OMG, please help :(

[3goodeggs]

Honestly, I doubt seriously that it was the peas or the watermelon. They scratch and dig and dust and eat in the dirt. That is where the organisms are. They find the compost heap and help themselves...
PLEASE, PLEASE do not beat yourself up over this. It was not your fault. There maybe some variable not factored in yet. Meanwhile, before you discover what it is, don't let your guilt eat you up.

We do the best we can under the circumstances that we are in. You were not the first, nor will you be the last, to feed a chicken slimy peas. Peas have a lot of protein in them. When left in the refrigerator, the protein will gel. Before I learned this, I tossed out a lot of perfectly good food.

Things happen, good and bad. We can not take the blame upon ourselves for everything.

 

[hd_darcy]

Quote:
THANK YOU so much for this. I do have terrible, terrible guilt, but I am not convinced it was the food either. It just seems so hard to believe about the gnats though too. Hard to believe either way, I guess. I just keep telling myself that it could have been worse. Thank God I still have my healthy human boys, and I didn't poison them!

An update is the last four that were in the run w/ the others seem to be doing okay. I have them in a water tank (large brooder) and they aren't seeming to mind. I can tell they aren't quite up to par yet though. Not sure if I should keep them in there for another day, or let them out to free range so we can watch their behavior??

Again thank you though. I obviously still feel horrible

Your kind words have helped!

 

[luvinrunnin]

Quote:
The gnats swarm..........and the chickens do die quickly. Not sure if in 2 hrs though. You can put window type screen over their wire to help keep the gnats out of the coop. These are not regular no-see-ums.

 

[justtoni44]

X2 with 3goodeggs..
Sometimes we just never know. We had an experience with our great dane puppy, little bit.
We let her out, watched her from the patio window.She ran down to the pasture, did her business ran around a little then we called her in.
Within minutes she started to shake and the rest of the story is to painful to describe.
We got her to the vets immediatley.and she passed within an hour.
The suspect was poisoning from mushrooms.....
Your situation could be something that unpredictable.
Let us know how your others are doing.
And here is my advise about guilt.put a time limit on it.say 15 minutes...

Likely it was nothing that you did.
Toni

 

[luvinrunnin]

Quote:
THANK YOU so much for this. I do have terrible, terrible guilt, but I am not convinced it was the food either. It just seems so hard to believe about the gnats though too. Hard to believe either way, I guess. I just keep telling myself that it could have been worse. Thank God I still have my healthy human boys, and I didn't poison them!

An update is the last four that were in the run w/ the others seem to be doing okay. I have them in a water tank (large brooder) and they aren't seeming to mind. I can tell they aren't quite up to par yet though. Not sure if I should keep them in there for another day, or let them out to free range so we can watch their behavior??

Again thank you though. I obviously still feel horrible

Your kind words have helped!

Our chickens have gotten slimy peas in the past with no ill effects. I REALLY don't think it was anything you fed them. I hope you can figure it out though.

 

[HeatherLynn]

Ok I'll probably get the horrible chicken owner of the year award for this one. I set stuff out on the counter all the time for mine and it does not instantly get given to them. I have a scraps bucket . Veggie scraps and some meal scraps all get put into the bucket. Usually every other day or so I take it out to mine. I know for sure that mine have gotten some stuff that was past its prime. They have gone so far to get into compost piles where food that was not deemed suitable got dumped. After a couple days in the sun I am sure it was way past and they went hog wild in there. I didn't lose one. I am pretty dang sure, unless by some chance you were just really unlucky and some bacteria that could kill them formed, that it was not the peas or watermelon. Pretty much all mine would be dead at this point if that were true. I have 30 chickens 8 geese and 19 ducks that have survived my scrap bucket. I do this because this is what the lady who taught me about chickens did. She is in her 90's now and her only loses have ever been from raccoons and such. I do not think you were to blame for giving them the peas.

For the flies and gnats I would start treating the area now. Get you some DE. The stuff is wonderful for controling the bugs. I also use fly strips that I put in areas where there are tons of flies but where the chickens cannot get into them. I know its a chemical but I also use 7 dust. If you already have an issue with buggies then sometimes you gotta get a bit agressive.

Watch the remaining ones very carefully. Check their poo. Look for odd behaviors. Have you gotten a new bag of feed or a new brand of feed? and straw? Have you checked for mites? Mite infestation will result in very weak birds and if they are weak and stressed enough they will die. Are their wings hanging? Check for anything that might be different and then post it up here.

 

[1muttsfan]

Steveh, another Byc member, lost most if his flock a few weeks ago to buffalo gnats (aka blackflies). There are some types that are attracted to birds especially; you may not get bit at all. in some areas of the country have had a very wet spring, these bugs have been in huge numbers.

Here is the link to some information on control.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=6491659#p6491659

DE does not control these insects as they breed in standing water, not in your chicken house. SteveH reported that deep shade and a fan provided the best way for the birds to avoid the bugs.

And the flowering plant, sweet pea (lathyrus sp) seeds are toxic. Green eating sweet peas are not. Wish those posts that reported otherwise would be corrected by the author.

 

[Tikkijane]

Quote:
I agree, because I had to read the entire thing to find the conclusion that it was the flowering plant and not the food sweet pea. I have sweet green peas growing in my garden.

And the night before, we lost about 1/2 a bag of frozen mixed veggies that went out to the chickens. That mix has lima beans, but I wasn't looking for them and have no way of knowing whether or not a lima bean got eaten. Any idea on the lima beans? My thought was, looking at that list, that so much that was a problem was related to nitrates. Now, I'm NOT an expert and not really a gardener either

but it seems to me if the nitrates come from the fertilizer, isn't the issue really more the fertilzer and not the plant? Is is possible to grow those plants without nitrates and thus not have the toxicity problem?

(I probably should post this somewhere else, lol).

Just my musings for the morning.