chicks...

[shadust1]

last thursday i went to TSC and purchased 6 chicks....have been fine....but when i went out saturday to check on them and clean up a little when i found one of my babies dead on the little roost we put in there the night before....i was soo upset....the one that died did sleep alot but did it die because something was wrong with it from purchase or did it get up on the roost and fall off and die...i will never know...the roost was very little so im thinking it was already sick....i cried my eyes out...i was sooo upset...poor little thing!!! now im paranoid that the rest will die....do they get sick and the sickness spread..i dont want the rest of them getting sick and dying...i read on this forum about making sure that there butts were clean because they have trouble pooping so i took a warm rag and wiped all of there bottoms..lol...some of them did have poop on there butts....thanks for listening to my venting!!! new to this and want to learn everything there is to raising good egg laying hens!!!

btw: the names of my babies will be

red (pullet)
scruffy (bantam)
fluffy (bantam)
thelma (?)
louise (?)

 

[texasgal]

I'm sorry your first post is sad.

Sometimes chicks are weak and die. It sounds like this chick was weak and "sleeping alot" from the start. I will all but guarantee that it did NOT fall off the roost and die ..

If the others are eating, drinking and content and acting normal, don't worry too much.

Just watch them for temperature changes .. IOW, if they are huddled together all the time, they need to be warmer. If they are panting or trying to get away from the heat source, they are too hot.

I hope the other do just fine!

 

[shadust1]

thanks texasgal.....the rest seems to be doing good...i took the box that the lights came in and put it in with them and put hay in it...they were really funny...they would go near it...look...back up...go look again...toooo funny watching them....then the one finally went in...then the rest followed....the one that went in first(red) i think is gonna be my "mother hen" because she is the first one to go over to the food bowl and get on top of it and eat from sitting on top of it...lol....they seem to like getting in and laying in it....and then yesterday they were scratching the hay in the pin...like digging up something....then the one is getting on top of the box and trying to fly out of the pin...lol...hasnt made it...i have them in my greenhouse so if she does escape she should be ok...they r very interesting animals....