Rest in Peace little birdy. 
We've had warm weather lately and I haven't used the stove in about a week. I finally fired it up this past Wednesday when the temps dropped to the high 20's. I ran it nonstop for two days and finally shut it down before going to work today. After work I decided to clean it and noticed black soot all over the inside of the burn box and the window was white. This never happened with the pellets I'm burning but I figured maybe I got a bad bag. While vacuuming out the ashes I noticed something large was stuck to the end of the vacuum extension. I shut it off and realized it was a head of a bird. I shined some light into the bottom of the burn box and found the body of the bird just laying there. I think the bird made it's way in there during the week of not using it and either died from starvation or was cooked when I fired it up. It was pretty dried out.
I feel really bad about it and all that but wondering if the bird was the cause of the black soot or should I be looking at something else? The stove burned fine and no signs of smoke or anything odd.
Castle Serenity Pellet Stove
Appalachian Pellets
I gotta put a screen on that vent asap before it claims another cute innocent victim.
We've had warm weather lately and I haven't used the stove in about a week. I finally fired it up this past Wednesday when the temps dropped to the high 20's. I ran it nonstop for two days and finally shut it down before going to work today. After work I decided to clean it and noticed black soot all over the inside of the burn box and the window was white. This never happened with the pellets I'm burning but I figured maybe I got a bad bag. While vacuuming out the ashes I noticed something large was stuck to the end of the vacuum extension. I shut it off and realized it was a head of a bird. I shined some light into the bottom of the burn box and found the body of the bird just laying there. I think the bird made it's way in there during the week of not using it and either died from starvation or was cooked when I fired it up. It was pretty dried out.
I feel really bad about it and all that but wondering if the bird was the cause of the black soot or should I be looking at something else? The stove burned fine and no signs of smoke or anything odd.
Castle Serenity Pellet Stove
Appalachian Pellets
I gotta put a screen on that vent asap before it claims another cute innocent victim.
