Chick dying

[Baby-chicken raising]

We now have a little over 800 chicks we had 1200 and keep randomly loosing chicks. They are outside of brooder rooms but still have access to brooder rooms to go in and out. They have a entire layer barn for their space to run around in. They are 17 weeks old and we have just found 50 dead in different piles of chicks. The Layer barn has its sides boarded up so chicks don’t get to cold but if they are getting to cold why would they die a random cold night. We just decided to shut access to brooder rooms after the 50 died because they peck around in their allot and there is a lot of waste in rooms. We also give them 4 buckets of feed in morning and 3 in evening a bucket weight is 25 pounds. Could they be falling malnourished, sick from pecking around in brooder rooms, just cold, or something else. How do I figure this out? Thanks for reading and helping me.

 

[Baby-chicken raising]

Really need a ton more info here. And photos. I would guess they're crushing each other if they're all piled up, either from panic or from trying to stay warm, but that's just a guess.

If they're 17 weeks old they're hardly babies anymore. How big is the space and how it is laid out? How much ventilation is available? What are the temperatures? Are they allowed out of the barn? What specifically are you feeding them?

We do believe they were crushed from other chicks. We will begin to feed them before sunset so they have food burning in their stomach to keep them warm. We will also put them on perches during night so they will learn where to sleep. What I forgot to mention is that they are currently 3 weeks behind on body weight. This could be a factor of why they are cold. The birds seem healthy though so we are increasing food. Thank you

 

[rosemarythyme]

Really need a ton more info here. And photos. I would guess they're crushing each other if they're all piled up, either from panic or from trying to stay warm, but that's just a guess.

If they're 17 weeks old they're hardly babies anymore. How big is the space and how it is laid out? How much ventilation is available? What are the temperatures? Are they allowed out of the barn? What specifically are you feeding them?

 

[Aapomp831]

You didn't really answer the question on whether they have perches to sleep on. Chickens are quite stupid and this is the age that they start squashing each other n their sleeps if they haven't got roosts to sit on. It seems counterintuitive as they will have plenty of space to each have a sleping space but in practice they will pile ontop of each other and suffocate some below.

I don’t agree that chickens are stupid. They are just creatures of routine and habit - which keep them safe.

 

[Sammi_0411]

Im really sorry dont mean this harshly dont know if u are commercial and even ig u are tht last photo is not good there is no space they all climbing on top of each other i think thats a big part of the problem imo wheres their quality of life being stuck to each other overcrowded and in a barn?
Sam x

 

[LaFleche]

And how do you prevent predators from getting in or sneaking around and causing them to panic? Is the barn dark at night?

Please, provide some pictures of you entire set up and some more information about where you live, country, climate etc.

 

[Mellowmalt]

You didn't really answer the question on whether they have perches to sleep on. Chickens are quite stupid and this is the age that they start squashing each other n their sleeps if they haven't got roosts to sit on. It seems counterintuitive as they will have plenty of space to each have a sleping space but in practice they will pile ontop of each other and suffocate some below.

 

[MissE]

How are they being fed? How many birds per feeder? Same with water. Are they crushing each other to get to the food? They look way over crowded. Do they get any natural light? What kind of ventilation do they have? Can you realistically put 800 birds on perches at night? What USDA guidelines are you following for what appears to commercial raising?

 

[RosemaryDuck]

We do believe they were crushed from other chicks. We will begin to feed them before sunset so they have food burning in their stomach to keep them warm. We will also put them on perches during night so they will learn where to sleep. What I forgot to mention is that they are currently 3 weeks behind on body weight. This could be a factor of why they are cold. The birds seem healthy though so we are increasing food. Thank youView attachment 2529741View attachment 2529748

You're losing birds because they physically have nowhere to even turn around. They are crushing each other. This is insane. Even commerical environments have more room then this. These poor birds are literally being smashed up against the walls in this photo.

 

[rosemarythyme]

It's almost certainly crushing related deaths. Off the top of my head the only thing I can think of is to physically separate them out into much smaller groups, so they can't pile up 100s at a time. Like we're talking pods of maybe 20-25 birds. But I don't know anything about how commercial farms are set up (really that's what this is). My guess is, they just calculate in a certain amount of loss due to crushing (from the few videos I've seen employees go through daily and simply throw away dead birds each day).