Little Welsummer Chick

So, I've got a little Welsummer, whom my fiancé named "Churches." I got her exactly a week ago & at that point, she was maybe a day old.

She's the smallest of our group of new babies, which consists of 3 EEs that were born on 3/23 & 2 Black Copper Marans who were born somewhere inbetwen the 3/23 & the Welsummer.

The temp is right in the brooder. As of this morning, I moved them into a larger brooder box. They get fresh water & food daily, which she partakes in. But I have to clean her vent almost daily (due to pasty butt).

It was recommended that I give her some hardboiled egg but she's not too interested. She'll eat a peck or two but then just wants to stand in it.

I can definitely see her age difference in comparison to the others, as they're more active. Most of the time, she'll leave the warmth to eat & drink but then will find a spot either directly under the light or somewhere in between there & the cooler side to lay down.

Is there anyway for me to get her more interested in the egg? Or is there something else I can do? I don't want to lose her due to failure to thrive.

I had a tiny one like your Welsummer three years ago that lost interest in food, was just standing in the brooder with his eyes at half mast, losing strength by the minute. I had tried boiled egg and even warm moistened crumbles, to no avail.

I almost always have tofu on hand and I concluded that tofu was the fermented product, therefore pre-digested, of soy beans, which is the main ingredient in chick crumbles. So I crumbled some up, sprinkled a dropper-full of Poultry Nutri-drench over the top, and stuck it under this chick's beak.

Of course the other chicks mobbed it, but that was just what it took for the tiny one to get interested in it. It squirmed into the melee, and within an hour, it was showing much more strength and activity.

I kept the dish of crumbled tofu, generously sprinkled with Nutri-drench, constantly full, the small one regularly fighting his way through the bigger chicks to get his share, and he started to grow. He never quite caught up to the others, but he did have vigor and health and pulled through.

Well, I just went to check on them & she was dead in the brooder. I've been told countless times that Failure to Thrive is a common thing and that I shouldn't feel guilty but being a first time chicken mom, it's hard not to do so.

I've read so many Facebook posts about how hatcheries will send extra birds to accommodate for it. But it's hard for me not to feel like a bad chicken mom.

Five of my eight babies came from the same farm. Three of those five passed away since I got them on Saturday. Two passed within the first full day. My friend & longtime chicken owner said I've got the worst luck.

Until last summer, I never lost a chick in eight years. Then last summer, I lost two, and this spring, one of the survivors died at age seven months and almost lost the other one of the same breed and age, but managed to pull her through with two long rounds of an antibiotic.

It sounds like, through no fault of your own, you got chicks from a batch of badly bred and incubated chicks. The result is chicks with genetic weaknesses that are prone to failure to thrive as well as problems after they reach maturity. I think sloppy breeding caused my problems. These Cream Legbars go for $50 each, and I believe breeders have gotten careless trying to make a lot of money from the demand for this breed.

It's heartbreaking when it happens because it's so natural to become emotionally invested in these tiny lives from the moment you get them. You never see them as someone else's mistakes, but as your responsibility, and it hurts like nobody's business when you lose them.

I'm not doing any further business with the place I got my chicks that failed, and next time, I hope you'll stay away from your source of woe, also. In time, your pain will subside, but the memory does tend to linger for a long time.

azygous said:

I'm not doing any further business with the place I got my chicks that failed, and next time, I hope you'll stay away from your source of woe, also. In time, your pain will subside, but the memory does tend to linger for a long time.

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Yeah, I don't plan to go back there. I know some people are very pro-vaccination & others are against it. My friend/fellow chicken owner thinks it was a failure on their part.

Let's hope the Marans survive.

Be sure to let your source know how many died. That's kind of a large percentage. Hopefully they will replace them for you.