Can't sleep-lost my first flock...trying again

[Shagbark Wood]

Can't sleep-lost my first flock after 10 days after 6 weeks just now getting the courage up to try again. Bought our first flock at Rural King of Americanas, Reds, and Orpingtons. I'm an RN and not sure what happened, had them in the same tote with a heat lamp reading 90 degrees and plenty of food and water, with no pasty butts. The only thing we changed was their waterer. We'd bought a galvanized steel one off Amazon, that was made in China, that I replaced a plastic bowl with that afternoon. Went to bed, they were drinking out of it well, then the next morning found all 6 face down and lifeless. I was crushed, cried on and off for days. Surprised because at work, I see human death regularly which didn't even compare to how I felt about these sweet innocent babies. Now that I have a new flock, I'm worried something's going to happen to them. Anyone else been through this? Not sure h ow to deal and be sure not to go b thru this again. Not sure my heart could handle round 2 but this is my Mother's day gift. Please share of you've been thru this and have any advice for coping...Thanks so much! Samantha

 

[LikeTurkeys]

I'm very sorry you lost your chicks .

Yes, I've been through this. My first flock overheated and they were around 3 weeks old at the time.

I wonder what killed them? Hopefully someone can chime in to help you with that.

Good luck with your new chicks, and welcome to BYC!

 

[Kiki]

Welcome to BYC.
Sorry to for your loss.


Can you post a few pictures of our current set up so we can help you spot any potential problems?

 

[Mylied]

I cried my eyes out the first chicken I lost. I've lost many since. Chickens are vulnerable to a lot of things. If you keep a small flock and keep a close eye on them, the loses will be less. It was probably something in the metal. Those metal feeders and waterers never seemed to hold up well for me. I use the plastic ones.

 

[LikeTurkeys]

Can't sleep-lost my first flock after 10 days after 6 weeks just now getting the courage up to try again. Bought our first flock at Rural King of Americanas, Reds, and Orpingtons. I'm an RN and not sure what happened, had them in the same tote with a heat lamp reading 90 degrees and plenty of food and water, with no pasty butts. The only thing we changed was their waterer. We'd bought a galvanized steel one off Amazon, that was made in China, that I replaced a plastic bowl with that afternoon. Went to bed, they were drinking out of it well, then the next morning found all 6 face down and lifeless. I was crushed, cried on and off for days. Surprised because at work, I see human death regularly which didn't even compare to how I felt about these sweet innocent babies. Now that I have a new flock, I'm worried something's going to happen to them. Anyone else been through this? Not sure h ow to deal and be sure not to go b thru this again. Not sure my heart could handle round 2 but this is my Mother's day gift. Please share of you've been thru this and have any advice for coping...Thanks so much! Samantha

I cried my eyes out the first chicken I lost. I've lost many since. Chickens are vulnerable to a lot of things. If you keep a small flock and keep a close eye on them, the loses will be less. It was probably something in the metal. Those metal feeders and waterers never seemed to hold up well for me. I use the plastic ones.

Sorry a little bit confused now. @Shagbark Wood, you replaced your old plastic one with a new metal one or the other way around?

 

[Mylied]

Sorry a little bit confused now. @Shagbark Wood, you replaced your old plastic one with a new metal one or the other way around?

They said they replaced the plastic bowl with a steel waterer made in china.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Hi Samantha, so sorry for your loss. So you lost your first flock and have just now replaced them, and are keeping them in a plastic tote, is that right? And you originally had a plastic waterer but you replaced it with a galvanized one, and the next day your chicks were all dead, am I understanding that correctly? How old were the chicks when they died* and how many were there? Also, what were you using for bedding in the tote? What were you feeding, including treats if any, and were you providing chick grit? That will help us as we try to help you figure out what happened. Thank you.

Edit: typos
*Edit: sorry, I see they were 10 days old and this happened 6 weeks ago, right?

 

[pond_ripple]

I'm a first time chicken owner like you, and just wanted to ask if you checked that your thermometer is accurate. The first one that we got from Tractor Supply was a brooder thermometer that you hang on the side of the brooder, and we couldn't figure out why it was so hard to keep the temp at 90. It turned out we had a defective one that read 20-30 degrees too low, and we were lucky to figure it out before we lost our chicks! We ended up getting a simple outdoor thermometer in the garden section of Walmart, and hung that in there.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I'm a first time chicken owner like you, and just wanted to ask if you checked that your thermometer is accurate. The first one that we got from Tractor Supply was a brooder thermometer that you hang on the side of the brooder, and we couldn't figure out why it was so hard to keep the temp at 90. It turned out we had a defective one that read 20-30 degrees too low, and we were lucky to figure it out before we lost our chicks! We ended up getting a simple outdoor thermometer in the garden section of Walmart, and hung that in there.

It's also very important to get a reading on the FLOOR of the brooder, where the chicks actually are, in my opinion, for accuracy. We used a round flat navigational thermometer and kept it in a Ziploc (r) bag to keep it relatively clean.

 

[Isaac 0]

Hello, and Welcome to BYC!