[Declan]

Openend the house this morning to let my 8 week old birds out and found 3 stone dead in one of the nesting boxes. I have bee naway on holidays for a few days and my dad has been looking after them. The only thing I can think of is that they ha
ve recently moved from mash to pellets. Could this have been the cause. They are all my own birds that have hatched and I lost 2 light sussex and 1 RIR. Could they have suffocated as they bunch together. I don't see any sign of red mite and none of the others seem poorly.
Any advice?
Declan

[shetlandpaul]

any thunder or noise. if they clowd together its possible they were smothered. watch the poo.

[kelloggs]

Sorry to hear about your three little ones , how are the others behaving are they alert,eating and drinking alright

[Declan]

The only noise is the rather rowdy new anglo nubians when they are looking their bottle feed. Its strange that the three were in the nest box. When I look in any other evening they are all huddled together but not near the nest boxs. I hope it was only a smothering case as I would dread having a disease in there. Any case I have cleaned out the house and give it a good going with anti-bacterial spray. The others are in fine fettle - getting bigger every day. 

[sheila]

I had one chick dead everyday for four days on the trot. The babies were perfect and happy when they went to bed. There didn't seem to be any reason for what happened. This year I delayed putting them in with the big hens untils they were 9 weeks old and so far, touch wood, they seem to be surviving.It's horrible when you find them dead so you have my sympathy but you just put it down to experience and start again.