz]

Oh no! I'm so sorry!!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Wow that's terrible! So sorry to hear bout this. I hope you can find and deal with the cause soon, whether it's poison or something else.

 

[gtaus]

Sorry for your loss. I don't let my chickens free range due to predator concerns, but I suppose one of the benefits of keeping them in a fenced in run is that it reduces the number of things they could eat that might be deadly to them. Hope you find out what killed your chickens and you post what happened.