What is wrong with my ladies? They are dying!

[savedbyhisblood]

We have a pretty large flock. There are about 20 ladies of varying breeds(Barred Rock, Buff Orp, Mixed red, Silver Laced Wyandotte, California White) that were bought nearly two years ago. Then last spring we added in 10 Aracaunas. Last fall we added in 5 bantams from a friends flock. We also have one full sized rooster and one banty rooster. The ladies are housed in a well insulated building and they have free range through a section about 12X 20. There is lots of perching space and several red heat lamps hanging above some of them. There are 8 nest boxes. In the summer they have a fenced in yard about 150x150. In the winter hey choose not to go out so we have finally closed the hen door to conserve heat. THe building is well ventilated with several windows and well lit with natural and artificial light. The girls have access to layer feed, grit and oyster shell as well as water at all times. Every so often we throw in some leftovers or dried bread or cobbed corn. We are in Minnesota. It has been cold this winter off and on but not over the past few weeks. There is a lot of snow and the girlks don't like to be out in it.

This past week we have found 4 of the ladies dead, one by one. All of them have been from the nearly two year olds. There has been no damage of any kind that we could see to any of them except the most recent, the California White, had a bloody rear end for the past several days. The California white also acted sick for the three or four days before she died yesterday but the others were complete surprises. Everyone seemed healthy, there has been no change in their droppings that we can see, there has been no coughing or respiratory yuck.

What could be happening here? Are they depressed or bored? Just getting old? Or are they diseased? Are the eggs safe to eat? We assume they are as long as we are cooking them well. We knew we were going to need to start culling soon and letting nature do it is easier but I don't want to lose anymore. We love our ladies and this is hard.

 

[ranchhand]

What kind of bedding do you have in the coop and how often is it changed or cleaned? You may have an ammonia buildup.
It's hard to detect at human level, so get down to chicken level and check.

Also, if your coop is well insulated, you really don't need heat lamps at all - and a warm, damp coop is an ideal breeding ground for bacteria.

Sorry you are losing hens, hope you can fix it.

 

[savedbyhisblood]

We use wood shavings as bedding. They haven't been changed for a couple of months now but the hen house, even with heat lamps on, stays below freezing, around 20F or so, so the droppings are always frozen. We usually only turn on the heat lamps when it drops down in the 10F or lower range. The coop definitely wouldn't be considered warm and moist since it is around 20F and the windows don't even have frost buildup on them.

Thanks for the ammonia idea. We will clean out the hen house and put new shavings down today and see if that helps.

Does anyone have any other ideas?

 

[tdgill]

This past week we have found 4 of the ladies dead, one by one. All of them have been from the nearly two year olds. There has been no damage of any kind that we could see to any of them except the most recent, the California White, had a bloody rear end for the past several days. The California white also acted sick for the three or four days before she died yesterday but the others were complete surprises. Everyone seemed healthy, there has been no change in their droppings that we can see, there has been no coughing or respiratory yuck.

can you describe 'acted sick' ?

hope you get some help​

 

[savedbyhisblood]

Quote:
can you describe 'acted sick' ?

hope you get some help

Well, she was kind of lazy, mopey and fluffed up. She was missing most of the feathers on her back half but we thought it was from her recent molt.