Deaths caused by the same unknown ailment? Possibly sour crop?

[Clydes silks]

We've had chickens for a good amount of time, recently however other than the heat causing some untimely deaths we noticed that our hens have been randomly dying due to some ailment. We assumed it was sour crop after the first deaths and noticed that whatever this was wasn't contagious.

Bile from the crop was yellow and smelled like fermentation. We've been making sure feed isn't moldy or too old, and have been making sure the water container and supply doesnt get super dirty. So what else could cause sour crop? None of our hens have survived this illness so I'm hoping theres another preventative.

As far as cures go, antibiotics doesn't save them most of the time and drags it out. I don't like to see my birds suffering. On that note, I think I might have a suspicion for the culprit. We usually take leaves from the yard and use it as their outdoor litter for the chicken coop. Usually they free range but we keep them in their little pen when it rains and so our outdoor solution bedding for them is the leaves. Could these be the possible culprit thats been causing sourcrop? If so, what other beddings are suggested other than chips? We use bedding for the outdoor part of the coop so they dont dig straight down through the dirt and create pockets for rain to sit in when the weather's bad.

 

[lbgreenfield]

Hi! Sorry this is happening to your flock. You mention the hot weather so that could be causing them to feel unwell, coupled with the mystery ailment.

As for leaves in the run/coop, is your flock possibly ingesting something that's within the leaves (bad bugs, sticks, things that might get stuck in the crop)? Have you checked your flock for parasites/lice/mites/ticks that could have been hiding in the leaves? I'm not sure where you live, but in Western PA, the ticks have been horrible this year. I've found many ticks on my chicken's faces that I've had to pluck off.

You can also make sure their feed doesn't get moist from the heat or humidity. It's been pretty humid this summer in Western PA, so I've been changing out the feed more frequently than in year's past.

Just my two cents, hope you can figure it out!