All my chicks died in 20 minutes!

[hysop]

Thanks for the quick responses! We feel fine. The plastic bin was open for ventilation and we have fairly new smoke/CO detectors all over the house.

That’s disappointing to hear about pine shavings not being recommended. They were recommended by the staff at tractor supply.

I used to use pine shavings. I don’t think that’s what killed your chicks that fast. I just personally don’t use pine shavings anymore. I may have been thinking cedar shavings as the toxic kind like someone else mentioned.

 

[BelovedBirds]

Were they indoors?
Pine shavings aren’t recommended for chicks.

I thought this too

 

[BelovedBirds]

I got 8 chicks 4 days ago. I was told they were 1 week old at the time. This afternoon I had 7 of the 8 die within 20 minutes. This was my first time trying to raise chicks and I’m looking for some insight on what happened. Here are the variables.

I used pine shaving as bedding.
My brooder tank is a plastic storage bin.
I used Dumor organic chick starter grower.
I had a warming light 32 inches from the chicks.
The temp by the chicks was around 78 degrees.

Here’s the last variable. I cleaned the water feeder daily. We were out of the house for a solid 12 hours today and the chicks dumped a ton of pine shavings into the water feeder and it was empty. The bedding was damp but the chicks and bedding were warm from the light. I didn’t immediately change the bedding.

The kids and I were holding them and they seemed fine. The were interacting and jumping around. Then all of a sudden one after the other started to die. 7 of the 8 in 20 minutes. My thought is that regardless of temperature they couldn’t tolerate the moisture from leaked water feeder. They were not soaking wet by any means. But they were on moist bedding.

I would love some insight on this. We knew they wouldn’t all survive but not like this. We’re heart broken.

Thanks - Jon

Did you wash your hands before handling them? How long were you holding them? I assume the kids were supervised?
Could the chicks escape from the heat?
Was the brooder well ventilated?
I'm so sorry for your loss

 

[raingarden]

78 degrees and then the chicks got wet. I think they died of hypothermia.

 

[saysfaa]

I got 8 chicks 4 days ago. I was told they were 1 week old at the time. This afternoon I had 7 of the 8 die within 20 minutes. This was my first time trying to raise chicks and I’m looking for some insight on what happened. Here are the variables.

I used pine shaving as bedding.
My brooder tank is a plastic storage bin.
I used Dumor organic chick starter grower.
I had a warming light 32 inches from the chicks.
The temp by the chicks was around 78 degrees.

Here’s the last variable. I cleaned the water feeder daily. We were out of the house for a solid 12 hours today and the chicks dumped a ton of pine shavings into the water feeder and it was empty. The bedding was damp but the chicks and bedding were warm from the light. I didn’t immediately change the bedding.

The kids and I were holding them and they seemed fine. The were interacting and jumping around. Then all of a sudden one after the other started to die. ...

Are you aware that a chicken's respiratory system includes air pockets just under their skin? These are delicate at any age but especially so in young chicks. What is not at all too tight for a kitten the same size could be too tight for a chick. One possibility.

Another is an accumulation of stressors. Any given thing that is not ideal is not too much stress if it is the only thing that is stressful. Damp bedding is stressful in itself and it also makes a low temperature more stressful than it otherwise would be. Not having water to drink can be a little stressful or very stressful depending on when how many hours they went without... they are tiny, they can't go as long as someone larger can. Possibly the final straw was being held, even if not squeezed too hard, because everything eats chickens. They can be tamed/taught to like to be held but their instincts are to panic at things like hands coming down at them and restraints.

I don't know what the cause was; these are things to consider as well as other possibilities given.

My sympathies for you and your kids, this is so hard, no matter what the cause is.

 

[TullyRiver Quail]

Baby chick's probably shouldn't be held. Many will die from shock just from fear alone. 90-95 is the temp they should be at. Next try, get a heating pad, remove the cloth cover, form a flattened bridge out of wire, lay the heating pad + a layer of bubble wrap or thin foam packing over the top of the bridge and wrap the bundle with plastic wrap to secure it and keep it clean for next hatch. The angled bridge allows smaller chick's to go to the lower end, larger chick's to the larger. The height should be just above the shoulders, and there should be space in the brooder for them to run out, get a drink or a nibble and run back under electric momma. I have bent my wire frame with legs an have 1/4" + 1/2" wooden risers with a hole drilled so I can adjust the height as the babies feather out. Read up on how / when to decrease the heat from 95->75 over the time in the brooder pending your chick's, as quail, chickens, ducks have different maturity rates.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Opening the top doesn't provide air movement at the level the chicks are at and CO2 would build up in the bottom of the tote. Drilling holes in the tote near the bottom would help move the air around just as it should be in a chicken coop. For the air to move up in a coop and pull ammonia fumes away from roosting hens you will also need ventilation at top and bottom

 

[TwoShepherds]

Oh gosh, I’m so sorry for your loss. The chicks didn’t have any build up of poop on their vents, did they? How did they act before they passed? Did you notice anything abnormal with their droppings?

I had a chick die in my hands the other day. I had noticed that it had a bit of poop stuck to the feathers near its vent. Pasty butt can kill a chick, so I pulled it from the brooder to clean it off at the sink with warm water. I’ve done this dozens of times with chicks in the past so I didn’t think a thing of it. But right as I finished this one suddenly went limp in my hands and was gone. I feel terrible…the blockage might not have even been bad enough to need intervention. I was just trying to stay on top of things. I was gentle, chick was not smothered…I think it died from some combination of fright, being cold from the cleaning, and/or some kind of cardiac defect. It was one of the smaller of the 19 chicks I hatched.

It is really sad and disappointing to lose a chick. I use the large flake TSC pine shavings all the time…I think it is safe unless the chicks were ingesting a lot of it. I hope you and your family try again with a new set of chicks.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

Did you use self cleaning oven or a teflon pan? Those are deadly to birds

 

[Flockincrazy]

Thanks for the quick responses! We feel fine. The plastic bin was open for ventilation and we have fairly new smoke/CO detectors all over the house.

That’s disappointing to hear about pine shavings not being recommended. They were recommended by the staff at tractor supply.

I use pine shavings and have never had a problem I don't think it was that