Mama Heating Pad in the Brooder (Picture Heavy) - UPDATE

[debid]

@Merrymouse I'd set the temperature to suit the smallest and let the biggest sleep around the entrance. That's what mine did while they waited for the youngest chick to be ready to roost.

 

[Blooie]

I don't have luck with long shipping. I've switched to a hatchery that gets to me via pretty much a straight shot of I-5 from OR, it takes less than 24 hours with 100% livability. any chance you can pick a closer place or choose a faster delivery option?

I wish! If all I wanted were the workhorses of the chicken breeds.....Red Sex Links, Leghorns, Buff Orpingtons.....I'd be in good shape, even though the nearest place to pick them up is 50 miles one way. Nobody around here has the "fru-fru" breeds or varieties so I'm left with ordering if I want something different. Even feed store chicks are shipped all across the country from the bigger hatcheries and face the same kinds of delays.

And there is no faster delivery option here. Shortly after we moved here, I needed a packet I'd left at my sister's house. We'd stayed with them the last couple of days of packing up, and the folder with my car insurance and titles got left behind. So I asked her to just mail it overnight and I'd pay her for it. So I waited. And I waited. And it didn't come...I called Lori and she said she'd sent it overnight the very day we talked. So I talked to Jack, who was our postmaster at the time. He just shook his head. "We don't have overnight service here, Diane. Nothing mailed "overnight" gets here "overnight...ever." Here's why -

A friend sent me a birthday card with two tickets to a movie. She mailed it from Lovell. Lovell is 6 miles from here. The card went from Lovell, down to Casper (which is about 3-5 hours away, depending on the number of stops he has to make at all the little Post Offices in between and the roads) where it was sorted, put on a another truck, and sent back to Lovell to be sorted and sent on to Cowley. It's 100% about how the hubs and sorting facilities are set up. These chicks arrived in Casper at 7:11 one morning, and weren't put on the truck to head up this way until 3:am THE NEXT MORNING. So shipped priority, express, overnight...it makes no difference. It ends up in Casper and, as in the case of the birthday card and these chicks, arrives 4 days later.

@Merrymouse I'd set the temperature to suit the smallest and let the biggest sleep around the entrance. That's what mine did while they waited for the youngest chick to be ready to roost.

Agree...your chick will most likely do better if she has a buddy anyway.

 

[bajabirdbrain]

Big blow today. Left town yesterday to get Ken down to Rawlins, and came home today to 5 dead Silkies. I'm just sick. Katie checked them earlier and they were all fine. Out of the 17 I got, 10 of them were visibly smaller than the others...very obvious differences. They are the ones I've been losing. I don't know if the long 4 days in shipping was more than they could handle at their tiny size and they just couldn't rally or what. No pasty butt, none of them trapped anywhere, heating pad nice and warm, no power outages, plenty of food and water...I just don't know. Of all the chicks I've raised, I've never had this happen before. I hope the other super tiny ones will be okay. Everyone got Nutri-drench when I got them home. and everyone got a drink of water. They've been eating, running in and of MHP, and the latest ones died between 2 this afternoon and 7:30 tonight. <sigh>

Oh, man. IF this can happen to you it is no wonder the rest of us lose some, too. Doesn't make it any less painful but misery loves company(sadly). We just added 2 chicks yesterday to our little flock. I stopped by the feed store to buy some hardware cloth and there were these Black Australorps with one little one getting picked on by the others. Called BB and she said buy it and one more, a done deal when I told her that they were half price!!! $3.99 for 2, what a deal. Put them in the coop with the rest of the girls and this morning all were doing good, whew. Got down to 39 degrees for their first night in the coop. Thank you MHP for keeping them safe.

 

[Stephine]

I wish!  If all I wanted were the workhorses of the chicken breeds.....Red Sex Links, Leghorns, Buff Orpingtons.....I'd be in good shape, even though the nearest place to pick them up is 50 miles one way.  Nobody around here has the "fru-fru" breeds or varieties so I'm left with ordering if I want something different.  Even feed store chicks are shipped all across the country from the bigger hatcheries and face the same kinds of delays.  

And there is no faster delivery option here.  Shortly after we moved here, I needed a packet I'd left at my sister's house.  We'd stayed with them the last couple of days of packing up, and the folder with my car insurance and titles got left behind.  So I asked her to just mail it overnight and I'd pay her for it.  So I waited.  And I waited.  And it didn't come...I called Lori and she said she'd sent it overnight the very day we talked.  So I talked to Jack, who was our postmaster at the time.  He just shook his head.  "We don't have overnight service here, Diane.  Nothing mailed "overnight" gets here "overnight...ever."  Here's why - 

A friend sent me a birthday card with two tickets to a movie.  She mailed it from Lovell.  Lovell is 6 miles from here.  The card went from Lovell, down to Casper (which is about 3-5 hours away, depending on the number of stops he has to make at all the little Post Offices in between and the roads) where it was sorted, put on a another truck, and sent back to Lovell to be sorted and sent on to Cowley.  It's 100% about how the hubs and sorting facilities are set up.  These chicks arrived in Casper at 7:11 one morning, and weren't put on the truck to head up this way until 3:am THE NEXT MORNING.  So shipped priority, express, overnight...it makes no difference. It ends up in Casper and, as in the case of the birthday card and these chicks, arrives 4 days later.

