Baby Chicks Are Dying

[write2caroline]

Last summer I ordered 25 chicks and the postal carrier had them in her truck all day even though our post office's policy is not to drive them out and to call - I came and called about 4 times that day so I finally got a call around 5 o clock when the postmaster called to apologize. I lost 10 from that group - it was heart wrenching. I did everything I could think of. When they were looking like I was losing them I would just hold them in a wash cloth until they passed. The rest also all got sick with some kind of sneezing illness. It was a lot of work to nurse the rest through. I used the apple cidar vinagar and droppers. I have 13 of the 15 remaining. They are all good layers and will be 1 in July.

I would lower the heat slightly and just keep an eye on them. You have probably lost the majority of the ones you are going to lose. I would not add the new ones to this mix. keep em separate in case their immunity is low so that you don't pass on any issues.

Good luck!

Hang in there

Caroline

 

[Luke13:34]

Any chance your hutch/brooder is made from cedar? I know that when they say not to use cedar with chicks that they are mostly talking about cedar shavings for bedding.. just wondering if a cedar brooder my have some negative impact on these chickies, too?

 

[beetlebob]

The brooders I have are actually rabbit cages I bought from a pet store. No smell or odors because i've had them set up for over a week. I'm using pine shavings to catch their droppings. The temperature is about 90 degrees. I don't know if they have mites or not. These are our first chickens, so no adult chickens. My count is 11 so far in four days. I hope no more are dead when I get home from work. I plan on stopping by the feed store to get another heat lamp and shield and waterer. i'll see if I can find the spray for mites and pick some up.

 

[pixiedouglas]

Quote:
have you thought about sprinkling a little DE in there instead of spraying for mites? It's a personal preference I guess, but I prefer to use DE to about anything else it just feels more natural. I mix a little in with the shavings for my chicks.

 

[Luke13:34]

I agree with those who say it seems like the deaths are a result of rough handling during shipping.. but.. maybe you could post pix of your brooder setup so we can troubleshoot anything else that might be contributing to the deaths. So sorry you are having to go through this. Poor babies.

 

[beetlebob]

I would have to figure out to get the pictures from my phone to this site.

I believe we are over the hump of the deaths. I had one more death (#11) Monday morning. We went from 30 chicks to 19 in four days. When we got home from work yesterday we didn't have anymore deaths and the same for this morning when we got ready for work. So, I'm hoping we're past that. I have another brooder (new rabbit cage) set up and ready to go because on Wednesday (tomorrow) I'm going to buy more chickens to replace the ones we lost. I'm a hunter and I hunt all kinds of wild game to include birds, but it was hard going through this because it seemed like the deaths just weren't stopping. The birds all seemed ok when you looked at them , but the moment they stood there drooping, you would be thinking something might happen and then when you came back within in a few minutes, that bird was lying on its side panting. We would then take them out and feed them water through a dripper or syringe (no needles) and they would get better and then they would die.

On my other brooder, I have everything set. The heat lamp (seperate from my first brooder) is set at a height that gives me a temperature of about 92 - 94 degrees. I have pine shavings in the lower portion to catch their poop. They actually stand on the wire cage. During this time of the first day, I put paper towels down in an area under the heat lamp for them to lay on. Changing the towel as frequent as I can. At the other end of the brooder is the waterer and food dish. I did buy some Poultry Protector that i will spray on the pine shavings. I read the instructions and it said to not put it on birds younger than 10 days old. So the chicks I have now I'll spray this weekend, but the ones I get tomorrow, i'll spray when they're a bit older. I plan on keeping all the chicks in seperate brooders for now. I will join the brooders together next weekend (the one following this one coming up), so they can have some room. One brooder has 19 chickens and the other one will have about 10-15 in it.

When I get my new chicks tomorrow and get them set up in the brooder, I'll make sure each one knows how to drink water as well. I didn't do that with the 30 because it looked like each one made it to the waterer and drank.