HELP!!!! 12 chicks dropped dead within minutes????

[Kiki]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...heat-plate-for-newly-hatched-bantams.1422060/

 

[Ninabelle5087]

I don't want to make things more confusing but when i read this all i keep wondering is if the plate malfunctioned and electrocuted them...

Oh no, I didn't even think of that, how awful

 

[Ninabelle5087]

You could refrigerate a few now and take them to your state lab tomorrow for a necropsy if it is close by. If it's not close you could over night a few to the lab. They will tell you why they died.

Glad I haven't buried them already, didn't wanna be out in the dark digging a grave. Lemme look up if we have a state lab close by. I'd really like to know, as I need some new hens, and until I figure out what happened I'm terrified to get any more.

 

[mamajos]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/help-please--inexplicable-chick-deaths.1449255/#post-24110892

 

[Ninabelle5087]

You could refrigerate a few now and take them to your state lab tomorrow for a necropsy if it is close by. If it's not close you could over night a few to the lab. They will tell you why they died.

Which one of these is the one I should contact

 

[Mellowmalt]

Skimming over the thread on how to measure the temps one poster wrote she placed the heat plate upside down so she could place the thermometer directly on the heating side of the plate to test it:

Upside down, the thermometer sitting on it read 120F, way too hot for chicks to be close enough to touch on their backs, as recommended. My friend's plat was 100F, and was great.
I bought one of those temperature regulator additions. and got the plate to a more reasonable temp, which then worked very well.
I too though the brooder plate would be an upgrade, and less expensive to run than the heat lamps. After fixing it's temperature, it does what it's meant to do.
Mary

 

[Ninabelle5087]

Temp in brooder about 71, temp under heater about 78, but it hasn't been on long, and most of the heat is on the plate itself. I'm starting to worry there is something in my house, like carbon monoxide, and the chicks were just more sensitive to it. We have smoke detectors, but no CO detectors. Really wishing Walmart was open right now so I could run get one.

 

[JNC]

I don't want to make things more confusing but when i read this all i keep wondering is if the plate malfunctioned and electrocuted them...

Yeah it had to be something along those lines. I don’t really agree with the overheating as they just ALL wouldn’t die at the SAME time. You would’ve seen them panting if they were that hot.

 

[Ninabelle5087]

Yeah it had to be something along those lines. I don’t really agree with the overheating as they just ALL wouldn’t die at the SAME time. You would’ve seen them panting if they were that hot.

Exactly, even with the two I had overheat when I was using the heat lamp, only the two right under the lamp were affected. Most of these were just walking around the brooder. Two were under it. A couple were partly under it. And they had all been fine. Trying to figure out what lab to send some of them to for a necropsy. Maybe my vet would do one. I'll call tmrw. My husband is gonna have a cow when he finds chick corpses in the fridge. But I need answers. So he's just gonna have to suck it up.

 

[Kiki]

Which one of these is the one I should contact

http://www.agi.alabama.gov/divisions/veterinary-diagnostic-labs