Mass Chick Death- WHAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED???

[MROO]

Could you have had a visit from a snake? Their feces look much like a chicken's and they can squeeze in and out through a really small space. A snake of nearly any size would terrify littles something awful! If it was a snake, there's a good chance it's still hiding somewhere inside. Be sure to check all open pots,bins and corners for napping visitors!

 

[Ms Clucky]

Is there children around? Some could be a bit, shall we say, major brats. Maybe banging on the sides of it or trying to get in. When we had rabbits, there was brats coming around and opening the cages and letting them out. So many times rounding the rabbits up. I had to get my Shitzu, Sissy to help me.

 

[ShannonR]

Try a dehumidifier for the condensation and moisture issue.

I also think it was the moldy feed, ergot poisoning possibly.

 

[HeartsDelight]

Mold toxicity is my best theory. Mold and fungi really can cause bizarre neurological issues that manifest in strange behaviour including fear and panic responses.

 

[WestCoast Farm]

It’s been nice and temperate lately... wasn’t the Arctic Canadian weather by any means... and I’d love to see a troublemaker kid get past their dogs! But I wouldn’t know much about troublemaking kids, Would you?

There’s no way any person or kids got in here. I’ve been home all the time. We have a fenced, gated property with five intimidating farm dogs and a warning sign on the gate- NOBODY comes in uninvited.

It’s been balmy warm here lately too. Not the kind of weather that chicks freeze to death in.

If they got out from under their heating plate & lost, I’d expect them to be huddled in a group, not dead in the manner I found them in.

Looks like they went crazy before they died.

 

[WestCoast Farm]

Oh, mold can definitely cause some weird neurological effects. The hysteria around the Salem witch trials is thought to have been caused by an outbreak of a psychoactive mold in the local wheat supply. Basically, everyone who ate that wheat was on LSD. You probably don't have LSD-mold in your feed, but I'm sure plenty of other molds have neurological effects of one form or another. I certainly wouldn't be surprised if there's a poisonous fungus whose toxin causes panic in birds.

That’s the most logical explanation I’ve heard so far.

 

[WestCoast Farm]

Try a dehumidifier for the condensation and moisture issue.

I also think it was the moldy feed, ergot poisoning possibly.

Thank you, I will try a dehumidifier.

A strange toxic event sounds most likely to me at this point.

 

[WestCoast Farm]

Could you have had a visit from a snake? Their feces look much like a chicken's and they can squeeze in and out through a really small space. A snake of nearly any size would terrify littles something awful! If it was a snake, there's a good chance it's still hiding somewhere inside. Be sure to check all open pots,bins and corners for napping visitors!

We only have teeny, shy, elusive and harmless garter snakes here. Currently they are still hibernating & they don’t confront anything but insects.

I tore the place apart, looking for anything. Not a drop of blood. Not a single rat turd. Found a couple more dead chicks wedged behind things.

I looked in every nook and cranny, every container, every bin and found nothing unusual.

Even after a predator attack I’ve never seen birds hiding and dead like that. Hiding yes, but not wedged into tight places and dead.

It does sound neurological like a poisoning and they went hysterical.

 

[Cyprus]

We only have teeny, shy, elusive and harmless garter snakes here. Currently they are still hibernating & they don’t confront anything but insects.

I tore the place apart, looking for anything. Not a drop of blood. Not a single rat turd. Found a couple more dead chicks wedged behind things.

I looked in every nook and cranny, every container, every bin and found nothing unusual.

Even after a predator attack I’ve never seen birds hiding and dead like that. Hiding yes, but not wedged into tight places and dead.

It does sound neurological like a poisoning and they went hysterical.

Any chance you can get that mold tested? It'd be useful info for the future.

 

[WestCoast Farm]

Any chance you can get that mold tested? It'd be useful info for the future.

If only I had thought of this sooner... I cleaned everything from top to bottom. Waterers have all been bleached. Old feed dish dumped onto manure pile & scrubbed clean now.

I wouldn’t be able to find anything to test now