Chick death rate.

[Grace Layne]

Hi everyone, We ordered cornish cross meat chicks about a week ago and in general through their
7-8 weeks before processing we generally lose about 5% of the chickens. This order we lost 18 chicks out of 60 in about 24 hours. 18!!!!!!!!! We have never had that happen before has anyone else had increased chick fatalities this year. Any idea why this happened?

Thanks,
Grace

 

[pwiker]

If you can determine why they died, that would be helpful. However, any time that the rate of loss goes over 5%, it's something that I have done wrong. Did you leave them too long in one place? Not keep the litter clean? Did algae start in your water? Was it the first 24 hours?

I guess I have more questions than answers.

 

[Grace Layne]

I have no idea why they died, they came from a company that we have not ordered from before and it took them about 24-36 hours in shipping. Nothing wrong with their water and their bed was clean. We did the same things that we normally do. Thanks!

 

[Twin Fowls Farm]

Typically if you have loss in the first 24 hours it is from shipping stress. Other major factors could be being too warm or too cold.

 

[4 ever Orpington]

Hi everyone, We ordered cornish cross meat chicks about a week ago and in general through their
7-8 weeks before processing we generally lose about 5% of the chickens. This order we lost 18 chicks out of 60 in about 24 hours. 18!!!!!!!!! We have never had that happen before has anyone else had increased chick fatalities this year. Any idea why this happened?

Thanks,
Grace

 

[pwiker]

Basically, you need to suspect everything. One of those could very well be a long trip in the mail. Causes: food, water, temperature, stress or disease (bacteria, virus etc). It's one of those. From here, I don't know how helpful the forum will be in figuring out which one caused the die-off.