First time with meaties, huge loss

[bigern26]

Well thats a little discouraging.

This is my first time with broilers and I ordered 18 + 1 free one and 9 layers. The shipped on wednesday 6/10 and I received them on saturday morning 6/13 before the Post office even opened.
I had one Barred Rock and one Broiler DOA. I gave each chick a drink of water before setting in the brooder and had good heat in each brooding box. Between all day saturday and all day sunday I lost a total of 7 more broilers. All seemed to be eating and drinking fine, I checked for pasty butt and gave electrolytes in a separate fount. Since then I had to cull a runt that refused to move, eat, or drink, and yesterday I had to cull one that had a broken leg. Its legs were tiny compared to the rest of the broilers.

So now I am down to 10 broilers out of 19 that are almost 2 weeks old. Can anyone tell me if I was doing something wrong? My layers are all doing great. No issues with any of them.

 

[HeritageGoose13]

Where did you purchase them? What breeds?

 

[bigern26]

I got them from Meyer Hatchery and they are their white broilers.

 

[HeritageGoose13]

Hm. White broilers are probably Cornish X, which are known for being unhealthy Still it seems odd for them to die so quickly. Has it been hot were you are? Cornish X are susceptible to heart problems and can't take heat.

 

[bigern26]

They are in my insulated garage in their brooding boxes. I maintained heat with the heat lamp around 85 to 90 degrees.

 

[HeritageGoose13]

That sounds like the correct temperature. Maybe you just got a bad batch of chickens? I don't know.

 

[MichaelZ13]

This is why I get my chicks cash and carry from our feed store. The ones that were to die in transit have already died. You can also get as few as you want. I have opted for a dozen the last few times.The only drawback is you can not get large numbers (over 25) reliably. My brooder consists of a kiddie pool with box on legs and heat lamp in my (unheated) garage. If it is chilly, I will place a large tarp over the top with one end open in the first week. It got down in the high 20's when I got my chicks but no losses.

 

[MichaelZ13]

I see you are from NW WI. Dan's Feed Bin in Superior might be close enough? That is where I get my chicks and feed.

 

[bigern26]

I have 3 places close by that I can get them through. But they could not tell me what breeds any of the chicks were. I wanted certain breeds of layers so I went with Meyer. They are great to deal with and I can get replacements for the ones I lost but I just got a little discouraged after losing so many.

I am about an hour south of Superior.

 

[wvhomesteader]

I have not had any trouble with my CX from Meyer. I lost one the day after but chalked it up to shipping stress.

It's been really warm outside so I've only been putting the heat on them at night. I found that they were getting too hot with it on during the day.