Help! My chicks are dying one after the other!

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junebuggena said:
What is the temp in the warm zone, under the lamp; and in the cool zone? Medicated feed or unmedicated?
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The temp right now is about 95 degress, and about 80 in the cool spots. I switched to medicated feed after the first batch of chicks.
 
So, you either need separate brooders; or you need a warming system that allows both age ranges to regulate how much heat they need and when. A heating pad brooder may be the right solution. Absolutely no chance for chicks to overheat, get weak, and die. A very common newbie mistake is keeping the chicks too warm, sticking with 'guidelines' rather than going off of what the chicks' behavior is telling them. Overheating is a much bigger danger than a slight chill. Take a look at this thread. It might be what you need.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/956958/mama-heating-pad-in-the-brooder-picture-heavy-update
 
Ditto others. My chicks never tolerated that high a temp. They have consistently been tolerating a solid 10 degrees less than whats "recommended"...i think its so dependent on individual factors that its almost dangerous to recommend temps
 
Last edited:
Absolutely, those "Recommended Guidelines" are definitely misleading. Perhaps they were better in the very beginning, perhaps including more thorough information. Wouldn't it be a wonderful help to have it specified that the recommended temps must be measured directly beneath the heat source, and emphasize that the temps in the rest of the brooder, which must be of sufficient size to allow for it, must be much cooler? And in bolded words: "Brooders are not ovens"! And chicks are not food being kept hot for later consumption!
 
I can change things around.. the remaining chicks look really happy. The are evenly spaced out and no more have died. They are running around. The temp in the cooler spots may actually be lower then what in initally posted. They light it as one end of the brooder so they do have space to run.
 

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