Jaylee52
In the Brooder
- Mar 17, 2018
- 26
- 23
- 49
First time chicken raisers and we have an emergency on our hands. This is long because I am trying to give any and all info that could be helpful. Thank you in advance for help!
We bought 6 chicks (2 Ameracaunas, 2 silver laced Wyandottes, 2 gold laced wyandottes) 3 days ago from Feed Store A on the day their new chick order came in.
The next day (which was 2 days ago) we got 6 more chicks from a competitor feed store across town because they had different breeds available (2 Cuckoo Marans, 2 Olive Eggers, 1 Welsummer, 1 Salmon Faverolle). These chicks had just arrived at the store that morning.
So, all chicks should be under a week old. For their first two days they all looked like they were playing nicely and doing great. When we'd come into the coop, some would be all around the brooder exploring and some under the heat lamp. So I don't think they were too hot or too cold.
I had to work all day today. My husband last checked on them at 11am Pacific Time. I got home from work at 6pm Pacific time and checked on them first thing. 7 of the 12 were dead and 1 was on the verge of death. Just 4 were acting normal and healthy. The four that survived are the Faverolle, the Welsummer, one of the two olive eggers (who was a runt and the smallest of all the chicks), and one of the two silver laced wyandottes.
Several of the dead ones had no visible problems other than being dead (no blood, no pasty butt). A few of the others had a little blood on them, but not at their vents, at their mouth. The dead ones were in all different parts of the brooder, both away from and right under the heat lamp. I have seen a couple of the chicks stumble on to their backs and have trouble righting themselves, but the only two I have seen do this are among the survivors (the faverolle and the olive egger).
We have them in a large galvanized horse trough with 2-3 inches of pine shavings in the bottom. We have a chicken waterer in there, sitting on bricks to keep pine shavings from falling in. The waterer has plenty of fresh water in it. We have a chick feeder that's the long skinny tray with the lid with lots of holes in it. It is filled with non-medicated chick crumbs. We have red tinted 2 heat lamps next to one another and two thermometers. The whole brooder set-up is inside our walk-in coop which has a window at human thigh-to-waist height (with hardware cloth over it to keep predators out), a window with a glass pane in the north wall (just lets in light, not air), and ventilation holes all around the perimeter of the coop up at human head height.
I moved them into a paper shopping bag with fresh bedding while we removed the dead birds (including the dying one) and all of the bedding. We didn't sanitize the trough since it's near dark and I thought the time out of their brooder might be more dangerous for them if I were to sanitize and dry it. We put in fresh bedding. We added a spoonful of apple cider vinegar to the waterer. We refilled the tray with fresh chick crumbs. And, we left the lid off the tray just in case they hadn't figured out how to eat from it. We had showed them their water and food when we first got them by dipping their beaks in them, but had never seen them on the food as much as at the waterer or under the heat lamp.
Idea 1: When we did this, the remaining chicks went immediately to the food and ate intensely. I wonder if they all had been confused by the chick feeder and starved?
Idea 2: We watched them and saw all four remaining chicks peck at the thermometer I have in there. The temperature reading strip in middle is red. Could they have hurt themselves doing this?
Idea 3: They got chilled? It's been in the 30's here at night and the 50's in the day. Maybe there are drafts coming in from the front window of the coop or the door from when we come in and out? Also, they spilled some water from the waterer before we had it sitting on bricks, but we removed as many of the wet shavings as we could and buried the rest under fresh, dry shavings.
Idea 4: Do we need more lighting? The coop doesn't get much daylight since the only small windows face north and east. The only lighting in there are the two red-tinted heat lamps.
Idea 5: Could it be some kind of disease? They are from feed stores and their chick feed is non-medicated
We bought 6 chicks (2 Ameracaunas, 2 silver laced Wyandottes, 2 gold laced wyandottes) 3 days ago from Feed Store A on the day their new chick order came in.
The next day (which was 2 days ago) we got 6 more chicks from a competitor feed store across town because they had different breeds available (2 Cuckoo Marans, 2 Olive Eggers, 1 Welsummer, 1 Salmon Faverolle). These chicks had just arrived at the store that morning.
So, all chicks should be under a week old. For their first two days they all looked like they were playing nicely and doing great. When we'd come into the coop, some would be all around the brooder exploring and some under the heat lamp. So I don't think they were too hot or too cold.
I had to work all day today. My husband last checked on them at 11am Pacific Time. I got home from work at 6pm Pacific time and checked on them first thing. 7 of the 12 were dead and 1 was on the verge of death. Just 4 were acting normal and healthy. The four that survived are the Faverolle, the Welsummer, one of the two olive eggers (who was a runt and the smallest of all the chicks), and one of the two silver laced wyandottes.
Several of the dead ones had no visible problems other than being dead (no blood, no pasty butt). A few of the others had a little blood on them, but not at their vents, at their mouth. The dead ones were in all different parts of the brooder, both away from and right under the heat lamp. I have seen a couple of the chicks stumble on to their backs and have trouble righting themselves, but the only two I have seen do this are among the survivors (the faverolle and the olive egger).
We have them in a large galvanized horse trough with 2-3 inches of pine shavings in the bottom. We have a chicken waterer in there, sitting on bricks to keep pine shavings from falling in. The waterer has plenty of fresh water in it. We have a chick feeder that's the long skinny tray with the lid with lots of holes in it. It is filled with non-medicated chick crumbs. We have red tinted 2 heat lamps next to one another and two thermometers. The whole brooder set-up is inside our walk-in coop which has a window at human thigh-to-waist height (with hardware cloth over it to keep predators out), a window with a glass pane in the north wall (just lets in light, not air), and ventilation holes all around the perimeter of the coop up at human head height.
I moved them into a paper shopping bag with fresh bedding while we removed the dead birds (including the dying one) and all of the bedding. We didn't sanitize the trough since it's near dark and I thought the time out of their brooder might be more dangerous for them if I were to sanitize and dry it. We put in fresh bedding. We added a spoonful of apple cider vinegar to the waterer. We refilled the tray with fresh chick crumbs. And, we left the lid off the tray just in case they hadn't figured out how to eat from it. We had showed them their water and food when we first got them by dipping their beaks in them, but had never seen them on the food as much as at the waterer or under the heat lamp.
Idea 1: When we did this, the remaining chicks went immediately to the food and ate intensely. I wonder if they all had been confused by the chick feeder and starved?
Idea 2: We watched them and saw all four remaining chicks peck at the thermometer I have in there. The temperature reading strip in middle is red. Could they have hurt themselves doing this?
Idea 3: They got chilled? It's been in the 30's here at night and the 50's in the day. Maybe there are drafts coming in from the front window of the coop or the door from when we come in and out? Also, they spilled some water from the waterer before we had it sitting on bricks, but we removed as many of the wet shavings as we could and buried the rest under fresh, dry shavings.
Idea 4: Do we need more lighting? The coop doesn't get much daylight since the only small windows face north and east. The only lighting in there are the two red-tinted heat lamps.
Idea 5: Could it be some kind of disease? They are from feed stores and their chick feed is non-medicated
