Hatchery Chicks came 2 days ago... Lost 15 already

[howfunkyisurchicken]

90 should be plenty warm under the lamp. I usually start my chicks off on the cooler side, 85-90F. Is your temp 90 just under the heat lamp, or is the whole brooder that temperature? You might also pick up some Poly-vi-sol (without iron, in the baby section) or some Pedialyte or Gatorade to add some electrolytes to their water. Sugar water will perk them up as well.

 

[MrsBachbach]

Try to get a small syringe and drop sugar water in a pinch, also offer cottage cheese small curd.. I ordered 16 got 18 1 died..however, look at your feed. you have alot passing. A poster on here clued me in that the chick crumbles could be to big; grind it in your coffee grinder or with a spoon or make mush out of it...I pulverized mine .She also stated in a post that the chicks look like they are eating but are not. I think mine passed from the crumbles being to big after i looked at them i realized I had alot of large crumbles compared to smaller sized crumbles in the bag so i just pulverized them.

A rolling pin and a plastic bag works well also if one doesn't have a coffee grinder.

 

[StephensonC]

Try to get a small syringe and drop sugar water in a pinch, also offer cottage cheese small curd.. I ordered 16 got 18 1 died..however, look at your feed. you have alot passing. A poster on here clued me in that the chick crumbles could be to big; grind it in your coffee grinder or with a spoon or make mush out of it...I pulverized mine .She also stated in a post that the chicks look like they are eating but are not. I think mine passed from the crumbles being to big after i looked at them i realized I had alot of large crumbles compared to smaller sized crumbles in the bag so i just pulverized them.

I just realized the same about the crumble size. I noticed that the MannaPro chick starter crumbles are smaller than the Purina chick crumbles. My day olds could not eat the Purina. It was exactly as you described. It looked like they were eating because they were trying to, but the crumble would actually fall, so they weren't able to eat. They were able to eat the MannaPro just fine though. Granted, it is more expensive.

 

[Kadu]

So sorry for your babies! I have ordered chicks to arrive next week as well, and reading yours and many other posts, now I'm nervous! ='( Hope you will have a lot that survive! =)
By any chance, could you tell me what hatchery you ordered from? You can PM me if you don't want to publicly say it.
Also, I'm sure you've already tried this, but electrolytes should help out a lot! Now I'm gonna have to go get some tomorrow! =P
Good Luck with your chicks! =)

 

[jaredthefox]

I ordered 30 chicks. Received 37. Had 2 doa and 3 of them died within 4 hrs of having them home. When we put them in we dipped their beaks in the water and added some electrolytes to the water to help. A lot of them look great. Is it normal to loose some?

 

[Gingersnap722]

I ordered 30 chicks. Received 37. Had 2 doa and 3 of them died within 4 hrs of having them home. When we put them in we dipped their beaks in the water and added some electrolytes to the water to help. A lot of them look great. Is it normal to loose some?

It is normal to lose some. I've ordered chicks six times. First time only lost 1, second time none! 3rd, 4th and 5th only a few. I just received my 6th order of 76 chicks yesterday morning and have lost 12 so far with two more on the way out. I've never had a loss this bad and have used the same hatchery for all deliveries. It's very upsetting, but I know due to weather etc. it can happen. The good thing is that they will refund for the loss. Not that it makes losing these cute little balls of fluff any easier, but it does help. I'll be placing another order soon for March and hopefully the weather will be more tolerable for them. Before this, my worst losses were in the dead of summer. Never ordering at that time of the year again!

 

[TMPope]

Update: in total I lost 16. According to the hatchery they believe they were mishandled during shipping. I explained to them that several were unable to hold their heads up and wanted to be upside down. Out of the 40 we lost 16. The remaining 24 are thriving and eating us out of house and home!!! Thanks everyone who replied.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

16 is a pretty big lose. Like, almost a whole order. Is the hatchery going to replace them?

They probably were handled roughly during shipping. I picked up 25 chicks the day before yesterday and they're still all alive. They even arrived a day earlier than expected.

Sorry you had such a rough time with your chicks

 

[TMPope]

Yes they are. I have an order placed to arrive the end of March.

 

[Liberator]

I received 15 chicks from Meyers Hatchery on Tuesday. I originally paid for standard priority shipping but decided to upgrade to the express (next day) shipping. Good thing I did! The heat pack was cooling and the chicks were extremely thirsty. I added Save-A-Chick electrolyte to the water and they began drinking within minutes. They also went straight to the heat lamp. All 15 are doing just fine. I don't think they would have survived another day or two in transit.