Dropping like flies ! :(

[alcap]

 

[NeeleysAVLChicks]

So sorry you've lost some, sounds like you're getting it under control.

I just had to say, get that newspaper out of there!! Not only is it known to occasionally cause spraddle leg, printing companies are now using a variety of new, cheaper dyes and between the water and heat, no telling what those chicks are absorbing. Pine shavings only!!

Good luck!!

 

[noitulover]

agree with the previous poster... newspaper isn't good for chicks. the ink and slippery texture of the newspaper are bad... try paper towels for the first week, and then switch to pine shavings...

 

[BooBear]

Glad to hear the surviving chicks are ok and McMurry is sending you replacements. Sounds like you are getting them all the help you can. I agree with the papertowls to use over shavings instead of newspaper.
Good luck and may you get a much healthier group in the replacements.

 

[drumstick diva]

Yes, use paper towels over the pine shavings until they are eating well and recognize what the food is. Hopefully the replacements will be fat and healthy. Please keep us imformed.

 

[bentmtnhen]

So sorry for all the losses.
Best of luck with the survivors & replacements!

 

[daydreamer92]

OPs situation sounds unhappily familiar. Here's my core dump on chick losses.

I've had rough luck with bantams from McMurray. I lost 6 of 8 in my first batch and 21 of 27 in my 2nd, all within 36-48 hours. Almost all the 'big chicks' I got at the same time have done fine (think I had one DOA and one dead a short time later Wyandotte). The replacement order came in Monday morning with 22 chicks. These are a mix of Golden and Silver Seabrights and Mille Fleurs.

The order with the massive lose rate did as the OP was describing. most seemed ok, then one by one, died. Some were obviously weakening, some just...died. It was depressing. I don't think we were doing anything "wrong" as we've had two batches of 'big chicks' come through fine, including an EE/RIR order that came from the same hatchery, arrived in the same post office, on the same day. So same trip as the bantams with the massive loss rate. Another order of bantams that went to the feed store (same hatchery, same date, same city destination) also had high losses.

I was going to knock myself out to try to make sure the replacement order made it because this was the last shot I was going to give it. I wasn't sure if it was the shipping, the bantams from that hatchery or what.

It was below freezing here Monday morning but the chicks were being kept inside where it was warm in the Post Office. Got a call that they were there before 7am. They'd been shipped the night before. Thought the peeping sounded subdued. Hustled them home in a warm car. Didn't open box until I got home (since I couldn't "do" anything for them until then).

2 were DOA. The others were huddled in clumps in the corners and hunkered down. Four more were almost dead, floppy, eyes shut, lying down, cold. I have two brooders going right now and I used the light from one to shine on a towel that I laid out the most "in crisis" ones for a quick warming. Husband made up a heavy sugar water mix. I used a small syringe as an eye dropper VERY carefully dribbling water on the almost-dead's beaks to get them to drink. When I saw they'd drank 3-4 drops (was trying to be very careful not to have them aspirate the water), I turned my attention to the rest of not-deads.

As I put them in the brooder, I gave them ALL some sugar water via the dropper right off. We also bought a package of vitamin/electroltyes AND antibiotics (tetracyline) from the feed store. Just a tiny pinch in a gallon of water and then into a quart chick waterer. Dipped beaks in the mix and put them in the brooder. Most seemed lethargic, though several perked up as they warmed up.

I spent the entire morning hovering over them like a hawk, getting the almost deads to drink, keeping them under a very warm light (warmer than is normal but I was there to make sure they were moved, given drinks, and not cooking) and making sure that the ones in the brooder were getting active, drinking, pecking, etc.

After the whole morning, the nearly-deads went from almost dead to on their chests to on their hocks to standing (albeit wobbly). I haven't lost any more than the 2 doas and 1 died on arrival. The almost deads are quite alive. Chicks all seem to be eating, drinking, preening, pecking. What did I do differently? I did load their waterer with the vitamin/electrolyte stuff. I gave the weak ones a drink of egg yolk (boiled, mashed up) mixed with water and sugar water. I kept a very watchful eye on any chick that looked "out of it" or was lying "funny" or seemed to be under the heat lamp too long.

