Hi there,
I am fairly new to raising chickens- we got our first flock this past spring as day old chicks. We live in Maine and it's been cold- but all had been fine so far. This afternoon I brought the girls out a treat of some raisins and bread. Yesterday, I had fed them a head of Romaine lettuce prior to seeing the news about possible E. coli contamination. I added a little warm water to their dish. I picked my daughter up from school then went back out around 5:30 to change out their water dish for the night and found one chicken pretty unresponsive to touch. The others were sleeping normally (they didn't have their heads flopped on the floor and their necks stretched). I came inside and after my son got home I warmed up a towel to go back out and see if she was just cold. It's been colder than tonight and they've all been fine. When I went back in (it had been about an hour and 15 minutes) there were now 7 chickens who appeared to be dead- leaving only 5 living. When I went out at 2:15 pm they all seemed fine and I closed them into the coop for the evening. There is no way for animals to get in- I am totally freaked out as to what could've caused this. I was talking to my husband and the only recent changes were that I cleaned their coop Wednesday and added a very light layer of coop and compost under the shavings, and I added a bag of feather fixer to their food because some were losing feathers. The one thing I didn't think of then, but I did now, was that I had given them a head of Romaine lettuce yesterday. I looked last night online and couldn't find any information as to whether or not chickens could be infected by it- but it was fresh. I buy the bag with 3 heads in it and they get one every other day usually. I haven't found anything online and now I'm wondering if we should even eat the eggs they've lain in the past couple of days. It's upsetting because they're like pets, I just don't have any idea what went wrong. Thank you for any help.
I am fairly new to raising chickens- we got our first flock this past spring as day old chicks. We live in Maine and it's been cold- but all had been fine so far. This afternoon I brought the girls out a treat of some raisins and bread. Yesterday, I had fed them a head of Romaine lettuce prior to seeing the news about possible E. coli contamination. I added a little warm water to their dish. I picked my daughter up from school then went back out around 5:30 to change out their water dish for the night and found one chicken pretty unresponsive to touch. The others were sleeping normally (they didn't have their heads flopped on the floor and their necks stretched). I came inside and after my son got home I warmed up a towel to go back out and see if she was just cold. It's been colder than tonight and they've all been fine. When I went back in (it had been about an hour and 15 minutes) there were now 7 chickens who appeared to be dead- leaving only 5 living. When I went out at 2:15 pm they all seemed fine and I closed them into the coop for the evening. There is no way for animals to get in- I am totally freaked out as to what could've caused this. I was talking to my husband and the only recent changes were that I cleaned their coop Wednesday and added a very light layer of coop and compost under the shavings, and I added a bag of feather fixer to their food because some were losing feathers. The one thing I didn't think of then, but I did now, was that I had given them a head of Romaine lettuce yesterday. I looked last night online and couldn't find any information as to whether or not chickens could be infected by it- but it was fresh. I buy the bag with 3 heads in it and they get one every other day usually. I haven't found anything online and now I'm wondering if we should even eat the eggs they've lain in the past couple of days. It's upsetting because they're like pets, I just don't have any idea what went wrong. Thank you for any help.
