Please help - entire batch of chicks dying suddenly - TWICE

[Fontaine]

Are you aware you can send a refrigerated body to your state lab for an answer through a necropsy?
What state are you in?
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/➡-necropsy-disease-testing-state-labs-info.1236884/post-19849025

I can’t imagine your frustration and sadness. It sounds like you’re trying to do everything right. I also was going to recommend sending in a body to your state lab. It’s not that expensive and it may give you an answer. I think you’re right trying to start with bullets from an unknown source is risky. They’re also fairly expensive from The Hatchery‘s. I didn’t see in anyone’s thread, mentioning the containers they were raised in cut the plastic be coated with something? I hope you have the strength to try again. Please keep us posted. If you do, we will all be rooting for you.

 

[Chickenclaude]

So sad..sorry. Don’t give up!
I have had 5 sets of chicks. I get an appliance box lined w plastic bag. Use flake bedding and reuse 2 qt salad plastic containers that I put the screw-in watered cups to.(my point is nothing special—just clean.). I suspend food with a bungee using an oven rack over the top of the box.
it’s been extremely hot and humid here. I also get my supplies and the chicks themselves from tractor supply. When I heard chicks were being pu by a clerk from the post office, I waited until he returned to the store With them. Only one batch of 12 survived the trip. 6 boxes of 12 died.
I took 6. They agreed to replace if they had any problem.
The clerk was a chicken lover too. He told me to put the girls in a warm quiet spot and to stick their beeks into water SEVERAL times that day and the next bec they are dehydrated (they are so young that they don’t know how to drink) after the trip and not to feed them until late the second day. Not to use a heat light. And to suspend their food above the bedding where they are less likely to try to eat the bedding.
I don’t believe you have contributed to their demise. Summer is harsh to transport and this one has been a scorcher.
My brother in law worked for the P.O. and they hate getting shipments of living things ..its so rough on them Especially if pick up has any delays.

 

[twoquinns]

I use pine shavings in my nest boxes. I’ve never heard of pine being a problem with poultry, just cedar.

 

[LAstone55]

I am having a very strange and troubling problem with keeping chicks alive (this has been my first attempt at chickens). I have had 2 different batches of chicks (two batches ocurring at two different times) all die within minutes of each other.

My brooder is a clear 100 quart tote with the cover cut out and 1/2” hardware cloth attached to that opening. I have a brooder plate for heat from Brinsea. The chick waterer and feeder are the style you can screw a mason jar into however it came with plastic bottles so I used those. Feeder and waterer were cleaned mornings and evenings of whatever they managed to get into them and topped off. We started with paper towels the first two days and then switched to pine shavings after that with both batches.

The first batch (mailed to me) was 6 Rhode Island Reds (ordered vaccinated for Mareks and coccidiosis). They were fed unmedicated chick starter from Grubbly Farms (Little Pecks I belive it’s called) and I added electrolyte to their water upon arrival. I lost two within 48 hours and spoke to the hatchery and explained my setup and was told it was a great setup. The remaining 4 seemed to be doing great after that. About a week later while vacuuming in the same room I noticed chaos in the brooder. Two of the chicks seemed to be actively dying (convulsing) and the other two seemed to be breathing heavily and lethargic. All chicks expired within about 3 minutes of each other. They seemed perfectly fine 10 minutes prior the last time I had walked past the brooder and put eyes on them. I frantically researched what it could be but came up with nothing. I thought that I may quite literally scared them to death when I started the vacuum in the same room.

Fast forward a few weeks and we received 10 chicks in the mail from a different hatchery (not because we were unhappy with the first but because of the availability of breeds). These were three Rhode Island Reds, four Plymouth Barred Rocks, and three Australorps. These were not vaccinated for anything. They were given electrolyte added to their water upon their arrival and were also fed the Little Pecks chick starter that we had leftover. These chicks seemed to thrive more than the last batch I had which is all I had to compare it to. They seemed generally livelier and seemed to grow a little more in their first week compared to the last batch of Rhode Island Reds. After 2 weeks we felt the plastic tote was beginning to get tight so we moved them to a plastic kiddie pool surrounded by 1/2” hardware cloth and added a chick roosting bar thingy for them to play on. They seemed to love this new area hopping up on everything they could. During this time the Little Pecks starter feed started to run low so we purchased a bag of Nature’s Best organic chick starter/grower from Tractor Supply. I took what was left of the Little Pecks and added about an equal amount of the new feed to it to start transitioning them over. That was about a week ago. They finished the mix in a few days and were fed the Nature’s Best since. Tonight while watching a movie in the same room we heard some commotion and checked on the chicks, assuming they knocked over their waterer or something. Instead we find two of the chicks convulsing. I tried to grab their waterer and add some electrolyte to it in a desperate attempt to save the remaining chicks but then a couple more died a minute later, a few more and within 10-15 minutes they were all gone. They seemed to have gone a similar way as the first batch. We were hanging out watching them for a bit before we put on a movie and they were jumping around playing on their playscape. Like the last batch, nothing seemed amiss. It may be worth mentioning we never had any cases of pasty butt on either batch.

At this point I am totally at a loss as to what is going on or what I am doing wrong. Does anybody have any insight? I tried to include as many details as I could but please let me know if I left some out. I’m sure I did.

could be contaminated feed. I would research this brand for other complaints. I did hear of chicken raisers say that a feed they got from, I think it was Tractor supply, stopped their hens from laying. They switched feeds and they started laying again.

