- Dec 4, 2012
- 14
- 0
- 22
i an new to raising silkies. i have had a tremendous amount of loss, and i am not sure why. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
i have 6 hens and 3 roos. they have their own separate loving quarters. An 8x10 building lined with wood shavings, that has a small door to an enclosed gassy run, they have about 30x60 feet to play in. they get rural king layer mash, unlimited all the time, and also have access to fresh water with vitamins in it. i refresh their water every day. they get hard boiled egg whites, crushed egg shells, scratch grains, and lots of table scraps as treats.
when i put eggs in to the incubator, they are not more than 10 days old, and i make sure i turn them twice a day prior to putting them in. My incubator is a brinsea octagon 20 that has the auto turn cradle. the incubator is in a quiet non breezy area in my dining room.
once they hatch i put them into a cage with a white heat lamp, in my spare bathroom, they have fresh water with vitamins and medicated chick crumbles from rural king. i give them the yolk to a hard boiled egg about 3xs a day. i given them just enough that they eat it in a few minutes. they love it. (usually one egg yolk per day) they have newspaper for bedding, which i change out daily.
the issue that i am having is that they appear to be happy and healthy babies till abut day 5, they they start dropping like flys. it starts with a lethargic chick, who gets to the point where it cannot stand anymore, it will eat and drink if i help it, but eventually will just lay down, go through a hard/fast breathing stage and then die.
batch 1: 18 eggs in, 15 hatched. were happy and healthy till day 5, then they started just dying, i currently have 4 remaining from that batch they are 3 weeks old.
batch 2: 15 in 12 hatched. on day 7 i lost 4 with in 36 hours and lost another one today. I'm currently down to 7 living, they are 11 days old.
batch 3: hatching now. 30 in and 23 hatched (one still peeping) i really want to avoid losing 1/2 my clutch.
batch 4: still in incubator, 10 eggs in, all 10 are growing.
please help!
i have 6 hens and 3 roos. they have their own separate loving quarters. An 8x10 building lined with wood shavings, that has a small door to an enclosed gassy run, they have about 30x60 feet to play in. they get rural king layer mash, unlimited all the time, and also have access to fresh water with vitamins in it. i refresh their water every day. they get hard boiled egg whites, crushed egg shells, scratch grains, and lots of table scraps as treats.
when i put eggs in to the incubator, they are not more than 10 days old, and i make sure i turn them twice a day prior to putting them in. My incubator is a brinsea octagon 20 that has the auto turn cradle. the incubator is in a quiet non breezy area in my dining room.
once they hatch i put them into a cage with a white heat lamp, in my spare bathroom, they have fresh water with vitamins and medicated chick crumbles from rural king. i give them the yolk to a hard boiled egg about 3xs a day. i given them just enough that they eat it in a few minutes. they love it. (usually one egg yolk per day) they have newspaper for bedding, which i change out daily.
the issue that i am having is that they appear to be happy and healthy babies till abut day 5, they they start dropping like flys. it starts with a lethargic chick, who gets to the point where it cannot stand anymore, it will eat and drink if i help it, but eventually will just lay down, go through a hard/fast breathing stage and then die.
batch 1: 18 eggs in, 15 hatched. were happy and healthy till day 5, then they started just dying, i currently have 4 remaining from that batch they are 3 weeks old.
batch 2: 15 in 12 hatched. on day 7 i lost 4 with in 36 hours and lost another one today. I'm currently down to 7 living, they are 11 days old.
batch 3: hatching now. 30 in and 23 hatched (one still peeping) i really want to avoid losing 1/2 my clutch.
batch 4: still in incubator, 10 eggs in, all 10 are growing.
please help!