Chick death troubleshooting

[Mtn Laurel]

Are you using play sand or construction sand? I ask as I've read that construction sand should be used as play sand is too fine and too dusty. I made the mistake of using play sand in a brooder and the dust from it made me personally ill and I had to remove it.

If you're using play sand, you might want to switch to something else to see if that helps.

 

[pingu1]

I am using play sand but it is not store brought so not as dusty thanks for the warning though

 

[TMBear]

It's a construction sand. It is a bit dusty when shoveled around but no dust when used as a bedding. The chicks started to dig it (scratch?), no visible dust. The thing I like about it is that it has a good variation of the grains so hopefully can be a source of grit.
I tried to measure the air temperature, not an easy task with an advanced infrared thermometer, and for my shame I couldn't find my old-school one. I will try to get hold of a simpler technology today and redo my measurements. So far inside "mama heat pad" at the very back is 95F and about 80F at the front. Our room temperature was a bit higher than normal (a lot of cooking in the adjusting kitchen), so I expect the normal/night temperature inside the mama is a few degrees less. The sand below the lamp is almost 100F, but it's surface - the air temperature should be much lower, water is 70ish (I think it's close to the real air temperature), the chicks are ~100F. At this point I run out of objects to measure The chicks now prefer to sit under the lamp, ignoring the mama.
Three remaining girls made it through another day, two of them are officially 1 wk old (the youngest one was born on Saturday). They look fine, active and curious, but the dead ones looked the same.

 

[pingu1]

im glad your others are ok builder sand should be fine