Did weather kill my chickens?

[Buckeye Amy]

Aww, I feel for your wife. Losing birds really hurts, especially when you're just starting out. Give her some time to mourn the loss, but encourage her to try again! We have ALL suffered loss for various reasons. I really don't think the blame lies on leaving the coop door open.

When the chickens roam into other people's yards you have no control over what they come into contact with...antifreeze, metal pieces, rat poison, etc. I don't recommend leaving them out unsupervised until you get a real good feel for chickens and what they can get into when you aren't watching. They will definitely eat mice, which is one of the reasons I only use mouse traps to control vermin.

Direct cold wind is not good for birds, but chickens are incredibly well insulated. Feathers are the best insulator in the world! I don't think a few hours of cold wind would kill them the way you described. If chickens aren't comfortable they will move to get to a more comfortable spot. My gut is telling me they ingested something toxic.

I feel so bad for you both. Please do try again. Owning chickens is so rewarding!

 

[Kmjmjm]

The coop could certainly fit more chickens. I would say minus the 4 nesting boxes connected it is 6 feet long and 3 feet wide.

 

[Kmjmjm]

Just odd they both died just in front of their roosts. Thanks for all the help and thoughts. We will try again soon. Wish I knew the culprit to prevent going forward, but we will be better about letting them roam to far.

 

[aart]

I tried to do a necropsy on one but I wasn’t sure what to look for. I couldn’t find anything that looked odd other than the full bladder looked greenish black - not sure if that is normal or not.

Chicken don't have bladders per se.
Wonder what you were looking at, did you take any pics?

 

[KarynVA]

So sorry for your loss.

 

[Kmjmjm]

Gall bladder, sorry autocorrect got me.

 

[aart]

Gall bladder, sorry autocorrect got me.

Ah, ha!
The gall bladder is normally green.
Can be easy to break it while gutting, which can taint the meat.
Did the liver look OK?

 

[Kmjmjm]

I believe so, but I am not exactly an expert.

 

[Ridgerunner]

If you still have a body and it has been kept cold, call your extension office and see what it takes to get a necropsy. Each state is different in costs and what you have to do but usually they want the body refrigerated, not frozen, and as fresh as possible.

It's hard to tell what happened. At that age in those temperatures and everything else you describe I doubt it was the weather. I've seen chickens sleep in trees with weather colder than that. No marks means it was not a predator. As quickly as it happened I don't think it was a disease or parasite. If they ate something that plugged their digestive system it would have been a slower death.

Some kind of poisoning is what comes to mind. It could be something put out for coyotes, prairie dogs, gophers, or rats, something like that. From what you describe this sounds less likely but they have pretty delicate respiratory systems. Fumes of some type could kill them. It is rare for chickens that forage to eat poisonous plants, usually they know better, but never say never.

This kind of stuff is hard, both hard on people and often hard to determine what actually happened. I wish you luck.

 

[Mrs. K]

I am pretty positive it is NOT the weather.