8/8 Dead chickens

[Pig Shack]

Today my wife and I came home to 8 dead meat birds in our 4x8 chicken tractor, they were approximately 2 months old.
We fed them less than 24 hrs ago, their waterer was still full.
1 had been mutilated however the other 7 were un touched, I believe the mutilated one may have possibly been mutilated after it died.
All 8 of them were scattered around the perimeter of the cage.

What on earth would cause all 8 to drop dead overnight?
The only thing out of the ordinary we have done in the last day was feed them some watermelon rinds, which I do all the time with our egg layers.

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

Did they get too hot?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Quote:
I was wondering the same thing, seems like this heat is having an impact on chickens already.

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

By the way...

Sorry for the loss of your birds.

 

[emys]

Is your cage made of something with a mesh large enough for a raccoon to reach through?

 

[zengrrl]

Was there any obvious point of entry into the pen? That does sound so odd, esp bc one was mutilated.

 

[Pig Shack]

Today was in the high 70's, low 80's. The pen has a steel roof, so they should have had plenty of shade, the area they were in has lots of late day shade, I would be surprised if they died to heat.

There was an obvious place where something got under the pen to eat the 1 bird, however no other chickens were touched, I looked them all over pretty well.

 

[Thomas423]

At 2 months, were the meat birds large and ready to process? I've read that they can have heart attacks. Sounds odd that they all died overnight. Makes me think maybe they ate something.
There is a section on meat birds so maybe there is something in there that might help you figure it out.
Sorry about your loss and....
Welcome to BYC.

 

[chicken delighted]

i dont know where your are but in michigan the heat and humidity was awful to day 90s. i lost one of my broody hens
i have fans runnig every where i thought my coop would fly with all the air movement in their and yet it was too warm. we been giving fresh water out at 10;00-2:30 and 6:00 and bought a large watermelon for them even the goat ate watermelon today.

sorry about your birds

 

[Pig Shack]

I am in SW Wisconsin, it was humid here today, but it was pretty windy as well.