First week as a chick mom hasn't been good....PIC p2

[lceh]

We picked up 6 chicks at TSC last Saturday, in advance of receiving our first order of day-olds from Meyer. Of the 6 we got at TSC, we've lost 2. The first I had to cull, which was very hard. Right after that I got a call from Meyer saying we had to make substitutions on 2/3 of our order due to bad hatches. Then today Fluffina, the black silkie who was everyone's favorite, died. She was smaller and never seemed to thrive like the three white ones have. She slept a lot and finally just slipped away, much to my and my four-year-old's sorrow.

In the meantime I am pacing around waiting for the phone to ring to pick up our Meyer order, which shipped on Monday afternoon. It's now Wednesday afternoon and no word from the P.O. We had a cold snap on Monday and Tuesday, and given the way this week has been I'm fully expecting to end up with a box of mostly dead chicks tomorrow. And of course I will have to take all 4 of my small children with me when I go to get them if it's anytime during the day. I've warned them to expect DOAs, but depending on how bad it is it may be a pretty unhappy experience for all.

I never expected this chicken project to be so stressful!

 

[addicted2chicks]

Don't worry about your chicks coming in quite yet. They may all be fine. I got 104 chicks last week on tuesday. I thought for sure I would lose quite a bit, but as of now I have only lost 2. 1 for unknown reasons and the other, well last thursday I realized she was smaller then the others and after working with her a bit we think she was blind and never seen the food. So all that time she must not of been eating or drinking. I had to give her a plate of food several times a day and watch her to make sure she pecked at it. She was a fighter and we lost her last night, she lived way longer then we expected. She didn't look any bigger then a day old hatch. She went a long time without eating and after getting her to eat she still wasn't getting enough as there was no way I could feed her 24/7. Even so, she made it way longer then one would think she could of made it.
It is good to be prepared just in case, you never know when you pick them up. But also don't count your chickens before you open the box

I will keep my fingers

crossed for you.

 

[chicklips]

Sorry about your bad week. If any of your new chicks are in fact DOA usually you have a 3 day window in which the hachery will replace them. Keep your head up.

 

[danielbrown]

My order from Meyer shipped Monday and showed up at 12:00 today.
yours should be there by now.

 

[desertgirl]

Hang in there-Fluffina will be with you in spirit!

 

[briana1975]

Oh I wish you the best of luck. I brought both of my boys to the post office to get the chicks. I warned them about the possibility of a chick that might be dead and I was worried on how they would react. But all was well and they were all alive. Hope you get them soon.

 

[ChickenMomof7]

Wow! Sorry to hear about the challenges. I lost 1 this week, but have a strange phenomenon going on. Never experienced it before. I have two chicks that don't want to use one of their legs. They hop a bit to food and water and then squat down. Anyone else have this happen? Any thoughts on whether or not I will lose them? It started with just one, and now the second one today.

 

[Jenski]

So sorry about the stress of your chick adventure! The hardest thing about having animals is losing them, and losing some at the very beginning is discouraging indeed. Don't lose heart, help your children understand the death process, hang in there, and enjoy your peeps.

You will find as you go along that shipping live birds does add a dimension of stress to the process. Who knows, maybe in a year you will find yourself with a brand new incubator, hatching your very own locally-grown eggs!

Take care, and good luck with your new peeps. . .

 

[lceh]

Well, they made it! The P.O. called at 7:30 this evening, and I booked it out there with heat packs warming and the car heater blasting (and no kids, just in case). No DOAs, although 2 look like they may not make it, and 2 others I'm wondering about spraddle leg (another post). But at least the great majority seem to be thriving, so things are looking up. Meyer had put a heat pack in the box even though I had 25 in there (17 bantams, 8 standards).

Thanks for the words of encouragement!

 

[chickenfanatic]

hope things get better for ya good luck