All chicks Suddenly dying

[azygous]

Is the heat lamp a teflon coated bulb? Is your water unfiltered well water? Has the nesting material been treated with anything?

As I mentioned, it's unlikely this is a disease. Such sudden multiple death is almost always environmental.

 

[taylacline]

When multiple baby chicks die all at once, the cause is usually environmental, not pathological. (Illness)

Environmental causes of chick mortality:

Brooder too hot or too cold
Water contaminated, usually unfiltered well water.
Moldy feed
Insecticide use near chicks
Air pollution from adjacent human activity (work shop, auto shop)
Improper food, usually undigestible without chick grit

I only used chick starter feed
Should be no air pollution in our bathroom
No sprays
The feed is new
I cleaned the water 2 a day sometimes 3 if I was home all day.
The brooder is definitely warmer. Maybe too warm. I don't have a way to get the temp but any time I felt it was a bit warm I would raise the lamp just a bit more. Because they definitely would not hang around under the brooder

 

[SilverBirds]

The feed is new

Did you open it today or recently? What is the expiration date on it?

 

[azygous]

What is your water source? Tap water or well water? Do you live where there is local fracking taking place. This can contaminate ground water and it would be poisonous to tiny chicks.

 

[taylacline]

Did you open it today or recently? What is the expiration date on it?

Yes I opened it a week ago. I don't know about expiration date though. I do know when I got it though it was a new shipment

 

[taylacline]

What is your water source? Tap water or well water? Do you live where there is local fracking taking place. This can contaminate ground water and it would be poisonous to tiny chicks.

I just have tap water. I don't

 

[azygous]

Is your house old with old pipes that cause the water to run red from rust on occasion?

What is your location? City/town and state? This can provide clues.

 

[FunClucks]

I only used chick starter feed
Should be no air pollution in our bathroom
No sprays
The feed is new
I cleaned the water 2 a day sometimes 3 if I was home all day.
The brooder is definitely warmer. Maybe too warm. I don't have a way to get the temp but any time I felt it was a bit warm I would raise the lamp just a bit more. Because they definitely would not hang around under the brooder

First, I'm so sorry for your loss! that is heartbreaking.

I can help with determining the temperature. A good way to get the temperature -purchase a meat thermometer. You may already have one in your kitchen. Dial type thermometer that goes from 0F to 220F with gradations of two degrees is what you want. Picture example below. They have these at any grocery store that sells cooking implements, like walmart or amazon.

Oven thermometers and candy thermometers don't go low enough but meat thermometers do, and it's stainless steel so won't corrode when in contact with droppings or moisture, also super easy to clean. Place it in the bottom of the brooder directly under the heat lamp on top of the shavings. Let it sit there for a while until the temperature stabilizes (15-30 minutes ought to be plenty). Then you'll know what the max temp is that your chickens would be/were seeing as they walk/walked directly under the heat lamp. I've found with the lamp in the same place and all other things being equal that my brooder can vary 10-20 degrees depending on room/ambient temperature and conditions.

Also this will help you figure out if the walls of the brooder are/were getting too hot - if you set the thermometer right next to the brooder wall, or tape it to the hottest place on the wall of your brooder it will let you know the temperature your brooder wall is being heated to. You want at least 2 inches of the stick perpendicular to the beam of the heat lamp at your measurement location - don't tape on top of this two inches if you can help it.

Different types of plastic outgas different chemicals at different temperatures. A google search on softening point and/or melting point for the material your brooder is made out of (if it's fiberglass, polycarbonate, plastic, rubber, etc.) will tell you how hot is too hot for the material - you want to stay below the softening point, or at less than 2/3 of the melting point temperature if they don't give a softening point. Also you might check Google to see if there's a mention of any offgassing the material would do and at what temps. [For those who brood in plastic/rubber tubs, the manufacturer, or in the USA, the recycling symbol they stamp on the bottom of the plastic or rubber tub, will tell you what material it is.]

For a shower brooder, the manufacturer should tell you what your shower body is made out of. Did you have a shower curtain near the chicks? Was it used/had deposits on it from being used, or were there any hard deposits elsewhere in the tub/shower? Shower curtains can be really bad about outgassing/offgassing when new, and who knows what chemicals from the deposited soaps or soap scum could be released upon heating. Not trying to knock your tub cleaning abilities at all - it can be hard to even see the stuff, much less get it all off.

Also as a last thought, do you guys have black mold? Cause it could be down in your drain and you not know. I don't think black mold would have killed so many chicks all at once, but if you hit the offgassing point of some chemical particularly toxic to birds and didn't have enough ventilation to move the gas out, that might have done it.

I'm so sorry for your loss.

 

[Hip Hillbilly Acres]

Oh my, just when I was feeling comfy to go ahead and order chicks from a commercial hatchery. Now I am back to square one being nervous.

I literally JUST set up the brooder. A very thick corrugated box that held watermelons from my grocer job. I was going to put tarp to line it and go from there. Planned on keeping them in my spare bedroom (first flock and all). Someone above mentioned temp. Well, it is hot as hades here in GA and I am wondering if TOO hot for the babies.

I do have in mind a thermometer to keep in the room and perhaps another for inside the brooder as well. It is very hot here now.

 

[FunClucks]

Oh my, just when I was feeling comfy to go ahead and order chicks from a commercial hatchery. Now I am back to square one being nervous.

I literally JUST set up the brooder. A very thick corrugated box that held watermelons from my grocer job. I was going to put tarp to line it and go from there. Planned on keeping them in my spare bedroom (first flock and all). Someone above mentioned temp. Well, it is hot as hades here in GA and I am wondering if TOO hot for the babies.

I do have in mind a thermometer to keep in the room and perhaps another for inside the brooder as well. It is very hot here now.

I used a watermelon box brooder for up to ten chickens from 4-8 weeks old. I put a triple layer of thick cardboard inside the bottom and used a length of hardware cloth for the top. Put a tarp underneath the entire box as a moisture barrier. For my last box brooder even when the horizontal nipple waterer leaked, the cardboard bottom was thick enough to just remove a layer of cardboard, change the bedding and let it dry. Used 6ft 2x4 lumber and firewood for lid weights to prevent predation (door was open in the garage to give them ventilation) .

Its too hot now to keep mine in the garage (north AL temps of 100+ F and 50%+ humidity). But after 4 wks, the inside room the chicks were in was coated in dust so bad i had trouble breathing in there. Maybe with an industrial air filter inside brooding wouldn't be as bad? But expensive filters.

Also with the watermelon box i was concerned about temps due to the heat lamp, so i did my 1-4 wk brooding in a 100 gal rubbermaid rubber tub and checked temps at chick level and of the surrounding material regularly. The rubber tub spent about 20 yrs in my garage already so i wasnt worried about the tub outgassing at 90F cause it had already done anything it was going to do.

Id say get them outside asap, but you may have to get them acclimated to the high temps outside gradually if you brood them indoors. Make sure they have lots of outside shade and good airflow. I basically have a hoop coop right now with a tarp to protect from wild bird poo, and had to be careful how i put the tarp to encourage air flow. The chickens like their ice water so that helps a bit. Also they like their pallet caves/hides for deep shade/cool earth to lie on.