Insouciant07
Hatching
- Jul 2, 2020
- 7
- 5
- 8
So I have a coop of a few 100 Isa brown layers that are 8 weeks old. Since young I've had them in 24 hours of light, thinking they could eat more and grow more that way. After talking to an expert on these chickens, he told me that it's important for them to have a period of darkness to rest. He said I could start with natural lighting, and just turn off lights at night. Last night was the first time I turned off the lights in the coop leaving them in total darkness. This morning I found a bunch of chickens scattered around dead. They have a room and an open door that leads to a fenced up area, with net on top for them to freely come in and out. Most of them were dead outside which rules out being smothered by each other in darkness. A few were smothered in corners of the room, but most outside. It doesn't look like an animal got them because they're whole, no blood or marks except for a few that other chickens pecked on. Could it be that the sudden darkness shocked them to death? There's a few weak ones that aren't dead yet, but they can't really walk, lost balance and so on. The rest of the chickens are fine. These chickens were always healthy and active up until this sudden death, so I don't think it's a disease. Please help with any answers!