Thunder storm = 150 ducklings dead

[swissie]

A current thread in Isaan-Forum: "Nong Khai= chicken deaths mysterious" brought something back:

About 2 years ago, fellow-Farang bought 200 ducklings. Same night, big thunderstorm with plenty of lightning and thunder. Next morning, 150 ducklings were dead.

Explanation of his Thai-Wife: Normal, when fire in sky, young duck die maak maak! (Hearth attack?) CAN THIS BE ? What about chicken ?

Thanks & cheers.

[sakaew]

FWIW....I once had a friend who raised turkeys.

He assured me that in the event of lightning, thunder, heavy rain etc etc....there were ALWAYS a bunch of dead turkeys.

Evidently from heart attack.

Ducks????

Dunno.

But hey !!!!

TIT

[Carib]

Retracted post, link doesn't work.

[kerrysum]

Actually, this is a different subject, but thunderstorms do sometimes create hail... Ice from the heavens, I have witnessed this personally in the LOS.

Did raise ducks before, but never found this to be a problem.... So then, maybe someone stole them.....Just a thought....

kilosierra

[zeichen]

animals do die from stress

[lostinsurin]

Only ducks that live outside are effected by thunderstorms.

398

[lostinsurin]

If ducks that live outside hold wings then only the outer 2 ducks get a shock if lightning strikes.

399

[Tywais]

There have been many instances of lightning ground strike that have either injured or killed soccer players, the worse was an African match where 11 players were killed.

It doesn't take a direct strike, just hitting the ground even at a distance can kill and something that small would be even more sensitive to it. Not that this is the case of the OP but is a valid possibility.

[Sirbergan]

Actually, this is a different subject, but thunderstorms do sometimes create hail... Ice from the heavens, I have witnessed this personally in the LOS.

Did raise ducks before, but never found this to be a problem.... So then, maybe someone stole them.....Just a thought....

kilosierra

He said they were dead, not vanished.

[chuenyongman]

I have heard when I was very young, that if thunder and lightening happens that a hen sitting on a clutch of eggs. The eggs will be no good for hatching.

[slipperylobster]

Perhaps the sudden quack of thunder.....

[ggt]

If the air temp dropped considerably...they could have died from exposure to the colder air...new born ducks...chicks...need warmth and shelter...about 90 degrees for the 1st few days...

[Showbags]

Any money in farming ducks ?

[BadBouy]

Maybe they forgot to DUCK!

[swissie]

Actually, this is a different subject, but thunderstorms do sometimes create hail... Ice from the heavens, I have witnessed this personally in the LOS.

Did raise ducks before, but never found this to be a problem.... So then, maybe someone stole them.....Just a thought....

kilosierra

He said they were dead, not vanished.

Not stolen. Were put in plastic-sacks to be burned somewhere. No direct lightning impact. Were kept under corrugated roof.

Originally, Farang -Friend was planning to add chickens on a large scale.

These days, when I go visit him, I carefully avoid the words "Duck, Chicken, Fowl."

Cheers.

[teletiger]

I've got a duck enclosure next to a broiler chicken house. I feed the chickens and they are all over me, in the bucket, pecking my laces....etc. Go into the duck pen (6/8 weeks old) and they run to the furthest corner. I go to the feeders and they slap,slap up to the other corner. They see me 3 times a day and run every time. Very nervous animals. (Mine are anyway )

As an aside, a few years ago I was feeding our pigs during a thunderstorm. A bolt hit the feed barn staunchion and bounced over to the metal gate on the paddock. A huge bang and a shower of sparks......the pigs never missed a beat, munching away, looking over at me cowering down on the floor, covered in kee moo.

Regards.

[bina]

our ducks never ran away... if u deal with them straight from the egg then they imprint, u will have lots of slapslap quack quack ducks trying to climb up u as if u were a tree... ///

if its a very very loud storm and there are no adults with the babies, then possibly stress or getting wet (baby ducks cant get wet without being dried off, if they had a mom setting on them, then she would warm them up).

hens that leave their eggs from fear /stress, the eggs die... if its enough time for them to cool off drastically as they need 38 centigrade at least for 21 days , and if cooled off in the middle or the end, the egg dies. if it is in the first few days, the hatching just gets delal1yed and there are some chick deaths. also depends on what stage the egg is in.

[KevinB]

Don't know about heart attacks - but lighting strikes in the vicinity can cause a considerable shock wave - certainly enough to scare a baby duck to death (without direct electrical discharge). In Kenya I've seen whole areas where the milk in hundreds of isolated small farm dairies went sour after a late afternoon electrical storm with very heavy thunder and lighting - when I asked a Dairy Specialist he told me it was the "impact" of the thunder on cows with full udders. Couldn't get my head around that one but the milk collection point in the area recorded high lactic acid scores in all the milk samples collected from rejected milk. The rejection rate had jumped from the normal 5 to 8% to over 75% the following morning.

[Langsuan Man]

Family story was that my father was talked into buying a whole gaggle of geese to raise and sell.

Similar story as the OP, big rain storm and all the geese were dead afterwards. At the time I was told that they were so stupid that they looked up and opened their mouths and drank the rain and drowned

My mother never let him forget it so the story must have had some truth to it

[bina]

that last one? thats turkeys not geese. geese are far from stupid. turkeys ont he other hand, are lacking ...

[pigeonjake]

our moskovies are very tame but the cambells well thats another story,

even if i take them out the incubator and rear them up, still the same,

if i let a moskovie rear them still the same,

cambells just arnt tame ducks, very good egg layers, thats what they are for, not looking pritty,lol

jake

[IMA_FARANG]

Yes, it could possibly be.

Ducklings or baby chickens CAN become terrified and their heart will race.

They can latterly die from a heart attack due to fear.

I personally saw this happen when a number of young chicks escaped from an enclosure.

The owner told a group of children to catch the chicks.

The children treated it like a game, they were shouting and screaming while catching the baby chicks.

One child grabbed one of the young chicks to pick it up and that chick gave a squeal and died right there in the child's hands.

Another possibility, especially with Ducks is that they often feel water is a safe place to be when something frightens them.

It's instinctive in Ducks.

Unfortunately, a pool of water is NOT a good place to be with lightning strikes nearby.

[IMA_FARANG]

that last one? thats turkeys not geese. geese are far from stupid. turkeys ont he other hand, are lacking ...

----------------

That's domesticated Turkeys.

In places where there are wild Turkeys they are regarded as very smart animals .... ask any Turkey hunter about wild Turkeys.

The domesticated Turkeys have been domesticated s long much of their native survival sense has been bred out of them .

Domesticated baby Turkeys are so stupid that you actually often have to place their beaks in their food before they learn how to eat.

And for ducklings that are still young and still haven't got their adult feathers, I forgot to mention how they CAN get wet and die form the cold ... because they don't have their adult feathers yet.

Their mothers will instinctively "fluff up" the baby down on the Ducklings to help it dry.

I suppose for very young Goslings there might be the same problem with Geese ... but I've never heard reports about Geese.

[bina]

Ive had them all. Food turkeys r stupid...geese do well under stress...and animals die of capture myopothy =heart attack like syndrome not sure if non mammals get it ....its what kills frightened rsbbits deers etc

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