What is killing my chickens?

[Chickenclaude]

Your welcome!

Any part of rhubarb is poisonous. There are many things that they could be exposed to. May i make a suggestion? Start using a chicken tractor so that they can still free range although limited. I made mine out of PvC and chicken wire. I built a wooden rectangular box, put wheeles on it on one end and a T handle on the other. I made it as tall as the vinyl coated chicken wire. Zip tied wire to the pvc pipe frame out of pvc. It’s lightweight enough to easily move. I re used the wire from a box spring that recycled as a roof. ( we have hawks and eagles) i cover the spring w a tarp.

 

[BankFam]

Is there hemlock growing where they range? Unfortunately we ALL have to consider the poisons they are spraying on us daily. So far I have not lost any to toxins and my chickens are out from dawn to dusk. I live in the woods in Illinois. I can't say what your chickens are getting but I would follow them around and see what they are eating and test my soil. Good luck. Chickens need to free range.

My husband is pretty sure he's seen it all over the property. I'm not 100% sure though.

My plan is to make a nice chicken tractor for them. I put them in our fenced in garden a couple times too. They loved that! But it's not covered so they wouldn't be protected from the hawks we have around here.

 

[alsaulnier]

I sure that chicken will eat dead mice, rodents, etc. If they found a poisoned dead rodent, and ate it or even some of it. They could have taken in the poison. If I use any poison, I make sure there are no dead rodents laying around before I let the chickens out.

 

[Scooter1A]

My husband is pretty sure he's seen it all over the property. I'm not 100% sure though.

My plan is to make a nice chicken tractor for them. I put them in our fenced in garden a couple times too. They loved that! But it's not covered so they wouldn't be protected from the hawks we have around here.

I made a tunnel. Hardware cloth and tubing then staked it in the ground but you could bury it. Just an idea. Mine works pretty darn good.

 

[BDutch]

My chickens ate my waterline insulation, and one died from that, so I buried the waterline. Another one ate the flowers off of my hydrangea, so I dug up all of the hydrangeas and azaleas and burned them. Another ate the leaves off of my Peace Lily that I had set outside on my front porch to get some sun (she had to do quite the acrobatics to get to it, I don't know what the draw was). This spring a ton of daffodils popped up on my property that I didn't know were there (I just moved to my little farmstead) so I locked my chickens up until the daffodils stopped blooming. Still, a whole new batch of different colored daffodils came up right after, so I poured kerosene on all of them and lit them up. Now my ladies are free-ranging again (I lost 6 of them to daffodils) and I am diligently walking the property and digging up more flower bulbs daily. They have learned that when I dig in the ground I pull up yummy bugs, so I have to lock them up when I'm digging bulbs up now. It's a lot of work, so I am putting in "chicken gardens" with chicken wire covers that my girls can eat through. I'm going to plant wheatgrass, alfalfa, and barleygrass for them.

My garden is full of daffodils right now. My chickens do not eat them. We also have a few hydrangeas, lots of ivy and probably more poisonous plants. Maybe they have tasted/tried them once. But Im sure no chicken died from eating them.

 

[sandburRanch]

time to have a visit with a veterinarian .

 

[BDutch]

My chickens ate my waterline insulation, and one died from that, so I buried the waterline. Another one ate the flowers off of my hydrangea, so I dug up all of the hydrangeas and azaleas and burned them. Another ate the leaves off of my Peace Lily that I had set outside on my front porch to get some sun (she had to do quite the acrobatics to get to it, I don't know what the draw was). This spring a ton of daffodils popped up on my property that I didn't know were there (I just moved to my little farmstead) so I locked my chickens up until the daffodils stopped blooming. Still, a whole new batch of different colored daffodils came up right after, so I poured kerosene on all of them and lit them up. Now my ladies are free-ranging again (I lost 6 of them to daffodils) and I am diligently walking the property and digging up more flower bulbs daily. They have learned that when I dig in the ground I pull up yummy bugs, so I have to lock them up when I'm digging bulbs up now. It's a lot of work, so I am putting in "chicken gardens" with chicken wire covers that my girls can eat through. I'm going to plant wheatgrass, alfalfa, and barleygrass for them.

Did you by any chance buy plants from the store that might have contained herbicides/pesticides? Do you use herbicides/pesticides or fertiliser in your garden?

I know of someone who had sick chickens after laying grass rolls for a new lawn. She just didn’t realise the grass contained a lot of poison.

If these plants/bulbs you mention are organic or have been in your garden for several years its not the plants/bulbs itself that caused their dead. Of course the chickens must have access to chicken feed or healthy food to make a choice.

 

[Love Donkeys]

I've never had a free range chicken die from poisonous plants. I had 2 die from pecking at the ground where Antifreeze had dripped. We didn't realize that one of our tractors had a small radiator leak.

 

[Love Donkeys]

If you have an Extension Service, Ag collage or even your state Soil and Conservation might be able to help. Once we had several calves die suddenly and the Soil and Conservation people came down qnd checked our pasture for poisonous plants.

 

[Scooter1A]

I've never had a free range chicken die from poisonous plants. I had 2 die from pecking at the ground where Antifreeze had dripped. We didn't realize that one of our tractors had a small radiator leak.

My neighbor's dog killed 3 of my best layers in my front yard yesterday.