hens all dying, lost over half my flock, unknown cause, please help!!

wish i could help

 

Wow you got me on this one, I don't think the position they die in is an issue and it sounds like you have a handle any possible causes, There has to be just one thing that will stand out and tell you what it is, just don't what yet. I will be following this one. The free range thing sticks out and they die at different intervals, so maybe take a very close look around your property and fence lines, for toxic plant's and any rat bait that may have passed into your yard.

 

How old are they?

 

Could be the mouse bait. Some rodent baits contain a chemical much like "coumadin" which is a blood thinner and causes massive internal bleeding which leads to death. The black feces is probably a sign of internal bleeding. A death from "bleeding out" is relatively quick and quiet. Good luck finding your source of death. I'm sorry you're having to go through this loss.

 

I'm so sorry to hear about your loss. I hope that it will stop.

You said that the neighbor was poisioning mice. When an exterminator came to my mother-in-law's house, I asked him if the poison he was putting out would mean that the walls would be filled with rotting dead mice, and he said no, they usually crawl away to die. I hate to think that your chickens while free ranging found mice that had been killed by the poison that the neighbor put out, and ate the dead mice, thus ingesting the poison.

keeping them in their pen for awhile may protect them. Perhaps you could have one of the dead ones looked at to see if they could determine if poison is the cause.

 

What a horrible thing to happen! Lock them up for a while.

 

You might want to double check the chemicals you gave your hens when you wormed them and powdered them for mites. Be very careful when you use chemicals on birds. It is better to have a few mites than to poison your hens and their eggs that you are eating. God bless you.

 

Vitamin K can be an antidote for blood that has become too thin. If the bleeding has started already I don't know if it helps or not. Where to get vitamin K for chickens? I only know this information to be true of humans treated with coumadin/warfarin blood thinner.

Vitamin K Foods
Vitamin K Nutrition
Which foods have the highest levels of Vitamin K?
The following list summarizes selected foods containing high levels of Vitamin K, as measured by the U. S. Department of Agriculture.
By far, the major source of Vitamin K is green, leafy, vegetables - kale, collards, spinach, and turnip greens are the highest.