 

[dekel18042]

I am having a very strange and troubling problem with keeping chicks alive (this has been my first attempt at chickens). I have had 2 different batches of chicks (two batches ocurring at two different times) all die within minutes of each other.

My brooder is a clear 100 quart tote with the cover cut out and 1/2” hardware cloth attached to that opening. I have a brooder plate for heat from Brinsea. The chick waterer and feeder are the style you can screw a mason jar into however it came with plastic bottles so I used those. Feeder and waterer were cleaned mornings and evenings of whatever they managed to get into them and topped off. We started with paper towels the first two days and then switched to pine shavings after that with both batches.

The first batch (mailed to me) was 6 Rhode Island Reds (ordered vaccinated for Mareks and coccidiosis). They were fed unmedicated chick starter from Grubbly Farms (Little Pecks I belive it’s called) and I added electrolyte to their water upon arrival. I lost two within 48 hours and spoke to the hatchery and explained my setup and was told it was a great setup. The remaining 4 seemed to be doing great after that. About a week later while vacuuming in the same room I noticed chaos in the brooder. Two of the chicks seemed to be actively dying (convulsing) and the other two seemed to be breathing heavily and lethargic. All chicks expired within about 3 minutes of each other. They seemed perfectly fine 10 minutes prior the last time I had walked past the brooder and put eyes on them. I frantically researched what it could be but came up with nothing. I thought that I may quite literally scared them to death when I started the vacuum in the same room.

Fast forward a few weeks and we received 10 chicks in the mail from a different hatchery (not because we were unhappy with the first but because of the availability of breeds). These were three Rhode Island Reds, four Plymouth Barred Rocks, and three Australorps. These were not vaccinated for anything. They were given electrolyte added to their water upon their arrival and were also fed the Little Pecks chick starter that we had leftover. These chicks seemed to thrive more than the last batch I had which is all I had to compare it to. They seemed generally livelier and seemed to grow a little more in their first week compared to the last batch of Rhode Island Reds. After 2 weeks we felt the plastic tote was beginning to get tight so we moved them to a plastic kiddie pool surrounded by 1/2” hardware cloth and added a chick roosting bar thingy for them to play on. They seemed to love this new area hopping up on everything they could. During this time the Little Pecks starter feed started to run low so we purchased a bag of Nature’s Best organic chick starter/grower from Tractor Supply. I took what was left of the Little Pecks and added about an equal amount of the new feed to it to start transitioning them over. That was about a week ago. They finished the mix in a few days and were fed the Nature’s Best since. Tonight while watching a movie in the same room we heard some commotion and checked on the chicks, assuming they knocked over their waterer or something. Instead we find two of the chicks convulsing. I tried to grab their waterer and add some electrolyte to it in a desperate attempt to save the remaining chicks but then a couple more died a minute later, a few more and within 10-15 minutes they were all gone. They seemed to have gone a similar way as the first batch. We were hanging out watching them for a bit before we put on a movie and they were jumping around playing on their playscape. Like the last batch, nothing seemed amiss. It may be worth mentioning we never had any cases of pasty butt on either batch.

At this point I am totally at a loss as to what is going on or what I am doing wrong. Does anybody have any insight? I tried to include as many details as I could but please let me know if I left some out. I’m sure I did.

After reading what you and others posted I came to the conclusion the deaths must be related to the environment since the chicks came from different hatcheries, were different breeds and the time frame in which they died after you got them.
Could the plastic pool used as their brooder been giving off any kind of toxin or smell when it was heated? Was it washed before it was used?
Do you have a thermometer given the temperature where the chicks are?
Other than a necropsy, about all you can do is play detective. Good luck.

 

[Carlota95]

I mispoke, we were working our way through these pine shavings and had not opened are bag from tractor supply yet:

https://www.amazon.com/Manna-Pro-Flakes-Poultry-Bedding/dp/B00AQ4D3EU

I read some of the reviews on the wood chips and they might be the culprit.

I’m very sorry for all your loss!!

 

[Stephine]

This is so odd. I would definitely test the water and switched to bottled water in the meantime, also for your own health. What gets me is that they all die within minutes each other. That suggests a sudden change in their environment to me, like fumes. Otherwise contaminated feed - if you just refilled their feeder and they all jumped on it and ate at the same time, same for water… You're not flash chlorinating your well, right? It does sound an awful lot like the sudden chick death syndrome linked above. Healthy happy chicks start convulsing and dying within minutes. I would try and find out more about that. So sorry, this must just be traumatizing.

 

[Stephine]

This is so odd. I would definitely test the water and switched to bottled water in the meantime, also for your own health. What gets me is that they all die within minutes each other. That suggests a sudden change in their environment to me, like fumes. Otherwise contaminated feed - if you just refilled their feeder and they all jumped on it and ate at the same time, same for water… You're not flash chlorinating your well, right? It does sound an awful lot like the sudden chick death syndrome linked above. Healthy happy chicks start convulsing and dying within minutes. I would try and find out more about that. So sorry, this must just be traumatizing.

never mind the sudden death syndrome - they wouldn’t all be struck down within minutes from each other.

 

[ForTheChimkins]

Seeing as it does suddenly strike them all, I wonder if it is the heater since that seems to be a common factor in both cases.

 

[DrPound]

I'm sorry to hear about that.
Both brooders are inside, on the same room?
It sounds like a chemical issue, any candles, sprays, Teflon pans?

That was my first thought: teflon. Once we had finches in a bird cage inside the house (of course but I say that because it sounds as if you are raising your chicks inside the house). All the finches died and the only explanation was I was using a Teflon frying pan.