My wife always keeps a few chickens for eggs and to eat. We have about a half rai area surrounded by a two meter high block wall. The chickens were fed and watered once a day. They had the entire half rai to range.

Recently she decided to increase the flock by allowing some of the hens to sit on their eggs. About five hens hatched chicks and all looked normal. A couple of weeks ago I found a dead hen and the next day all her chicks were dead. The day after that had two more dead hens. After four days half the flock was dead. At that point she had the remainder killed and buried. The chickens showed no signs of sickness before dieing.

No one except me seems to be worried. Some of the other people in the village have also lost chickens but not the entire village has the problem. The Thais apparently think this is a normal thing and are not alarmed. Counting the chicks, the wife lost about 60 chickens.

At the moment there is a bad case of Newcastle disease, which is causing a lot of problems in our area in Phetchabun,

Fortunately for us it hasn't affected us yet, hopefully we will be ok as the chickens are due to be processed in a weeks time.

A few farms near us are losing thousands of chickens a day due to this disease.

Against my wife's advice, I isolated five surviving healthy looking chicks. I thought that maybe these chicks would be resistant to whatever killed the rest. The following day they still looked healthy. The day after that all five died very quickly.

Against my wife's advice, I isolated five surviving healthy looking chicks. I thought that maybe these chicks would be resistant to whatever killed the rest. The following day they still looked healthy. The day after that all five died very quickly.

They probably all died of boredom!

R.I.P