Did carbon minoxide kill my chicks?

[Scott6]

We are new to raising chicks and decided last summer we were going to adopt some . We decided on 8. We got them two weeks ago Saturday, from a local farm supply (Farm King), a reputable store. Everything was going extremely well, as we had done a lot of research. Our brooder is in our laundry room, about 20 feet (and a different room) from the oven. We had our oven on very high for making pizza, but it was not real warm in the kitchen, guessing 80 degrees. We check on the girls every 15 minutes or so and everything was fine. Then a few minutes later, I heard a bunch of squawking, and I look to see 5 dead, and the other 3 died 5 minutes later. Our oven is only a year old. We can't understand what happened. There is plenty of room to get away from the heat lamp, so heat could not have been an issue. We feel terrible, and want to make sure not to make the same mistake again. Any help is appreciated. Thanks, Scott

 

[ErinG]

Does the oven vent into where the chickens were? Is it electric or gas? You could use a carbon monoxide detector to see if it's going into that area. If so - probably not a bad idea to have one to protect your family.

 

[Scott6]

We are required to have a CO2 detector, but it is on the other side of the house by the bedrooms, by code, it did not go off. The oven is natural gas. There was a very slight smell of smoke from crumbs burning off the oven. We are confused and afraid to run our oven when we adopt new girls this week.

 

[ErinG]

Is it a CO2 detector (carbon dioxide) or CO (carbon monoxide)? My guess is CO, we breathe out CO2 all the time and you would not have a detector for it. I'm not sure if CO would do that to them or not, in humans it makes them sleepy, not agitated like your girls were. Could you run the oven and move the detector to see if there is any detectable amount?

 

[Scott6]

Erin, your right, a CO detector. Science class was 25+ years ago,

. I will try the detector idea, but I am wondering if even a slight amount of CO (that the detector might not pick up) or smoke would be cause for them to all die within 10 minutes of each other. Thanks for the input. Scott

 

[ErinG]

I hope someone else chimes in with another angle. Good luck!

 

[annie3001]

sounds like maybe carbon monoxide. dont know what else. what kind of feed are your chicks getting? wheres their water they drink from coming from?
do you ever feel sick entering that room? could be all nothing, just a bad set of chicks, who were sick when you got them? dont know? i would move the chicks asap into a different part of the house. to be on the safe side. i dunno. good luck.

 

[Missouri Chicken Chick]

Had you cleaned your oven lately? Just the slightest fumes from oven cleaner might have been enough to kill chicks.

Also, there are lots of other things that we sometimes don't think about that can affect a chick's respiratory system, i.e. carpet deodorizer powder, scented plug-ins and essential oils. All those things can harm chicks, just like pet birds. It's not something I ever thought about because up until this year my chicks had always been in a heated barn, but this year we are in a different house and have to keep them in our basement for the first few weeks. There were lots of things we had to think about before we moved them in there and in fact I kept them upstairs for a few days because I realized I had a scented plug-in down there and wanted to wait a few days until it didn't smell anymore.

Just some thoughts. Also, I am really sorry for your loss.

 

[angelbabyamy]

Was your pizza on a pan or a plastic tray? Teflon fumes can kill birds. I have a cockatiel and you are not supposed to use teflon pans. Was their any odor? Sometimes I take home pizza and cook it and it's on a paper pan.

 

[Casey3043]

Did you have a non-stick pan heating up? I have read that the fumes from Teflon being heated is toxic to birds. If the oven had a nonstick liner or something, it may have given off these toxic fumes.