Baby chicks dying

[swiftchick]

I started out with seven baby chicks on Sat 1/11/14 by Monday 3 of them died. I got two replacement chicks. Tuesday one more died. Wednesday I got two more 1 day old chicks. I'll take great until 1/18/14 I came home after a few hrs of being out and one of my new checks looked stopped on, it was dead. Today, 1/22/14, I come home from being out for three hours and the other one day old baby chick (now a wk old) is not looking and the other chicks were walking over her. To try to feed her some water, she was almost gone, I think have seizures like a couple of the 1st batch that I saw die. Her neck was all floppy. She just died & I'm so sad. Do u think the older ones bullied her? She was so healthy, chubby, got food, drink water, would walk on my hand, pooped. My brooder's temperature is great, I change the water, I change the food they changed the bedding... I don't know what to do. I'm starting to hold a grudge against my very tall Buff Orpington, Baby Spice, who is very pecky and sassy. She was one of the 2 replacement birds I got. This picture was before the first day old baby. My kids are going to be so sad about Chunky!

 

[swiftchick]

Yesterday I let them have their first grass

 

[swiftchick]

The set up

 

[CasadasHens]

Oh dear, I am so sorry for your loss....I don't have any advice but am sure someone with experience will be able to help soon. Good luck.....

 

[swiftchick]

The whole baby chick experience has been pretty rough and I'm just a city mama so I'm getting traumatized now! This was my fav one that died today

 

[Cloudseeker]

I have been there! I also don't know why.... but I have had a lot of baby chicks die over the last few years. I have worse luck with chicks who have been shipped so this year I am trying to buy local... we will see if I have better luck!

 

[dheltzel]

Read up as much as you can about caring for new chicks. You might have encountered a disease here. I now always use medicated chick starter. It's not an antibiotic and not harmful to the environment as the overuse of those are.

Another problem you are noticing is the socialization. Chickens can be cruel to the point of brutality. Be very careful mixing chicks of different sizes. As they grow the size differences lessen and you can mix them carefully.

I've had excellent success with shipped chicks, but I get 25 or more and that really spreads around any social issues. I rarely lose a chick anymore, but it does happen, despite all our care.

Buying local is great, but unless you find a local breeder, you are probably getting shipped chicks anyway. It does mean they are professionally cared for during their first few days, so that is a benefit.

What's really fun is getting an incubator and hatching your own!

 

[AmericanMom]

The first thing that came to mind when seeing the photo is the chicks have nowhere to go to escape if they get to warm? I'm not sure and maybe someone with more experience can chime in but your brooder almost seems to small?

So sorry for your losses, Its always hard to lose them

 

[nicole63021]

What is the temp range in your brooder? The open sides and the fact that there is something covering one side would really make me wonder about drafts and temps. I also did not see a grit container in the brooder, do they have access to starter grit? Did you use a product like Sav-A-Chik or GroGel (or both as I did) in the water when they arrived? Have you been checking to make sure their crops are full and checking their little bottoms to make sure that there is no problem like pasty butt? Are their stools normal (didn't see any in the pics)? Sorry to ask so many questions in the wake of your losses, but the more information you can give the better we can help you.

 

[swiftchick]

They have room to escape the heat & the temp hasn't dropped lower than 88. They are on medicated feed and the age different was only 1 wk. I know they were shipped to our local feed place right after hatching- I don't know where from. I have 3 of my original chicks I got at 4 days (3/7) and the the same batched shipped are both alive. I'm so worried about disease but they've been on medicated feed from day one & I've read till I have a neck ache about how to take care of them. The brooder only has one opening- the door and I cover that at night. We are in So Cal so it's not even very cold here but I've been parinoid. The buff also shakes her head all the time- do u think she has some crazy neuro thing? Idk I'm so bummed this whole thing has turned out like this