Help! Dead 9 week old chicks

[eaglerugby04]

I have chicks that are about 9-10 weeks old in a temporary outdoor coup I built alongside the one with the fullsize chickens in it.. I got up this morning to find 3 of them dead and a 4th one laying on the ground breathing heavily.

I am unsure as to the cause fully, but yesterday night we had a wicked storm occur. My first thoughts were too much water got in and the chickens died of freezing, but after talking to a few co workers that have had chickens before it sounds like they somehow drowned themselves, or possibly had heart attacks from the scary weather.

The 4th one that isn't doing to great I put under a heat lamp and left for work (still thinking at the time it was freezing (It was still about 70 degrees out all night. The chicken moved herself away from the lights later on in the day and appears to be a little more active, but is still laying down, but has her head upwright looking around.

As for the breeds of chickens I had in this coup.

Deseased
2 barred rocks
1 Buckeye

Alive and doing well
1 Brahama
1 Buff Orphington

Twitching on the ground
1 Buff Orphington

I would like to save the buff orphington if possible, and if it isn't likely put her out of any misery she may be in. I would also like to know if i should look for signs of anything else in the other two birds. My two and a half year old twins were in love with these chickens


Thank you in advance for any help you can provide!

 

[Stiggy]

is their house drafty?
were they wet/ damp?
was the house/ bedding damp?
are they eating ok?
are they showing signs of distress?
are they breathing ok?/ do they have clear noses that arnt running?

sorry to hear about your chooks

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Also, is it possible a predator paid them a visit? Even if they can't get into the pen, they can put the birds in a frenzy trying. They'll pop around in the pen and injure themselves.
At 9 weeks old, they should be pretty well weather proofed, but if they were sitting in standing water, saturated bedding or exposed to the rain for an extended period of time, it certainly could be the cause of all this.
Sorry for your loss

 

[donrae]

If they got wet, they could have died or exposure. They wouldn't have froze, exactly, birds can handle sub freezing temps at this age as long as they're dry and out of the wind. But if they get wet, they get colder and that's all she wrote. Depending on how they were found, they could have piled up on each other trying to get warmer and smothered the bottom birds. They're not going to have heart attacks from weather, and if there was enough water to drown in, exposure/hypothermia was the cause of death.