Hi all. Last wednesday we received 10 bantam silkies from My Pet Chicken. The seemed in good order when we picked them up from the post office. Once home the chicks went into our home made brooder and I took a digital image of them at that time. (I posted it here in this forum). By thursday we saw that two of the chicks were in trouble. We had checked them for "pasting up" on each occasion of cleaning up the brooder. One had some pasting but poo'd after we cleaned it up. By that night both chicks spent more time down than up. They were still down friday and stayed that way until evening when they both died, within a couple of hours of each other. Friday night I checked the "warrantee and policies" on the MPC website but found none concerning death of chicks. These chicks were pricey as they had been "sexed" to hens, (I believe that MPC is the only company that will send a sexed run of bantams) and cost about about $10 each, but really its not so much the money that bothers us its we were so sorry to see the little things suffer. I have emailed MPC and left a message on their answering machine. We haven't heard from them yet but will, I expect, on Monday. Now we are watching the 8 remaing chicks and keeping our fingers cross. They are so damed cute. I took images of the dead chicks but I won't bum you all out with that but here is an image of the others
i can't imagine this happening here, i would be in tears... I don't think the company will do anything b/c it didn't happen in their travel, but it doesn't hurt to try. Melinda
Shipping can be really tough on the little guys, and often birds hold out for the longest times before just "giving up" on life. Likely they will refund or replace them, but mortality is not the exception for the little guys so don't worry or stress too hard about it. It happens. During peak shipping in the spring, you will see tons of threads about dead/dying shipped chicks and blame being put left and right, but in the end, if you choose to go with shipping, there are risks and you can only do much for them. Of course, you always hear the worst, and there are millions that make it 100% healthy, but it always sucks to be the one that didn't have the perfect batch. Even if you hatch your own birds, mortality is the highest in the first week of life, as they can also be born with internal defects that only crop up once their yolk sac reserves are used up at about 72 hours of life post hatch. Chick mortality is so common they even have a name for it, failure to thrive. As long as the rest are running around happy, all they need is heat, food, and fresh pure clean water.
Quote:This is one of the things you must get used to raising chickens. It is not easy, but even after they get older other stuff happens, like predators and such. The rewards though outweigh the heartbreak.
Thank you all for your concern. We have been at this a very long time and yes we stress every time something like this happens. I don't blame MPC. Shipping such a little life-form, at the edge of its birth from coast to coast is where the real stress lies. We have lost birds from eggs hatched, from predators and for reasons unfathomable to us. This is just the first time we have had chicks shipped. My wife and I are now "seasoned" citizens and have long ago learned one small sad truth. With each admission of a creature into our family and our hearts there is the knowledge that there will be at least one small tragedy. That occurs when they leave us. It is the minutes and hours of joy brought into our lives and the knowledge that we have facilitated the best of all lives for them that makes it all worth it. The little dog you see as my avatar is the image one of many generations of "best friends" that stretches back into the 60's. This is a very wonderful forum. Thanks again
My DH's workmate (who has a LOT of chickens) told us that we could expect a 20% mortality rate with shipped chicks. It came up because I was concerned about a few of mine (not silkies) that I got from MPC recently. Mine all ended up fine, thank goodness. I am sorry that two of yours didn't. Survival of the fittest doesn't feel right sometimes, does it?
My DH was told that the motality rate is 25%. Of our first 20 birds we have lost 5 to predation or illness. One we found a 1yr old bird dead one day possibly a heart attack. An hour before all birds had treats and seemed ok.
Are they on shavings? Probably something stupid to mention, but it looks like saw dust or chips or shavings or something in there with them. Its not pine is it? All that aside, chicks die for no good reason. It just happens. Sad
