It was hot here yesterday, in the 90s. The chickens were hot, but doing okay when I fed and watered them at 5:30 yesterday afternoon. So I was not expecting to find 24 dead chickens this morning at 7:30. By the looks of things it happened in the night because they were in sleeping positions. All of the dead ones were at the back of the shed. They were not piled up at all, just lying next to each other like they do when they sleep.
The kicker is that we’re taking them to the processor tonight, to be butchered tomorrow morning. So these were big, market weight birds, almost 9 weeks old, probably 7 to 9 pounds each.
So I’m thinking through all of the variables this morning. What could I have done differently to prevent this from happening? And praying that today’s heat won’t take more of them. Off to get some advice from the Homestead-Work and SustainableAg email groups.
Such is the game of farming.
Drats! Sorry – that stinks, esp. with the timing! Sounds like it was the heat….maybe the ones with the weaker hearts just couldn’t handle our first 90 degree day? Let us know if you ever solve the mystery.
That’s to bad. Hope it doesn’t happen with more chickens..
Oh, no! I’m so sorry!
So sorry you woke to this catastrophe. Hope you get some answers. I was just thinking this afternoon that you hadn’t updated us lately on the broilers, but this certainly wasn’t the update I was expecting. As Shannon said, let us know if you solve the mystery.
That’s my nightmare – having them keel over the day before heading out. You worry about them getting too cold when they are brooding and too hot when they are mature. It’s hard to figure that into a business plan.
Oh no! So strange that it would happen at night, if it really was the heat. Do broilers have more problems with heat than smaller birds, I wonder…?