Three days ago I moved three mille fleur d'uccle chicks (bantum) and three welsummer/buff orp crosses (LF) outside to the chick playpen from the indoor brooder. I can't remember exactly how old these babies are, but they are feathered out except for their heads (which are starting to feather).
The temperatures here are in the high 80's during the day and 70s at night. The chicks had been in the house (75 deg) with no heat lamp for a week or better. The playpen is partially shaded so they haven't been overheating. They are living in a large plastic dog crate with about 2" of shavings in the bottom (the same kind of shavings they were living on inside).
They were all fine the first afternoon, night and the next day. Running around, eating and pooping just fine.
I came out yesterday morning to find one MF dead in the run and one MF really lethargic. I brought the lethargic baby back inside and put her under the heat lamp. I also dunked her beak in water to make sure she was drinking. She was fine for about half an hour and then was just dead. The other four acted perfectly fine all day yesterday and yesterday evening.
This morning I went out to find one of the LF babies dead in the back of the crate. The last MF baby is acting lethargic (although she zips around when I try to catch her and I saw her eating and drinking). The other two LF babies are acting fine.
????? I haven't the faintest idea what's going on out there. I would say temperature, but the weather has actually been really nice and it's not that different from inside. All of the other outside chickens are acting just fine, including the tiny baby that hatched out outside a week or two after these guys. The only difference is that the tiny baby was hen hatched and has always been outside and the others were bator hatched and have been living inside.
They are eating the same food and drinking from the same waterer. The playpen area is used by the other chickens when there are no babies outside. It is separated from the rest of the run by a chicken wire barrier, so if it was something biological, the other chickens and the tiny baby would all be exposed as well. They seem fine.
I'm stymied here. I can't come up with any reason for them to be dying. They don't act sick. They just are dead in the mornings. Any thoughts? If they had not already feathered out I'd think temperature shifts, but I thought once they had feathers they would be fine. They had reached the stinky messy phase in the brooder and needed to move out. What do I do?
The temperatures here are in the high 80's during the day and 70s at night. The chicks had been in the house (75 deg) with no heat lamp for a week or better. The playpen is partially shaded so they haven't been overheating. They are living in a large plastic dog crate with about 2" of shavings in the bottom (the same kind of shavings they were living on inside).
They were all fine the first afternoon, night and the next day. Running around, eating and pooping just fine.
I came out yesterday morning to find one MF dead in the run and one MF really lethargic. I brought the lethargic baby back inside and put her under the heat lamp. I also dunked her beak in water to make sure she was drinking. She was fine for about half an hour and then was just dead. The other four acted perfectly fine all day yesterday and yesterday evening.
This morning I went out to find one of the LF babies dead in the back of the crate. The last MF baby is acting lethargic (although she zips around when I try to catch her and I saw her eating and drinking). The other two LF babies are acting fine.
????? I haven't the faintest idea what's going on out there. I would say temperature, but the weather has actually been really nice and it's not that different from inside. All of the other outside chickens are acting just fine, including the tiny baby that hatched out outside a week or two after these guys. The only difference is that the tiny baby was hen hatched and has always been outside and the others were bator hatched and have been living inside.
They are eating the same food and drinking from the same waterer. The playpen area is used by the other chickens when there are no babies outside. It is separated from the rest of the run by a chicken wire barrier, so if it was something biological, the other chickens and the tiny baby would all be exposed as well. They seem fine.
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