Hey guys,
Okay, so this summer I was excited to have my 3-2 year Indian Blue hens lay for the first time. I got 18 eggs total, 15 which hatched. Everything was going fine for the first 3 weeks. They were housed in a large rubbermaid tub with a heat lamp and straw as bedding. I was feeding them medicated chick started crumble. They seemed to be growing and doing very well. About 3 weeks into it I started losing one chick a day for 10 days. I changed the bedding, water, and even switched to non-medicated starter. After I lost the 10th chick the die off stopped. The remaining 5 chicks were doing great up until 2 weeks ago. They were 3 1/2 months old and had been in an outside pen for about 3 weeks. 2 weeks ago I started losing chicks again. This time it was every other day. I am now down to my last chick. During that time I also lost 2 guinea chicks that were housed with the peas. It is to late for this year obviously but I want to make sure I don't have the same year next year. I love my peas and the disappointment from my first year hatching has left me slightly discouraged. So if anyone has any suggestions, ideas, or tips it would be greatly appreciated.
thanks all!
scott
Okay, so this summer I was excited to have my 3-2 year Indian Blue hens lay for the first time. I got 18 eggs total, 15 which hatched. Everything was going fine for the first 3 weeks. They were housed in a large rubbermaid tub with a heat lamp and straw as bedding. I was feeding them medicated chick started crumble. They seemed to be growing and doing very well. About 3 weeks into it I started losing one chick a day for 10 days. I changed the bedding, water, and even switched to non-medicated starter. After I lost the 10th chick the die off stopped. The remaining 5 chicks were doing great up until 2 weeks ago. They were 3 1/2 months old and had been in an outside pen for about 3 weeks. 2 weeks ago I started losing chicks again. This time it was every other day. I am now down to my last chick. During that time I also lost 2 guinea chicks that were housed with the peas. It is to late for this year obviously but I want to make sure I don't have the same year next year. I love my peas and the disappointment from my first year hatching has left me slightly discouraged. So if anyone has any suggestions, ideas, or tips it would be greatly appreciated.
thanks all!
scott