Chicken newbies

[cfenohr]

Hello everyone, my family just embarked on the new experience of backyard chickens for eggs. It's been an interesting couple of days. We have 6 1 week old chicks. They are doing well so far. It's nice to know there are others out there to be able to trouble shoot with. Thank you in advance!

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Welcome to BYC!! Chicken keeping is a wonderful family activity to get into! If you haven't already I'd suggest stopping by the Learning Center here https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/1/Learning_Center -- it is a great place to find information and articles to get you off on the right foot. What breed(s) have you chosen to start with?

 

[Pork Pie]

Hi and

- great that you have joined us.

These links may be helpful right now

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/getting-started-raising-chickens
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-and-raising-chicks

You may wish to consider joining your state thread as it will put you in touch with other BYC members in your area - just type the name of your state in the search box.

All the best
CT

 

[drumstick diva]

Glad you joined us at the Backyard Chickens flock.

 

[cfenohr]

Thank you, we have 2 buff orpington, 2 speckled Sussex, and 2 silver laced wyandotte. They are all doing well as of today. We did loose one the second day we had them we aren't sure what happened.

 

[mlm Mike]

Congratulations on your new chicks!

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined us!

 

[cfenohr]

Okay I lost 4 of my chicks today within 1.5 hours. Everything is the same and 2 are completely fine. I'm at a loss, so sad. I have no idea why. The nursery is also at a loss, any ideas? My temp has been steady and nothing else has changed, electrolytes in the water, they were vaccinated and are on medicated food. No pasty butt, washed 4 on Saturday and 2 of them are still living. They just died so quickly. They are almost 2 weeks old.

 

[Spookwriter]

As best you can, can you describe everything about this bad day?

Where were the chicks? (my new guys seem to live in the kitchen)
Any other pets nearby? (cat, dog)
Today weather? (storm?)
How were the chicks acting yesterday, today?

The more we know, the better our guess can be.

 

[cfenohr]

The chicks are in their brooder box, in my dining room. This is where we started and wanted to keep the continuity until they were a bit older. They were fine when I got my kids off to school. I went to work, dogs × 2 in cages while we are away because they are pups. So they were by themselves all day. I left to peeping chicks at 9 am and came home to peeping chicks at 1:30. Everyone was acting the same. I did wash my hands and check everyone's bum, no issues since Saturday, and then they were left alone until I was doing chores and heard a chicken "scream" while doing dishes. That was the beginning of a very long 1.5 hours. The first chick was flopping around and gasping. I'm a nurse I knew it was bad. It ended quite quickly within 5 min. All the others were acting fine. I had to leave to pick up kids, when I returned I found my Rosie dead with the 2 chicks that are still alive sleeping by her body. Then 2 more layed down and kind of gasped and twitched before they died. I really want to carry on but at this point we are 5 days in and have lost 5 out of 7 chicks. I am a health care worker who wants to help and I can't figure out what's wrong or what I did wrong. Thank you for any advice. The weather was rainy but no crazy storms and they are in the house. The chicks were actually acting great, I told my husband last night I thought we were going to be ok with them. No signs of illness. The first day we got our chicks we got 4 and 1 died within 24 hours. The nursery gave us the electrolytes and we but 3 more. Now we have 1 original chick and one new chick.