Many Chicken Deaths

[casportpony]

That's pretty steep. Have you checked your state veterinarian? In California if you have less than 1000 birds at your site (backyard flocks vs commercial poultry farms) a necropsy is free but you have to get your bird to one of the 2 labs in the state which is less convenient than a local private vet.

California actually has four labs and they do free necropsies on backyard chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese, but charge f$125 for everything else. Last time I shipped one, I used their FedEx account number and it only cost $11 to overnight.

Lab locations:
http://cahfs.ucdavis.edu/services/lab_locations.cfm