I believe that it's a mystery!

Yes, I admit it, we're crazy. This spring we (my family) got over 100. Yes, read it again, almost 150 chickens for meat. Imagine me coming home from work (the horse ranch and day camps) and all that cute little peeping sounds coming from a warm corner in the garage. I was just a little overwhelmed... ;) Well, that was early summer, and now they (the chicks) are no longer chicks. =( and resemble small chickens. I believe that they are at least single serving size by now. Anywho... Over the last couple of days we have lost about 9 or more chickens to some mysterious something! The doomed select (That's what I'll call it for now until we figure more out) are very lethargic, sleepy, no appetite, but they drink normally, they keep their feather fluffed as if they are cold, and don't run around like the healthy ones. Yesterday morning we lost 4 in the morning and 3 more later that day. On the previous days we had lost about 2-3... The only thing that we could come up was Avian TB and your chickens are either immune to it, or not... and there's practically nothing to be done about it. Apparently, it can take months even years before your poor little chicken succombs to the disease after you start to see symtoms, and either your chicken is immune to it or it isn't. Judging from the death count - we've only lost the Rhode Island roosters that we got. (We got 2 different kinds of chickens for meat the RIR and Red Broilers). The disease is also to infect your flock if they are stressed in any sort of way. We have just come out of a 100 degree spell, which stressed them quite a bit!

Anyway, that is my post for the day. I might go out and help my brother fill in the bunker that he relinquished for the cause of burying the dead birds. (Or I might not...)