Broody problems

[Debbie292d]

I’m pretty sure it’s not because of that though. Because only the 1st chick got pecked in the beginning and then when I reintroduced them the next day she started really becoming a mother and I could tell by her body language and sounds that she understood the chicks were hers. I even supervised for almost a whole day when I reintroduced them. When she went outside with them, she just called them and let them crawl under her. She only pecked them gently to help them under her.

The other reason I am pretty sure she had nothing to do with this is also because last year I had a agressive hen towards her chicks and she ended up pecking two of them hard until I saved them but they both survived without any treatment and became healthy roosters.


I’m really stumped as to why they died. Could bacteria from a broken egg do this? My hen accidentally broke a developing egg a week before hatch day and some substance got over the other eggs.

I’ve had other broodies in the past do this too and no chicks got infected though.

I suppose it could be that, but check around the area and see if there's something they could have gotten into. It doesn't make any sense to me why they just die out of the blue like that.

I've hatched nearing 500 silkie chicks this year alone, and grew out about 20% of those, and never lost one. I really want to try help you figure this out as it shouldn't have happened. Sure, one may not make it for whatever reason, but all three? I'm so sorry though!

 

[CashewVulture]

I suppose it could be that, but check around the area and see if there's something they could have gotten into. It doesn't make any sense to me why they just die out of the blue like that.

I've hatched nearing 500 silkie chicks this year alone, and grew out about 20% of those, and never lost one. I really want to try help you figure this out as it shouldn't have happened. Sure, one may not make it for whatever reason, but all three? I'm so sorry though!

I just feel really heartbroken
My hen looked for her chicks all day and kept trying to call them for food. She also kept coming to me, as if she was asking me to give her chicks back. (I would “steal” them to give them electrolytes and lice treatment)
Tonight, she kept checking the nesting boxes to look for them, but of course they weren’t there.

I’ll try to list everything I did to see if anything could’ve caused their death.

-I used natural beeswax crayons to mark the eggs
-I candled the eggs maybe twice a week until the last 3 days
-one developing egg broke in the nest sometime near day 14
-all the eggs were from one particular hen (but she is super healthy and so is the roo who fathered the chicks)
-When two of the chicks were externally pipping, my hen got off the nest and so I panicked and put them in an incubator. The first chick had hatched in the nest but it was going to get cold so I also put the little guy in the incubator with the eggs
-I used coconut oil to wet the chicks membranes and used tweezers to remove a bit of shell because they looked shrink wrapped
-The 3 chicks stayed overnight in a brooder box under a heating mat before going back with mom
-they all got their beaks dipped in a chick vitamin water mix
-I wrapped them in wool until mom accepted them
-They got outside with mom 2 days after hatching but it was a bit chilly so they mostly peeped and then hid under mom. They looked a bit lethargic but I assumed it was because it wasn’t very hot
-they never got out from under the heat mat or mom. They would rarely open their eyes even when I held them
-they started getting weak on day 3. They were never energetic like most young chicks, but they were more normal in the very beginning
-there were 6 eggs in the nest, 3 didn’t hatch. I cracked them open, and they were all pretty much done developing but still had yolk to absorb

And then they started dying one by one in the span of 24 hours. It’s a bit scary because I’ve never had chicks die like that. The only chicks that ever died at such a young age were assisted hatches who had splayed legs. I only had one chick who hatched by itself at some point but died on day 3. But that was just one chick.