Broiler chicks 6 day old drop dead

[Clockwork]

Hi,

My broiler chicks are going from a 100 to 0 in a very short time. At the moment i am losing aprox 2 per day, 1 during night and 1 during day.

I monitor the chicks every hour, fresh water and clean food trays during which i also check the status of the chicks (500 birds aprox).

An example is during the last check up when i saw no signs of weakness or problems other than leg malfunction (ill return to that). Next check up 1h later a chick is lying down with constrained breathing and without the strength to stand up nor shirp/beep properly. Any thoughts?
- I am located in north Western Africa so the temperatures range from 21C during night to 35C mid day. Chicks are placed outside, in shade in brooding pallets.

The leg malfunctions i understand is an unfortunate yet common problem among broilers but i wonder if it is common this early on as day 6?

 

[danceswithronin]

Send photos of your brooder setup. Sounds like trampling to me.

 

[Clockwork]

Send photos of your brooder setup. Sounds like trampling to me.

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, could be. They are not under optimum conditions at the moment and will be moved to 16m2 on monday. Right now i have aprox 90 chicks per m2.

On monday they will enjoy 18m2 with expansion capacity to ~32m2.

 

[danceswithronin]

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, could be. They are not under optimum conditions at the moment and will be moved to 16m2 on monday. Right now i have aprox 90 chicks per m2.

On monday they will enjoy 18m2 with expansion capacity to ~32m2.

Do the chicks have a light on them at night at all? One thing I've noticed is that if it's getting dark and chicks don't have a coop to go into, they start to get really frightened for a little while until they settle down to sleep because they have terrible night vision and are vulnerable roosting on the ground. They may start to panic a bit at dusk and trample the weaker chicks in the brooder. I'd get some kind of small battery-powered nightlight and set it up near the brooders if you don't have one.

Also could there be any night predators prowling about? Panic from seeing predators outside the pen can cause trampling too.

 

[Clockwork]

Do the chicks have a light on them at night at all? One thing I've noticed is that if it's getting dark and chicks don't have a coop to go into, they start to get really frightened for a little while until they settle down to sleep because they have terrible night vision and are vulnerable roosting on the ground. They may start to panic a bit at dusk and trample the weaker chicks in the brooder. I'd get some kind of small battery-powered nightlight and set it up near the brooders if you don't have one.

Also could there be any night predators prowling about? Panic from seeing predators outside the pen can cause trampling too.

Thank you for the tips!

Unfortunetly things isnt always going as planned in this part of the world. You plan for a perfect brooding setup with heat, lamps, proper spacing etc but then things get in between which would not happen in US/Europe where i can push a button and get something delivered at my doorstep the next day so to say.

Since receiving them they have been living with the sun's dusk and dawn. At night i cover the pallets to keep the warmth inside (its more than enough).

So to answer your question, no. They have no light source at night but neither do they have predators. Might be a stray cat stalking but there are watch men walking about and we are in a gates compound so no worries there really.