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Sorry you've been sick, but glad you're better.
This wasn't a really great day for me. I went out to feed my chickens and gather eggs, to find what looked like two thirds dead and more dieing. I grabbed three dead and headed for the state lab, only about 30 miles away. More of those that were healthy when I left died while I was gone.
It'll be a few days before I hear from the lab, but it was buffalo gnats. Since we traded some chickens, I called my neighbor to warn him I was having problems. He called back to report the buffalo gnats were driving his brooder chicks crazy and two or three were dead; and that people in this area have lost entire flocks to them before. He said they crawl in their beaks though the nostrils and get in their airways. He was putting up a fan to blow the gnats clear of the brooder. Another aquaintence called his cousin, who reported previous problems and claimed chlorine bleach spayed in the coop repels them. I saw them on my dead and dieing, but thought they had gathered on them after they went down.
Of 52 birds, I lost 45, including every pure bred and all but one of my project birds. I'm left with 2 EE hens, 4 ISA Brown hens, and a white Ameraucana/CX pullet; one ISA is not healthy. I've dusted the survivor's bodies with Sevin, and hung glass containers of chlorine with holes punched in the lids in the coop and breeding pen/tractor.
I do have 14 chicks inside that hatched last week, and 42 eggs in the bator.
It looks like I might be in the same trouble you are. My husband just called to tell me 10 of my cornish x are just laying there dead. We are next to a creek and only a mile or so away from the Ohio River so we have been in the midst of water for the past few months too. I'm going to call him back and ask him to mix up some bleach and spray it around until I can get home to evaluate. ANymore info anyone has on this, please let me know!!
What's most effective for me is a high velocity fan, under $40 from Walmart. I did not want to spray chlorine because of its caustic nature. While an EE sought a place to sit immediately under a bottle I hung, I don't think it was working all that well.
This wasn't a really great day for me. I went out to feed my chickens and gather eggs, to find what looked like two thirds dead and more dieing. I grabbed three dead and headed for the state lab, only about 30 miles away. More of those that were healthy when I left died while I was gone.
It'll be a few days before I hear from the lab, but it was buffalo gnats. Since we traded some chickens, I called my neighbor to warn him I was having problems. He called back to report the buffalo gnats were driving his brooder chicks crazy and two or three were dead; and that people in this area have lost entire flocks to them before. He said they crawl in their beaks though the nostrils and get in their airways. He was putting up a fan to blow the gnats clear of the brooder. Another aquaintence called his cousin, who reported previous problems and claimed chlorine bleach spayed in the coop repels them. I saw them on my dead and dieing, but thought they had gathered on them after they went down.
Of 52 birds, I lost 45, including every pure bred and all but one of my project birds. I'm left with 2 EE hens, 4 ISA Brown hens, and a white Ameraucana/CX pullet; one ISA is not healthy. I've dusted the survivor's bodies with Sevin, and hung glass containers of chlorine with holes punched in the lids in the coop and breeding pen/tractor.
I do have 14 chicks inside that hatched last week, and 42 eggs in the bator.
It looks like I might be in the same trouble you are. My husband just called to tell me 10 of my cornish x are just laying there dead. We are next to a creek and only a mile or so away from the Ohio River so we have been in the midst of water for the past few months too. I'm going to call him back and ask him to mix up some bleach and spray it around until I can get home to evaluate. ANymore info anyone has on this, please let me know!!
What's most effective for me is a high velocity fan, under $40 from Walmart. I did not want to spray chlorine because of its caustic nature. While an EE sought a place to sit immediately under a bottle I hung, I don't think it was working all that well.
