Cause of chick death? - Heartbroken

[aart]

Looks like our late hatch chick, "Lucky," might make it after all. Her/his leg is even starting to straighten out. I feel bad that it's all alone though - could we try to slip it under one of our two broody hens tonight or tomorrow night? Do hens reject chicks that are a bit gimpy?

Not likely. Chicks need to be less than day or two old...and broody setting for a week or two.
Do your broodies have eggs under them?
You could try it.....but.....

 

[Englishable]

Not likely. Chicks need to be less than day or two old...and broody setting for a week or two.
Do your broodies have eggs under them?
You could try it.....but.....

We have two hens who have been sitting in our nest boxes all day, every day for a few weeks. We built the roll-away nest boxes Opa posted, so they don't have any eggs under them, they just roll away. I was thinking of moving one hen tonight after dark into a dog kennel with lots of hay, putting a couple eggs under her and leaving her like that all day tomorrow. Then tomorrow night after dark, stick Lucky under her - surprise! one of your eggs hatched

 

[aart]

You can try, nothing to lose really.
Two things, the hen accepting the chick and the chick accepting the hen.
Older chicks may not know to stay under a hen.
Let us know how it works out.

 

[Jammy Dodger]

So sorry about the chicks . I lost 12 this Spring and was really tore up about it . Had 4 out of the 16 brought back to life (will probably never mail order chicks again because the post office doesn"t know how to care for them in transet ) . We purchased 4 more locally from TS and then put them in a brooder (42"X36"X22"T) with a removable wired top. We then set up a 150WATT ceramic reptile heat lamp. Suspended it in a corner with the heat 18" above the living area for the first week (92 degrees) and raised it each week . They did great and we did not notice a change in electricity cost Also the chicks developed a day/night light cycle. This worked good for us . Again terribly sorry about the chicks death ; it is a bad hurt feeling . Do not want to overstep here but we got a little consilation from Luke 12/6 .

 

[lazy gardener]

Skin burns at less than 110F. I certainly would be leery of using something so close to baby chicks that gets 160F. You are very wise to consider the heating pad system next time.

Agreed. There have been previous reports of chicks being burned by the Sweeter.

Can I ask a few questions about this setup?

What size heating pad and MHP "ribs" would we need for approximately 30 chicks? I'm hopeful batch #2 has a better hatch rate than this one.

Is this the kind of heat pad we could use? https://www.sunbeam.com/pain-relief...xpressheat-heating-pad/002013-511-MASTER.html

I've used 2 of those pads to brood up to 50 chicks at a time. IMO, you can only brood 20 chicks with a single pad. When I brooded 50 chicks, I set the pads up beside each other, not end to end. So, there were 2 caves that were parallel to each other with a 4" gap between them. This allowed chicks to be under both pads, yet still be able to exit through the "alley way" between the pads.

In a previous year, one poster, I think it was @duluthralphie had both pads together as a single cave, and had some chicks that may have died because they had gotten trapped in the middle (by a log jam of their flock mates blocking their exit). It may have been an other member. It's important that the chicks are able to get out from under the pad.

The wire frame should be sturdy. I've used 2 x 4 galvanized fencing. Other folks use cake cooling racks, cookie sheets, closet maid shelving. Even tomato cages, and wire dish strainers have been put to good use. What ever you use for a frame, it should be adjustable so there are lower and higher areas, it should be able to be adjusted in height as the chick grows. Remember that this system provides CONTACT heat. Those babies double their size EVERY week. And their heat needs decrease every week. But, just like a Mama Broody hen, the chicks will self adjust (for the most part) by spending more or less time under the pad.

You also need to be able to enclose wire frame and pad inside a fabric sheath to help prevent entrapment issues. I've even wrapped pad and frame with an old piece of sheet, and used hot melt glue gun to finish "gift wrapping" the unit. Mini bungee cords can be used to keep the Pillow case or fabric wrapping from falling away (like a hammock) from the underside of the MHP.

Looks like our late hatch chick, "Lucky," might make it after all. Her/his leg is even starting to straighten out. I feel bad that it's all alone though - could we try to slip it under one of our two broody hens tonight or tomorrow night? Do hens reject chicks that are a bit gimpy?

As others have stated, fostering a chick to a broody is an iffy situation. It may or may not work. A gimpy chick, even if hatched by a broody hen may end up being killed by her.

 

[Englishable]

Yesterday after work, my husband and I set up a dog kennel in the shed part of the chicken coop, gave it a thick bedding of hay, and put a few eggs in it in preparation for moving a hen. We went out last night after dark and ... no hens in the nest boxes! It's like those ladies knew what we were up to! So instead, Lucky is set up in our guest bathroom tub, on paper towel, with a regular heat lamp until we ... figure something else out I guess.

Those stinkin' chickens, of course they'd stop being broody the second we might actually need one of them

 

[aart]

Those stinkin' chickens, of course they'd stop being broody the second we might actually need one of them

Murphy's Law. SMH.
I've broken broodies at least a half dozen times,
except that one time in the middle of winter(will never do that again),
finally one went this spring when I was able and willing to accommodate her.

 

[Englishable]

Lucky died this morning.

 

[azygous]

What? How? Are you going to tell us what happened? Accident? Was she sick?

I'm sorry. Losing a good broody hen is no small tragedy.

 

[Englishable]

What? How? Are you going to tell us what happened? Accident? Was she sick?

I'm sorry. Losing a good broody hen is no small tragedy.

Oh no, sorry - the gimpy chick died. Not a broody hen! I'd be even more upset!

Lucky was the chick I helped hatch and tried to baby since all the others died. She/he wasn't very healthy and normally we would have culled her but I ... was desperate to have just one chick live. So we put her in our guest bathroom tub with a standard heat lamp. We showed her where her food and water was, but I never saw her eat or drink unless I was pushing her beak into it, and she barely pooped. I gave her a bath Tuesday to get the last of the membrane off of her and just in case her vent was plugged (it didn't look like it!). Blow dried her on low until she was fluffy, and she started looking like a regular chick! But last night my husband checked on her and said she seemed lethargic and this morning when we got up she was dead. She wasn't very healthy to begin with, but I just wish there was more we could have done for her. I have no idea why she wouldn't have eaten or drank anything, but it didn't seem like she ever did.