Day old chick killed with torn open throat - ideas on what did it?

[LBKS]

I'm not sure what could have gotten to the chick in the brooder, here's the setup in case it helps figure out what killed it. I'm just stumped beyond thinking that the other chicks must have pecked and made it bleed, then reacted to the redness. I didn't find a spot of blood on any of the other chicks, and to be honest really don't want to believe they murdered their own little brother/sister. Plus if it's something else I'd like to stop it before it can strike again. So hence the trying to figure out if there's an other potential predator I need to consider.

The chick that was killed was part of a group of 10 2-3 day old chicks I had hatched. Since their partitioned off section of the big 4'x8' brooder box in the garage isn't ready yet, they live together in a large plastic tote for the past day as an intermediate brooder. (The rest of the big brooder box is holding older chicks right now, hence dividing it.) This brooder tote did not have a lid since it was in the garage that was locked down as a chicken brooder room.

At 4-4:30am I went down and put the last 3 of the 10 into the box since they were dried off and stable on their feet. I then checked on them two hours late to find the dead chick. It was on it's back with it's throat torn open and appeared, from the blood stains on the paper towels over the bedding, to have moved around quite a bit before finally falling to it's injuries.

Other than one large blood stain over by one wall, there wasn't any indication of what happened. The large stain appears to be where most of the bleed-out happened. The chicks have more room than when they were in the dry-off incubator together and had been raised with each other to date. The best I can come up with is that the chick may have fallen over and been unable to get up and then been pecked on the neck hard enough to draw blood. But I find it hard to believe that 2-3 day old chicks could peck each other hard enough to do that. I just don't know.

Thoughts/ideas on the culprit?

 

[luvmychixandducks]

If there is really a predator other than the rest of the chicks, we have to assume this predator got all the way to and inside the temporary brooder, then injured a single chick badly enough for it to bleed out but did no other damage to either the dead chick or the rest of the live ones.
Then it left leaviong no other evidence of its presence.
It's much more believable that a chick pecked another and hit a vital area ; end of story.
Chicks can be seriously aggressive for not always obvious reasons.
If you puty a single black chick in a group of yellow chicks, the diffrent one will be singled out and attacked.
Likewise a single yellow chick in a group of dark chicks will be singled out for "investigation" .
And we all know that an injured chick will be pecked to death if not isolated and given an opportunity to heal its wounds. Those little fuzzy darlings have a real predatory nature.

 

[LBKS]

That's about what I was afraid of. At least if it was something else I'd be able to do some prevention to protect the chicks from it in the future. Thank you for weighing in on this, I appreciate it.

 

[LaLa Chickie]

That's about what I was afraid of. At least if it was something else I'd be able to do some prevention to protect the chicks from it in the future. Thank you for weighing in on this, I appreciate it.

Sorry to read of your loss. Those little guys are quite independent and start fending for themselves even as new babes, huh?

 

[luvmychixandducks]

I haven't had to deal with this myself but have found a couple of suggestions I can pass on...
If you are using a white light bulb, change it to a red heat bulb in the brooder. The lack of white light calms the chicks down; they cannot see the colors of blood to pick at with a red light source.
If picking continues after the light switch, consider beak clipping.
Remember to clip only the TOP beak , not the bottom one.
Isolate any injured chicks to give them a chance to recover - and use a blue liquid medication to mask the blood and hide the injury from the rest of the birds.

 

[luvmychixandducks]

Strombergs recommends adding fresh grass clippings to the brooder periodically to give the chicks something to pick at instead of each other.

Good luck with your picking issue.


Repost if the problem has been solved - good news is good to share .

 

[LBKS]

I'll try the grass clippings -- haven't done that yet since they are in the temporary brooder and don't have grit. Already using a red bulb so the white light wasn't an issue. I'm hoping the extra room in the long-term brooder will help with any future risk since they'll have more room to spread out and escape picking. Once the long term brooder is split out for them, the current one can be the safe spot for any picked on chicks.

Thanks for the ideas everyone!

 

[luvmychixandducks]

I hatched four chicks on Sunday and moved them to the brooder to give them a chance to dry out- the incubator was higher in humidity and they were still wet.
Two more hatched over night so I moved them in this morning with the dry fuzzy chicks, and the wet ones , still tired from the effort of hatching - were being pecked by the bunch from the day before.
I got a cracker box and cut away one large side to give the two damp chicks some privacy - I put the box right under the light to maximize temp.
The early chicks jumped into the box to peck the wet ones.
I got a plastic cookie tub from the bakery cookies and turned it upside down to make a transparent cover for the box, and the two wet chicks are getting a chance to dry and rest and look like the first four.
I gave the pulled grass option a try, and the gang of four went right to it, picking at the grass instead of their new hatchmates.
Thank you Strombergs for the tip.
There are still about ten eggs in the incubator with no indication of live chicks - no pipping, no holes yet- so I'm going to give these ten another day and then candle and maybe do an egg-topsy to see what happened.
This is my first semi-successful hatch, after two total disasters.
My first eggs weren't stored and turned properly prior to my getting them, and the second set were incubated with a faulty thermometer and got too hot.
This time I tossed the battery operated thermometer and went with the old fashioned glass tube , and now have six live chicks out of eight that hatched.. Hopefully half are hens as I'll need to rehome any roos - town ordinance and neighbors rule.

 

[LaLa Chickie]

I hatched four chicks on Sunday and moved them to the brooder to give them a chance to dry out- the incubator was higher in humidity and they were still wet.
Two more hatched over night so I moved them in this morning with the dry fuzzy chicks, and the wet ones , still tired from the effort of hatching - were being pecked by the bunch from the day before.
I got a cracker box and cut away one large side to give the two damp chicks some privacy - I put the box right under the light to maximize temp.
The early chicks jumped into the box to peck the wet ones.
I got a plastic cookie tub from the bakery cookies and turned it upside down to make a transparent cover for the box, and the two wet chicks are getting a chance to dry and rest and look like the first four.
I gave the pulled grass option a try, and the gang of four went right to it, picking at the grass instead of their new hatchmates.
Thank you Strombergs for the tip.
There are still about ten eggs in the incubator with no indication of live chicks - no pipping, no holes yet- so I'm going to give these ten another day and then candle and maybe do an egg-topsy to see what happened.
This is my first semi-successful hatch, after two total disasters.
My first eggs weren't stored and turned properly prior to my getting them, and the second set were incubated with a faulty thermometer and got too hot.
This time I tossed the battery operated thermometer and went with the old fashioned glass tube , and now have six live chicks out of eight that hatched.. Hopefully half are hens as I'll need to rehome any roos - town ordinance and neighbors rule.

Congratulations on a successful hatching. I've never done any..

 

[luvmychixandducks]

LaLa Chickie- Thanks for the kind words.... The guy that sold me the dozen eggs sent me an email asking how I did with his eggs- and when I told him about the six chicks he suggested doing it again, only he supplies the eggs and we'll split the hatch.
I'm going to do that, and I also offered him back his half dozen babies in exchange for an adult hen or pullet.
I've got room for another lady and really don't need to be raising six that the odds say will be 50% roos , which town ordinance disallows.
He's only got the one rooster, and his fertility rate was low as his hen to rooster ratio was too low - he needs more roos for a flock of about 25.