We bought 11 female sexed chickens from MPC in April. (Shared the shipping with a friend, I only have 5 of these birds) Their hatch date is 4/9. 1 - EE - turned out to be a rooster (to be expected) 2 - EE - Died around 24 weeks from a prolasped egg 3 - EE - Laid first egg around 18 weeks, started molting in November (7 months old) 4 - NHR - Died of being a chicken around 20 weeks (snapped neck in wire net) 5 - NHR - Has never laid an egg 6 - SLW - died in early November from what looks like an infection, never laid an egg 7 - SLW - Has never laid an egg, is a little immature looking 8 - SLW - Started laying around 28 weeks 9 - SLW - Has never laid an egg, shows no sign of maturing 10 - GLW - Started laying around 26 weeks 11 - GLW - Has never laid an egg, is a little immature looking So out of 11 chickens: 3 have ever laid eggs, only 2 currently are laying. 3 are dead. 1 is a rooster and 4 still haven't reached maturity at 36 weeks. Was this a bad batch or is this normal? The deaths seem reasonable, we expected them to not all to make it, but the maturity issue seems a bit off...
I had/have the same problem with a batch of chicks that I had ordered from Strombergs in April. Of the 25 chicks 5 seems immature still and have not laid an egg yet. There were 2 that died at around 18 weeks that never seem to grow past the 8 week mark. The were very small. Never grew combs or wattles. 4 were roosters. I have always hatched my own eggs but the rooster/pullet ratio was a bit much to deal with so I thought I would order pullets only. Still had to deal with 4 roosters and And the 2 that were so small took a lot of care. Not sure if I want to order again. And really hoping that these 5 that have not laid will lay in the spring. But by then they will be almost 1 year old
Yeah I have some hope for the ones that are close to maturation coloring, They seem like they were almost there when suddenly the days got short.
I too had a problem this year with MPC. I ordered 6 Beligan D' Anvers bantams and 3 EE bantams, hatch date May 21st. I lost 2 of the Anvers one at 5 days old and one at 6 days old. They will replace those if I order more chickens but only with standards. Two weeks later, one of the Anvers is a crossbeak. They gave me a refund on her. Thought everything was find until labor day weekend. My biggest Anver was panting for air, she died that night. My crossbeak died a day later. The crossbeak developed a limp back in Aug. she could get around pretty good after I treated her with B-complex and polyvisol but could not fly any more. At the end of Aug. another Anver became wobbly a few days then she too could not walk or fly. She died in Oct. Now I have the only one left starting to limp the day before Thanksgiving and now she can not walk or fly. She moves around with her wings. She is inside the house right now in a small dog kennel. She can eat and drink on her own, but she like the others probably will not make it. The 3 EE's bantams are not bantams, they sent me standards and refunded me for those. So yes I too got a bad batch of Anvers. The little day olds they could'nt walk before they died and every one that raises chickens have told me it has to be genetic to lose all the same breed like that. I am heartbroken over it and if little Ava passes they will know about it. What good it will do for I do not want any more chickens from them, scare I might go through this again. They don't give bantams the shot for Mareks disease. Too small. My first order from them a year ago, everyone is fine, so I think I am staying local. I replaced the 3 that died, got them off of a farm, and a friend of mine hatched out some bantams so I'm getting some from her. Since you mention about growing up slowly the Anvers did stay small for a long time I thought maybe because they were bantams? I would give them a call also. I am.
Sorry to hear of the chick problems. I ordered 10 sexed bantam pullets from MPC and they are all girls and just starting to lay now at 7 months old.
