Sure, you can be right about chickens dying for no reason, but, at the end of the day, chickens do over bloat and die from eating too much clover, and there is no way to prevent that. We have kept our chickens in the run for one week after many chickens died from the same weird cause that was unexplained, even if they had clean water, a very good source of food, and a clean hygienic coop,
and there was no reasons for the chicken to die naturally when showing all the bloating symptoms,. After keeping the chickens in the run for a while, we have not had the some kind of sick chicken since. My dad grew up around sheep and the exact thing happened to them, blood thinning and bloating. Clover is very healthy for a chicken, but what normally happens is that the clover accumulates a fast growing fungi, and the fungi activates a substance in the clover creating blood thinning and bloating.
"And therein lies the reason clover often appears on lists of what not to feed chickens. Clover contains
coumarin which is a blood thinner. So while it does help with good blood flow and lower blood pressure, particularly if clover gets moldy the presence of certain fungi cause coumarin to turn into a toxin that can cause internal hemorrhaging." One website says.
So chickens really do get sick from clover, even if it is healthy for them without the fungi, but chances are, that your chickens will get sick if they eat too much clover, and that still is a problem to chicken owners.
Glad I could help,
-Birdbrain101
