Dying Chicks

[EEchickens]

Everytime i purchase hens they die in the summer

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Quote: http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/birdrice.asp

This gem of knowledge was first discovered by the lovelorn advise columnist and ornithologists Ann Landers back in 1996. I suspect that since her column appeared on the comics page of my home town daily newspaper is now the reason that people say, "Don't believe everything that you read in the Funny Papers."

Rice alone will not kill a bird, especially not a chicken. The only possible exception may be those birds not designed to eat dry seeds like owls, hawks, eagles or other birds of prey but I suspect they eat a certian amount of seeds found in the prey that they eat.

Chickens do have a specialized organ on the right side of their breast called a crop or craw. The crop is the weigh station for everything that a chicken eats and believe me chickens eat everything. The craw is designed to hold food especially grains and other grass seeds while moisturizing or attaching these seeds with digestive juices. Next the previously dry food is passed on to the gizzard. The gizzard (a very tough and muscular organ) is a chickens teeth and its stomach all rolled into one. The gizzard uses muscular action along with the help of small pebbles and rocks to grind the sofened food before handing it off to a chickens' small intestine.

Chickens don't have a stomach in the same sense of the word that we humans do. You might say that a chicken first swallows its food, then it digests it, and then it chews it up.

 

[jdywntr]

Details?

What do you feed, water, shelter etc.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Hot and direct Sun from which it can not escape will kill a healthy chicken in as little as 5 minutes. Chickens are descendants of the red jungle fowl. That name suggests that chickens evolved in areas with lots of shade and high humidity.

I have no way from reading your post to tell you if this is your trouble or not. I am only connecting the words "summer" and "die' which are the only clues I have.

At a walk or free range I used, my summer time chickens would walk a 1/4 of a mile to get to a flowing spring (their only water source) even though it was only 200 feet from the old barn and beech tree they roosted in. They walked from shady spot to shady spot, without ever venturing into the bright Sunlight.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Agreed, I'd guess they're too hot. My chickens literally live in the shade in the summer. And if they're looking wilted and are panting, I freeze gallon jugs and place them in their water pans. They also get frozen fruits and have a kiddie pool they can stand in to cool off...
Nikki

 

[EEchickens]

Ok I give them rice and water and my hen supports them and I let them walk around the yard.

 

[jak2002003]

That is why they are not surviving!
That diet is totally wrong for the chicks............

They need to have chick starter crumbs - which are high in protein and energy for growth.

The rice and water has little nutrients for the birds and they will be malnourished and die.

You also need to give you adult chicken layers pellets if she is laying eggs for you, or she will not last too long either.

As well as proper chicken feed you should offer leafy vegetables and maybe also add vitamins in the water a few times a week.

ASLO is the chicken brooding the chicks and keeping them warm? If not the chicks will die of cold, even in the summer, as they need the heat from the broody hen to regulate their body temperature.

 

[RWise]

Dry rice will expand and kill most birds! That's why you cant toss it at the bride anymore,,,,

 

[jak2002003]

Dry rice will expand and kill most birds! That's why you cant toss it at the bride anymore,,,,

this is a myth!

You can not toss at anymore as it attracts vermin like rats, mice and pigeons.

My chickens and doves have dry rice as treats, and also some mixed in with their food. They love it.

Also around my house are many rice fields and at harvest times there are hundreds of sparrows and finches eating the DRY rice that have been spilled.

If eating dry rice was going to kill birds, then most of Asia would have no seed eating birds left lol

 

[Ridgerunner]

Ok I give them rice and water and my hen supports them and I let them walk around the yard.

I'm sorry but you are not giving anywhere nearly enough information to be able to make any kind of guess. How old are they, what are the symptoms, how do you manage them? Are there any marks on them? Do they die immediately or after a certain time? All at once or one at a time? Do they act strange before they die? What is your weather like?

What do you mean, your hen supports them? Are you talking about a broody hen that hatches them out?

On the rice thing, if the chicks or chickens (whatever they are) are in the yard, they will pick up enough stuff to use as grit so the rice won't hurt them. The danger with throwing rice at weddings is that it makes hard surfaces like floors or sidewalks slippery which can lead to falls. It's not becaues it poses any threat to birds.