Agree...your chick will most likely do better if she has a buddy anyway.

Argh, the post office!
I had a similar situation last spring with a small batch of 4 chicks from Meyer. Shipped out Monday, arrived at distribution center in town half an hour away in Wednesday morning, supposedly arriving at the local PO at three. So I go down there - no chicks. Maybe with the last truck at five? So I come back at five. No chicks. The postmaster says I should check back the next morning! I made a big fuss and she finally called the distribution center for me, but no answer. Then of course the PO closes and I have to leave. The postmaster said she was not allowed to give me the number for the distribution center so I could try to reach someone there myself. Argh! I stood around outside the PO for a while and checked in with the next mail truck arriving. Nothing. I searched the PO website for phone numbers for the distribution center. Not listed. Finally, I had the idea of typing in the area code, name of town and po distribution center and Bingo! There were the numbers they didn't want their customers to have! Called , a nice lady answered, yes, my chicks are there, I can come pick them up, she'll be there all night, no problem. So I did. I got there at 7:30, left after filling out special paperwork (because they don't do this regularly) half an hour later and had the babies all set up - finally - a little before nine. I really don't know what they were thinking holding the chicks there for an extra day just because they could as if they were a box of books or something!
But that was a long story to say it is a good idea to find out the phone number for your local distribution center. Had I known that before I could have gone to pick them up in the morning already. If you can't find it online, type in the area code.

 

[Blooie]

I have never seen anything like this in all the batches of chicks I've raised. Lost another one, again one of the tiny ones. I guess it goes without saying that this batch will not be going outside to live for a while yet. As much as I hate raising chicks indoors, I hate seeing them die even more. I am confident enough in MHP and the way I raised Silkies in the past that it's not something I'm doing wrong. But I'd be lying if I said I'm not questioning and re-hashing every single thing, too.

Katie was, well, Katie.

At first she cried a little. When I put my arms around her she hugged me back, hard. I told her how sorry I am that this group just isn't doing well, and I told her I just don't know what's going on.

She said, "Well, Gramma, you didn't do it. You didn't step on them, did you? No, you didn't. You didn't turn off the heating pad did you? No. You didn't forget to feed and water them, did you? No. You gave them Nutri-stuff, didn't you? Yes. You told me that sometimes chicks even die when their real mom is taking care of them. So you have to do what she does when some chicks die. You have to just keep taking care of the ones you have left."

Have I ever mentioned how much I love that little girl?

 

[chicken curious]

Oh my!

 

[Birdinhand]

wow, that's nuts! it's hard to imagine chicks lasting 4 days in the mail! I wonder if there is a way to improve on the typical chick box to help them get through it?

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Big blow today. Left town yesterday to get Ken down to Rawlins, and came home today to 5 dead Silkies. I'm just sick. Katie checked them earlier and they were all fine. Out of the 17 I got, 10 of them were visibly smaller than the others...very obvious differences. They are the ones I've been losing. I don't know if the long 4 days in shipping was more than they could handle at their tiny size and they just couldn't rally or what. No pasty butt, none of them trapped anywhere, heating pad nice and warm, no power outages, plenty of food and water...I just don't know. Of all the chicks I've raised, I've never had this happen before. I hope the other super tiny ones will be okay. Everyone got Nutri-drench when I got them home. and everyone got a drink of water. They've been eating, running in and of MHP, and the latest ones died between 2 this afternoon and 7:30 tonight. <sigh>

SO sorry about this, Blooie.

I had the same experience with a group of 25 chicks coming from Idaho at the end of February. They took 4 full days, with a very long "layover" in Colorado. One dead on arrival, and over the next week lost another 8. It was so frustrating, I've raised a lot of chicksm knew I was doing everything right, and couldn't figure out anything wrong.

BUT - here is one that survived that was much smaller than the others, compared to a healthy one from that batch the other small ones died. Same age, same breed, etc. They are 6 weeks now (and mostly huge), and the bigger ones are about 3-4 times larger...

 

[rutonski]

I'm a bit late posting - but it's been quite a week. I got to school last Monday to find 2 newly hatched chicks in the incubator. Throughout out the next two days, my students were able to watch 8 more hatch. The brooder I made worked perfectly and the chicks are doing very well. Today I made a larger one out of a dishwasher box. 5 of the chicks will be going home with students this week, so this should be plenty big for awhile. Next step - get the coop ready so I can safely introduce the chicks to the rest of the flock.

When do I give the chicks some grit?

 

[aart]

I'm a bit late posting - but it's been quite a week. I got to school last Monday to find 2 newly hatched chicks in the incubator. Throughout out the next two days, my students were able to watch 8 more hatch. The brooder I made worked perfectly and the chicks are doing very well. Today I made a larger one out of a dishwasher box. 5 of the chicks will be going home with students this week, so this should be plenty big for awhile. Next step - get the coop ready so I can safely introduce the chicks to the rest of the flock.

When do I give the chicks some grit?

Not necessary until you feed them something other than chick crumbles.

Congrats! Glad the kids got to see some hatching!

Not sure it would work for your coop but ......https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/integrating-new-birds-at-4-weeks-old