All My Chicks Died. WTH?

[BidDaddy]

Well, this certainly sucks. I had four chicks hatch Sunday into Monday and they all died today in their brooder. Maybe someone can help me figure out what went wrong?

They were shipped eggs. They all hatched on their own and were kept in the incubator for a full 24 hours.
Here is where I may have screwed up - I took them to my friends house where the brooder was. It was about a 15 minute ride and I had the heat all the way up. They went right from the car to the brooder with the heat at the proper temperature. They were fine overnight - eating and drinking and sleeping. Then tonight they are all dead in the brooder. Did I screw up by moving them too soon???

 

[AlleysChicks]

No. Was there a heat source at your friend? They could have got too cold or too hot in the brooder.

 

[BlueHenDel]

Don't have any info for you but just wanted to say so sorry you lost your babies.

 

[FishMtFarm]

Yeah you definately didn't do anything wrong with transporting them. That's weird. Did you have issues during incubation with temp, turning, or humidity? Sometimes errors in incubation can cause fatalities after hatch.

 

[BidDaddy]

They went right from my car with the heat up to 90 degrees to a brooder with a heat lamp at 98. They were Bantam Calico Cochins

 

[BidDaddy]

Yeah you definately didn't do anything wrong with transporting them. That's weird. Did you have issues during incubation with temp, turning, or humidity? Sometimes errors in incubation can cause fatalities after hatch.

It was a pretty smooth incubation period but, being that it was my first, that could have been it. Temp and humidity were consistent and I had the automatic turner.

 

[Chickassan]

Describe the brooder,bedding,lamp type absolutely everything you can tell us.

 

[CannedMonster]

I feel like the brooder may be the issue.
98 seems a tad high for day old chicks.
Did they have a cooler area in the brooder they could move to if they were too hot?
What kind of heat lamp was it?
Was it for use with animals and not one of those food type ones that are Teflon coated?
Those give off fumes that will kill your birds.

 

[h2oratt]

They went right from my car with the heat up to 90 degrees to a brooder with a heat lamp at 98. They were Bantam Calico Cochins

Did they have a place to get away from the heat. That’s really warm.

 

[featherhead007]

That is so sad! Nice breed too!