Chicks Dying

[kuchchicks]

I have had chickens for 7 years. I feel very comfortable caring for them. On November 30, I bought 28 chicks from a hatchery. I normally hatch out my own but needed to replace a large number of my hens that are getting to the point of no longer laying. I opted to buy chicks because they were sexed female and I needed layers for this spring.

All of the chicks appeared healthy when I first got them home. The hatchery is reputable to my knowledge. But over the last couple of months I have lost 4 chicks. The most recent I found this morning. I have found no apparent reason that they should be dying. I just find them on the floor of my brooder. I currently have them in a larger brooder in my garage (it is a very large wooden crate-like box that offers plenty of room, I don't feel they are over crowded). My garage is not heated and I have been trying to wean them off of the heat lamp so I can move them outside. We do park one of our trucks in the garage but I keep the door open for quite a while when we are pulling in and out to make sure that the fumes don't remain in the garage. I have been feeding them medicated chick feed. Water is fresh and clean.

I am not sure why they are dying. None of my other birds are sick. I don't normally have this many chicks at one time. I normally hatch out an incubator full, keep the chicks that I am looking for (generally 5-6) and then sell the rest. The only thing different that I am doing this time than all of the other times is that I have far more babies, the new brooder box (this is the first time I have used this larger box), and the time of year (I usually only hatch in spring and summer).

For those of you that do larger batches is it normal to lose this many babies? Am I doing something that I don't realize?

 

[realsis]

what do the droppings look like? some forms of cocci can present itself WITHOUT bloody stool. how have they been behaving? any tired or sluggish? are they eating alright? drinking? I want to say how very very sorry I am about your chicks. Hopefully the rest will be ok.. sounds like you know what your doing and maybe it's just one of those sad things that happen to weaker chicks? Have you lost any since posting? I hope not. please let us know how their doing now.

 

[beb444]

I do have 3 in there but they are choosing to huddle on the ground with the light off.

I know now that I probably caused this situation by leaving the light on. Like I said I've never done chicks this time of year before. I feel incredibly guilty. But setting that aside I now need to find a way to get them out of this situation. So do I give the light back? I would like to move them to the outdoor coop. It is 2x the size of what they have now. There is currently no heat lamp out there. Do do I just put them out there without it? Or do I move them with the lamp and just leave it on til spring at this point? What would be the downside to moving them outside with the lamp besides a possible power outage?

I know it's hard not to feel guilty but guilt can eat you up so don't dwell on it too much What I did with my chicks(I just put them out a couple weeks ago) was I used a bike light/light source during the day and night for a couple of days so that they would have light without using a heat lamp to get them accustomed to the cold. Then after about 3 days I only used it during the day, and at night I left one very dim night light on. Then, when I moved them outside I used a battery operated light source for about 3 weeks, and I just recently turned that off. So now they are fully accustomed to the darkeness/cold. Also try bringing them to their coop outside to get them in the cold for a couple hours, and then bring them in at night.

 

[ffibyar]

I do have 3 in there but they are choosing to huddle on the ground with the light off.

I am new at this but it sounds to me like they are cold!

I just raised 20 this winter and they are out in the cold with the big girls today. I am in Ohio where today Jan 29 the high is or will be 22 as I am posting this. Tomorrow we will be at a high of 45.

The key is, ( in my mind ) is to get them to the point of being covered with feathers, lights on or off, who cares if they are above ground? After that, the girls have their down coat on and can handle most weather ups and downs most areas can throw at them.

I could have missed something but when I seen "I do have 3 in there but they are choosing to huddle on the ground with the light off."

 

[realsis]

Hi there. you can buy the Probios at purelypoultry.com. With shipping my checkout usually makes it around 20 dollars but it lasts a very long time. PLEASE read about the benifits by going online to purely poultry .com and in the search type Probios. Read about the benifits it can give your birds then let me know what YOU think.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I would definitely add another feeder and water station. Fill the feeders and let them have access to food all day.
To be honest, one of your problems could be overcrowding. Can you add some perches outside where they have places to get away from each other a bit or a couple bales of hay to climb on.
I understand you wanting to keep them separated from your other flock, but is there any way to give them any more room?
Run space is only about 1.6sq ft per bird and coop space is about the same. With large fowl IMO they need a bit more breathing room.
I would also check to make sure there is plenty of ventilation in the coop.

Just my opinion

 

[realsis]

I'm so glad to hear your little ones are better! Praise God! I prayed for you ! I know that feeling your talking about. I still get that feeling when I look in on my girls! I think it's normal after such shock of loosing so many . we both have had that experience. my hope is now you can just enjoy your babies and not have to worry any more!! please keep me posted! I'm so glad to her good news!!! YAY!!

 

[lazy gardener]

How big is the brooder box, what is the temp. These chicks are almost 8 weeks old, and should have been off heat several weeks ago. What is the ambient temp in the rest of your garage? I assume that the chicks are fully feathered now? When you find the dead ones, are they in the corner? By the heat source? Away from the heat source? In the middle of the brooder? Is it possible that there is a critter that is scaring them at night, causing them to pig pile, and smother the one at the bottom? IMO, even a mouse or a rat could be responsible for this.

 

[kuchchicks]

I know... I feel really bad about the heat lamp. I have never had chicks this time of year. Always spring and summer and I would have already had the light off of the but since it was winter and very cold here I kept it on thinking that they needed it. I am not sure now if I should just "cold turkey" shut it off. I am trying to keep it off during the day and only put it on at night. The garage of course is colder than my house but not as cold as right outside. Water will freeze in there over night if the heat lamp is not on though. So I would say maybe a few degrees warmer than outside. Today its about 40 here but usually it's in the single digits to 30s. But yes, they are fully feathered.

As for the lighting... There are 2 windows in there but there is not always a lot of light. So I do keep the over head lights on during the day.

The temp? Not exactly sure... they can get away from the heat lamp if they want. There is plenty of room for them to either be under the lamp or away from it. Not sure exactly how big the box is, but it is several feet by several feet. It is rather large and enough room for them to all spread out. All 4 of my kids can climb in it with still room left over. It take at least 2 people to moving it.

The only time they are huddled together is when the light is off. Other than that they are pretty much walking around being chicks.

The chicks that I have found, one was in the corner near the water, the other 3 were spread out but more in the middle. There is no way that a large animal could get into my garage at night to scare them, it's a pretty new house and I have not found any signs of anything like a raccoon... think he probably would have eaten some. As for a mouse or rat... we live in the woods so of course that could be possible but again I have not found any droppings.

So I guess a couple of questions... 1. Should I just shut the heat lamp off cold turkey or should I continue to wean them? At what point do I completely shut it off. 2. Could this just be a fluke or is there something else besides the light that I should change?

 

[lazy gardener]

At this age, those chicks should have about 1.5 to 2 s.f./bird. That's about 30 - 40 s.f. or 5 x 6 to 5 x 8. I'd turn the light off. At 8 weeks, they don't need it. No way to tell why they are dying without an autopsy.