It was a pretty intense first day. It seems like if you can get past the first four, things stabilize.

My hunch is that bantams, in particular, are very vulnerable to chilling in transit. They aren't big enough to retain heat, even in groups of 25 -- and when they do mash up together, someone gets smothered on the way or is weak and gets smothered. I assume that's what happened to the dead chicks. The big chicks, like EEs, are big enough to stay warm 'enough' not to weaken. It's probably too early in the year for many of us to get warm (but not too hot!) shipping temps in unheated planes and trucks.

It's very hard to nurse the babies off of death's door, too, so I'm relieved the three I got back from the brink seem to be doing ok. I tried measuring temps with a thermometer, but my best efforts are just using the chicks. Sometimes the thermometer will say "really hot here!" but the chicks are peeping and huddled. I guess they know what they want better than the mercury does. The bantams want it warmer than the 'big chicks' did or seem to.

My brooders are Rubbermaid style tubs sitting in a 70F kitchen setting. I do papertowels over shavings at first, but they tend to start tearing them so they go onto shavings pretty fast. Single 250W red bulb clamped about 18 - 24 inches above, depending on what the chicks tell me.

Good luck.

 

[Fred's Hens]

A 250 watt bulb 18-24 inches above chicks, in a Rubbermaid tub, in a 70 degree kitchen does sound awfully warm. Just saying.
The heat gets radiated down into a tub and it holds the heat. I'm sure a thermostat reading shows a safe temperature.
Sounds like you're on top of it.
Here's to hoping all goes well with your chicks. Nobody likes losing them.

 

[chikenmama]

Hi Everybody.

I am new in this.I star with 4 egg layers last year and I love this, I kind of chicken obsessive now . I order 26 chicks from McMurray ,yesterday my postmaster call me at 6:30am to pick up my order. I was so happy so my 12 years old son, but I found 1 crash chick, then the Blue Cochin was so weak I think I am going to loose all of them ( 11)

. I already lost 6 of them and the rest are weak, sleeping or tired, watery poop. The rest are Light Brahma and they looks beautiful and very active.The mystery chick is so funny, I realy don't know what it is but

I separate them in two brooder , with clear water, chicken-star with yogurt, light bulb. I report the losses to the company and they give me a refund, but is kind of sad to see those beautiful chickens dying. My son is so sad. I made an order before this ti Ideal Poultry of 16 from 6 light brahmas, 6 blue cochins and 4 ble silkies. I loss 1 blue silkie crash in the shipping and the other 3 I put them inside a wool bendie hat and kangaroo them until they are strong enough. I change the company and have more loss.

Is this common ? Is any difference to buy from a hatchery or a breeder ? I am from Puerto Rico and anyway is a long trip for a one day old chick to survive and localy we only can find Naked Neck, common egg layers and bared rock.

Any advice with be appreciated

 

[donrae]

Fishboy, I think you're cooking your chicks! Take one of the lights out. One light at one end of the brooder with the temp directly under it being around 95-100 degrees for new babies. Food and water at the other end of the brooder, where they can get to a cooler/room temp. They need to be able to cool down! Chicks hatched by a hen spend hours out from under her a day, they can not tolerate a constant 90+degrees, they need to cool down. Don't place an ill chick directly under the light. I have a galvanized steed feed trough for a brooder, it's five feet long, two feet wide. I have the light at one end, started about eighteen inches off the ground and is up to two feet, my babies are three weeks old. I've raised many chicks with this set up and strongly disagree with the "loss of fifty percent is normal". I have not lost a chick yet this year, my usual losses are maybe 2 a year. Edited--I just re-read your last post, the chicks should be stretching out when sleeping, like they're dead, neck out, wings stretched. They'll be loosely huddled, usually around the edges of the direct heat.