Lost three chickens in three weeks, just dead in the morning.

[wanna be chicken lady]

My chickens are about 11 months old. Lost none raising them. In the last, about three weeks, lost one a week. Put them to bed at night in there fairly big, 6x6x12 foot house. I have always locked them in at night. No high roost. No change in food .Plenty of water. I will say, I think it may have been the collection of droppings, maybe caused to much dust with them being locked in. Does have an open roof vent. Since last death. 2 days ago. I cleaned house out. I bought disinfectant but haven't used it yet. I'm now leaving the door open at night. Their yard is very inclosed. I had thought my male duck was killing them at night. Not so. I have put him in his own area since before the last death. Now no deaths but it hasn't been a week yet. Any thoughts? How often do you clean your hen house? Does anyone have thoughts on ducks with chickens?

 

[CoopCrazy]

Do you have any pics of your coop.. Maybe the ventalation if you just have one roof vent that doesnt seem like it would give much air circulation.. Wish I could help more... I clean my coop about once a month.. unless it gets wet or overly poopy...

 

[HennysMom]

Ventilation is key... patandchickens has a wonderful page all about ventilation, do a search and read up about it. A picture of your coop would be helpful as well.

If you're not cleaning the coop out and not doing deep litter method, then that could be your problem. Even using deep litter, you should turn the litter and add more as you go to prevent gases from building up. Chickens let off alot too just in breathing so proper air movement is vital to their health. What type of bedding are you using in their coop as well? Dust (even from pine bedding) can create a problem with their system if not properly ventililated.

What did your birds look like? Were they gasping for air? Trouble breathing? rattlely in the chest? Noses running? Etc? There's just alot of information thats missing for us to really tell you much more.

My coop itself is about 4X6 or so (maybe a little bigger) and thats just the floor space alone, not the height. I clean our coop out completely once a week (all bedding) and the poop catch boards get cleaned out 3 times a week with the hardwire getting scraped down every morning. The poop drops into pine shavings (on the drop boards) and gets mixed in completely. I also use Food Grade DE in the bedding. The pen/run also gets cleaned out 3 times a week completely. Some would say overkill but...I dont like a messy chicken house or pen and it keeps the smell and bugs down.

I'm sorry you lost your birds. Hopefully you'll post some more information so we can possible help figure it out.