Lost 3 chickens in a month

Mike Richardson

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No symptoms, all girls are acting fine, then in the morning one is dead, seemingly out of nowhere.

Found the 3rd this morning. I buried the last 2 but want to find out what's happening. Any ideas on how to determine the cause? Their diet is almost exclusively laying pellets from my local store, vegetable table scraps, and their own egg shells.

These are my first chickens and I've had them incident free for about a year.
 
Send the dead bird in for a necropsy, that should help you find out why they keep dying. Best wishes :hugs
 
Do you pick your chickens up regularly and check them over? Feathers can hide a lot of things, especially weight loss. Have you ever wormed them? Do they have a source of grit? Check their feathers for mites and lice. These are common things they should be checked over for, on a regular basis.
 
I'm in Oceanside, CA and have had the birds for nearly 2 years. It was 45 last night and I didn't lose any last winter.

I think I've located a place who will do a cause of death analysis. Just wondering if there are things to look for that I might not be aware of since I've only been doing this a short while.
 
Do you pick your chickens up regularly and check them over? Feathers can hide a lot of things, especially weight loss. Have you ever wormed them? Do they have a source of grit? Check their feathers for mites and lice. These are common things they should be checked over for, on a regular basis.

They don't let us pick them up, so I rarely do. I have not wormed them as I was assured they were wormed when I purchased them from a very reputable seller. Not sure how often that is needed.

The scratch area they spend most of their time in is dirt and gravel and we feed them a good amount of table scraps from the ground so I haven't given them anything specific for grit.

I've had the flock for just over 2 years, they had just started laying when I bought them. No issues whatsoever with them until the last 2 months. We did move in June to a different location, but the new place has a dirt and gravel area we used for their pen just like the old place.

I just found a place to look at the dead bird, they want $400 and I just can't swing that at Christmas.
 
They don't let us pick them up, so I rarely do. I have not wormed them as I was assured they were wormed when I purchased them from a very reputable seller. Not sure how often that is needed.

The scratch area they spend most of their time in is dirt and gravel and we feed them a good amount of table scraps from the ground so I haven't given them anything specific for grit.

I've had the flock for just over 2 years, they had just started laying when I bought them. No issues whatsoever with them until the last 2 months. We did move in June to a different location, but the new place has a dirt and gravel area we used for their pen just like the old place.

I just found a place to look at the dead bird, they want $400 and I just can't swing that at Christmas.
No!
Call your local extension agency and they'll hook you up with a state lab.
Should be less than $100
 

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