Help Chicks Dieing!!

[Pheonix Rising]

Last weekend two chicks in the brooder unexpectedly died. Two days ago I noticed one chick looking lethargic... it died last night. Yesterday one chick was standing so most of it's weight was on one leg but it was still moving around. Today it was holding that leg up to its belly and standing on the other leg. It still looked okay though. When I checked an hour or so later it was all twisted up and twitching. It is barely clinging to life right now. An hour ago when I went to check the chick I found a different chick dead. I don't remember it even looking that sick. I have noticed that there are some chicks that are less active lately. We have lost five chicks unexpectedly in the last week. Something must be wrong. We are also having a high chick mortality rate that die in the shell. This is also all in the last week. What could be wrong? Please help. This is our first year hatching but we have already successfully hatched 40 to 50 chicks in the past 6 weeks.

This chick is the one that is still alive and had the leg problem.

This is the one I found dead.

 

[TurkeyMountainChickens]

I'm very sorry. It's hard to loose the little ones.

How is your temperature in the brooder? Any drafts? What are you feeding them? Are they eating/drinking/etc.?

 

[jerseygirl1]

Oh, wow I am sorry, maybe someone can help?

 

[Pheonix Rising]

I'm not sure about the temp but the chicks look comfortable. We lower and raise the heat lamp depending on how close they huddle under it. They are all eating and drinking as far as we can tell.

Here is a picture of our brooder.

We are feeding them medicated chick starter. We did start adding a second type of chick starter as well last Saturday.

 

[mypicklebird]

What is that in the pie tin looking thing on the lower left? What is the brooder made out of, and what is the branch/stick thing in the upper right? Are you adding anything to the water (meds or supplements?). Any diarrhea? Vents clean on the chicks?

 

[Pheonix Rising]

The pie tin thing in the lower left corner has dirt/sand in it. I had removed it over a week ago and forgot to replace it. We put it back last night. The stick thing is a jungle-jim that the small chicks can get under so they don't get run over. I works pretty well. We have never added anything to the water but we did add a bit of sugar last night. No meds or supplements besides the food. The vents are clean and as for diarrhea I guess we do since some droppings are soupy. The regular heat lamp is in the top right corner. In the bottom right corner I set up a lamp over a container holding that sick chick. That chick died during the night. In the top left corner is hanging a "baby cake" made by Farmers Helper. We added that last night.

So the two factors that have changed over the past week is that the chicks did not have access to dirt and we have been having incubation problems. Chicks have been dieing in the shell. Some are born sticky and need to be helped in hatching. I noticed some of the dead eggs have very large air sacks. We have 4 incubators.

#1 is an old Hover-Bator that doesn't have a model #. I borrowed it from my schools science dept.

It is packed with eggs that take forever to hand turn. New eggs usually go in here first then move to either #2 or #4 when there is room in them.

#2 is a Hover-Bator 2362N with a fan and a egg turner.

#3 is the hatching incubator. It is a Little Giant Still Air with a fan. We have a hard time getting the humidity right. I taped it all up to see if that would help.

#4 is a Genesis 1588

 

[Pheonix Rising]

Oops I posted the same pic for #2 and #3. This is #3

#3 is the hatching incubator. It is a Little Giant Still Air with a fan. We have a hard time getting the humidity right. I taped it all up to see if that would help.

 

[jerseygirl1]

OK, I am new at this, but are the chicks that are dying, are they hatched from the same incubator and hatcher? If so, is it possible that it needs to be re-sterilized? What kind of feed are you giving them? Is the chick starter medicated?