How long for chicks to recover from shipping shock? Still losing chicks 2 days after receiving them.

I received 10 Barnevelders and 12 filler males ( Australorps I believe) on Friday evening. I ordered them from Ideal Poultry and was expecting them to ship in May. They arrived at the Post Office at 7 pm after over 48 hours in shipping. Fortunately the post man called me and said he would wait around for me to pick them up. Well, 3 dead chicks in the box and 2 dying. I lost one of the already weak ones Friday night. The other weak one died Saturday morning. All the chicks looked good ( eating, drinking, no signs of coccidia, no pasty butt) but this morning I found another listless chick that eventually died. There is another chick that looks like it is getting weak ( not standing upright and sleeping as much as the other chicks will allow him).

They are in a plastic brooder, well ventilated, heat is at a constant 95 degrees, pine shavings with paper towels on top, clean water that is changed several times a day. I can't figure out why they are dying like this. Could it be shipping shock or should I be worried about them being ill. No symptoms really other than the chick becomes listless and dies. Any suggestions? Ideal Poultry is closed not eh weekends so I haven't been able to talk to them yet.

Thank you!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/746509/how-to-deal-with-travel-stress-in-baby-chicks
Turn the heat down 5 degrees. make sure the heat is at one end of the brooder so they
have a place to get away from it if they want. place the heat so it does not shine down
on their feed and water.
Best,
Karen

Hello AKmamabear,
Sorry to hear about your lost babies. I have some thoughts that might help you, having just reached week 2 with my flock of Jersey Giants. I started them off on a diet of hard boiled egg yolks crumbled up for the first two days and finely ground cornmeal mixed with unflavored greek yogurt for the probiotics then switched to my regular unmedicated chick feed. I add unpasturized apple cider vinigar in thier water as well. These are a few ways you could suppliment your own chick meals to give them extra energy. Watch closely and see if you can identify any other symptoms that may be presenting. More information is better. Good luck!

In the old days, farmers would put a bit of sugar in the chick's water to get a needed boost of energy to peck at food. Keep food out 24/7 and make sure all of the chicks are drinking by gently putting its beak in water until it drinks some, and the others will follow. Add electrolytes as a last resort, as chicks will go off of water if it tastes unappealing. Also, make sure they are getting enough protein in chick food.

For the number of chicks that you ordered they should receive one teaspoon of chick sized granite grit the first thing. Put it on a small slab of cardboard. Once they find it they will begin picking at it. Then add a hard boiled egg mashed up well and some uncooked Old Fashion oat meal also fed on the cardboard slab. Either butter milk or simple sugar syrup water is the best thing for them to begin drinking. DO NOT FORGET TO ADD MARBLES OR CLEAN GRAVLE to their drinking fountain because baby chicks love to skinny dip in their water source and that will give them pneumonia. In the wild most chickens drink GREEN water. Meaning stale or agley filled water. It is what it is so don't disappoint your chicks by giving them crystal clear drinking water that they can't recognize from Adam's house cat, give them water died with green food coloring instead. This also will mark the skinny dipping chicks if you find a dead one in the brooder you can tell if it has been wading in it's water source.

After 24 hours of dealing with the hard boiled egg and raw Old Fashion Oat Meal start adding more and more Chick Starter-Grower mash and less Old Fashioned Oat Meal. Also remove and discard the original cardboard slab. Only feed so called MEDICATED chick feed, that is UNLESS your chicks were inoculated against Coccidiosis at the hatchery in which case only feed UN-MEDICATED chick feed. It is important that you get this right. After two or three days add in some uncooked rice, whole oats, grits, smashed up dry cat or dog food, pet bird seed, a little of the mashed up lay pellets, maybe some scratch feed etc. but don't forget to feed them a hard boiled egg or two from time to time. Every time that you feed your peeps a hard boiled egg your just making friends with them. Baby chicks are a lot like a man, "the way to their heart is through their stomach". After 7 days go to plain old water without the sugar or green food coloring. There should never be a time in your chickens' lives that they don't have free access to granite grit of either chick or hen size. I only use chick size because it is appropriate for both chicks as well as adult hens. Commercial chicken farmers feed hen (or rooster) sized grit mostly because it helps break up or prevent clogs in automatic feeding equipment by scouring the insides of the automatic feeding equipment.

I hope that this helps some of you get your peeps off to a good start.