Seven dead hens within 4 hours, not attacked. UPDATE: Teflon Poisoning!

[turtlelaura67]

I've overheated them more times than I care to admit. You know, my mom always warned me about Teflon. Handle it gently, don't scratch the coating, toss the pan if it's scratched. Once again, she's right. Grrr....

 

[bruceha2000]

I suspect the Teflon cookware is pretty safe if Teflon has to get into the many hundreds of degrees before is starts to off gas. Since the heat lamp did so, they must be REALLY hot (presumably that's why the one used is designed for food warming areas) and I wouldn't want one anywhere there was no one watching.

I don't know what temp the "official" poultry heat lamps get to. They are usually 150W or 250W right? I bet they get dangerously hot as well. Even a 100W incandescent (for the younger set ... when they were sold ) weren't something you wanted to touch with your hand or let anything flammable touch.

Thanks but no thanks, my birds can fluff and my chicks can have their Mama Heating Pad brooder cave.

 

[bruceha2000]

I've overheated them more times than I care to admit. You know, my mom always warned me about Teflon. Handle it gently, don't scratch the coating, toss the pan if it's scratched. Once again, she's right. Grrr....

I think once you have overheated them, any health concerns aside, the coating is no longer non-stick and will only get worse with use.

 

[AaronandAlice]

Not sure if it’s good or bad he won’t let me catch him tonight. Still a little shivery, making him an egg yolk

 

[lazy gardener]

Sounds like he has a reasonable expectation of recovering.

Thanks but no thanks, my birds can fluff and my chicks can have their Mama Heating Pad brooder cave.

Agreed. I'm doing my happy dance tonight. It's only supposed to get down to minus 1*F tonight. Small snow storm moving in tomorrow, and warmer weather for the rest of the week. From here out, every week that passes is one more week closer to spring. It got up to 28* in the coop today. Outdoor temp didn't get above 10*. Girls were dust bathing in the DL.

 

[TwoCrows]

Not sure if it’s good or bad he won’t let me catch him tonight. Still a little shivery, making him an egg yolkView attachment 1229816

Awww, there's your boy! He has know idea what's happened to his girls, understandable he will be nervous around pretty much everything for a while.

 

[AaronandAlice]

He’s eating the cooked yolk well anyway

 

[TwoCrows]

He’s eating the cooked yolk well anyway View attachment 1229847

What a sweetheart.

 

[KettermanHillCoop]

Just read this entire thread and I am in tears about how such an innocent mistake can hurt us.

Just wanted to say to @AaronandAlice I am really sorry for you loss. But because of this I am seeing a ton of people learning from this. You may have saved 100s/1000s or more chickens due to this. Your girls will live on in all of us that learned from this incident and as we pass the word on hopefully this will never happened again.

Also wanted to just say great job to this awesome BYC community. You guys are the best!

x 10!!!!!!

@AaronandAlice my heart just breaks for both you and your husband. Big to you both...

 

[sunflour]

@AaronandAlice

So, So sorry about your losses and hope that beautiful rooster does well.

Thank you so much for sharing this experience with us.