Disaster struck

[jodyewilliams]

hi! i am new to this forum. i appreciate you guys and all the info. i am sorry you lost your birds. i am sitting here crying over the ones i lost today. 48 little babies we were going to raise as free range meat birds and try to get our own flock going so that we could always have a fresh supply of meat. i was devastated. i guess the sun was too hot maybe? i am not sure what went wrong. i have had them for five days out in the coop in a big rubbermaid container with a heat lamp on them. the temp stays right between 89 and 93. they were doing great. i pulled the bin out into the sun today thinking that the it being 93 degrees today and the sun subbing as the heat lamp they would enjoy being out. i came back 2 hours later and they were all dead except for one. what do you think happened? did they get too hot? the temp on the thermometer read 93 degrees still. i don't understand! please help me make sense of this! thank you.
jody

 

[Neil Grassbaugh]

Quote:
The sun is to big a heat lamp to be using when the air temperature is 93 degrees.
The radiant energy killed them. Were the chicks non white? That makes it worse.

 

[chickenfeverforever]

Quote:
When you have a brooder, You place the heat lamp at one end or the other or in the center so that the chicks can get away from the heat when they need to. You essentially had them under a giant heat lamp with no way to escape. Even as chicks, they should have had access to shade. I am so sorry you lost your birds.

 

[FireTigeris]

And I (now I'm in FL where the temps are too often too warm) have hatched two batches of chicks now w/o extra heat... the babies are in a 75*F room and are just fine, they are upset when the light goes off but other then that are fine...

(they were kept at 85*F until fully dry and able to eat/drink (day 2))

*shrug*

My only fatality was still in the incubator @ 99*F, took 72+ hours from pip - hatch and I couldn't/didn't help him/her - I guess that one starved too weak to eat the scrambled eggs and pedilyte water I made up (out of gro gel or mana pro) - it had an enlarged neck area just like the last one from the previous hatch I lost... wonder if this is a pattern (Fiesta * Minnie)...

So sorry you lost your birds.

I've made mistakes too that cost me pretty babies or hens...

 

[al6517]

Quote:
Sound advice, happens to the best of us. dust off dem jeans and get back after it, you'll be fine and you learned a valuable lesson.