All my birds died!

[Country Parson]

I have two pens of Coturnix Quail, 4 birds in each pen. The pens are physically connected, but separated by plywood. Last night all was well, but this morning around 8:00am I found all my birds dead. No wounds, no bite marks...just dead----all 8 birds.

I am at a loss to explain this. Perhaps its a disease, but this seems unlikely since it occurred in two different pens and killed all the birds within a single night.

I keep the pen on the back closed-in porch, so no large animal could have gotten in and scared them. Any ideas what could have happened?

 

[Quinn4321]

was it really cold? do u have rat posion around that the chickens may have gotten to?

 

[Robo]

Quote:
Its quail, to the OP - It could have been the feed...

 

[Quinn4321]

Im sorry- I was typing fast/not thinking- I really did read. Perhaps you should check the feed and water as Robo said.

 

[shelleyd2008]

I agree, it sounds like something was wrong with the feed.

 

[4-H chicken mom]

I am so sorry for you loss.

I too would have the feed examined. I hope you are able to determine what happened.

 

[Rainwolf]

I have a few questions...

How old were your birds?
When did they go from brooder to outside?
What temp is it outside?
Did you just start a new feed or new bag of feed?
Did you change anything?
Did you introduce anything new?
You said the birds are on your porch... was a car running close enough to cause CO2 fumes to build up?

To me it sounds like cold shock since it was all at same time or something like gas/CO2 fumes.
It could be bad feed but that normally is spread out a little not all within same few hrs.

Sorry for your loss. Hope we can figure this out so it won't happen again.

 

[Fat Daddy]

Im thinking CO2 type problem as well, maybe a water heater or the like on the porch?

 

[joe125]

That is unfortunate, to say the least.

It generally doesn't happen...but....where do we go from here?

 

[95yj]

are their necks broken, something like a dog barking underneath their pens (if they're raised pens) could have simultaneously scared them all enough to fly into the roof, highly unlikely but just throwing it out there. If you really want to know you could have an autopsy done, in my state there's a bunch of ways to get it done free. Usually at a public college offering a vet program.