I am new to this forum. I am also new to chickens, and I am so happy I discovered how great they are!
I was researching chickens, and decided to take the plunge a few weeks ago and ordered chicks from mypetchicken. This weekend however, I was at Tractor Supply and couldn't help myself. I bought 6 assorted bantams.
Now I'm feeling a little down thought. I'm really having fun with my chicks and I am glad I got them, but they keep dying!
The first death I knew was going to happen when I got the chick. She looked near death in the bin, but she was the one my husband said he wanted, even thought I pointed out she looked near death. I suppose he thought he could bring her back to life. Unfortunately, this did not happen. I found her dead the morning after we got her.
I was also horrified to discover one of my very sweet, furry legged bantams seemed to be lethargic. She had been running around, eating and drinking yesterday so I don't know what caused this. I dipped her beak in the water, and she seemed to drink a little. I tried to feed her yogurt, as I saw on the forum it would help, but other than that I didn't know what I could do for her. I found her dead later that day. As a side note, if anyone knows what breed of bantam has furry legs and chipmunk markings, I would be very interested in knowing! She was so sweet and friendly I would love to have one like her.
I immediately made plans to get a replacement bantam as I have never seen bantams last very long at TSC. I got two replacements, both of which were chosen specifically because they seemed energetic and full of life. 12 hours later, one of them was dead. It acted the same way as the others, lethargic, and then it was gone.
Last night, I had yet another chick acting lethargic. This one had slightly more movement, but was not interested in "the mealworm game" that we were playing with the other. It kind of followed, but not keeping up. I expected it would be dead when I woke up this morning.
Instead, I had a different surprise. Last night, my husband accidently turned off the heat lamp. It was a reflex thing, the light in plugged into the outlet controlled by the switch, and he hit it as he left the room.
So my poor chicks ended up spending a night in the cold. I fully expected all of them to be dead. Instead, I saw 4 of them bunched together, but alive, and the fifth laying a few inches away, sprawled out on it's side. I thought it was dead. I didn't move it immediately as my dogs were eager to pee and I needed to get them out. I left to go take care of the other animals.
About 45 minutes later, I came back to check on the chicks. Four of them were romping about happily, eating, drinking and kicking up shavings, and the fifth was still lying in the same spot. I moved to pick it up to depose of it, but when I touched it, it moved. I was shocked. I poked it again, and it moved again.
I carefully righted it so it was sitting like a normal chick. I started dipping droplets of water in it's mouth. It was drinking them. I did this for about 5 minutes. The chick was not interested in eating, so food was left directly in front of it. We had to leave for work, so now the chick will be alone until tonight.
I am so worried about the sick chick, and concerned about the other dying off too. Is this kind of mortality rate normal? How can I stop my chicks from dying? They are toasty warm, they have food and water, and I put yogurt in with them until they decided they weren't going to eat it.
Please tell me how to keep my chicks alive! What can I do for them when they start acting sick? Is this sickness contagous and that's why they are getting it? Or is it some kind of shock? I feel like I see people on here buying x amount of chicks, and they still have x amount of chickens weeks/months/years later. It's something I'm doing wrong!
This is how I feel about my poor chicks right now - and I'm wondering if my group from mypetchicken is doomed just by entering my home.
I was researching chickens, and decided to take the plunge a few weeks ago and ordered chicks from mypetchicken. This weekend however, I was at Tractor Supply and couldn't help myself. I bought 6 assorted bantams.
Now I'm feeling a little down thought. I'm really having fun with my chicks and I am glad I got them, but they keep dying!
The first death I knew was going to happen when I got the chick. She looked near death in the bin, but she was the one my husband said he wanted, even thought I pointed out she looked near death. I suppose he thought he could bring her back to life. Unfortunately, this did not happen. I found her dead the morning after we got her.
I was also horrified to discover one of my very sweet, furry legged bantams seemed to be lethargic. She had been running around, eating and drinking yesterday so I don't know what caused this. I dipped her beak in the water, and she seemed to drink a little. I tried to feed her yogurt, as I saw on the forum it would help, but other than that I didn't know what I could do for her. I found her dead later that day. As a side note, if anyone knows what breed of bantam has furry legs and chipmunk markings, I would be very interested in knowing! She was so sweet and friendly I would love to have one like her.
I immediately made plans to get a replacement bantam as I have never seen bantams last very long at TSC. I got two replacements, both of which were chosen specifically because they seemed energetic and full of life. 12 hours later, one of them was dead. It acted the same way as the others, lethargic, and then it was gone.
Last night, I had yet another chick acting lethargic. This one had slightly more movement, but was not interested in "the mealworm game" that we were playing with the other. It kind of followed, but not keeping up. I expected it would be dead when I woke up this morning.
Instead, I had a different surprise. Last night, my husband accidently turned off the heat lamp. It was a reflex thing, the light in plugged into the outlet controlled by the switch, and he hit it as he left the room.
So my poor chicks ended up spending a night in the cold. I fully expected all of them to be dead. Instead, I saw 4 of them bunched together, but alive, and the fifth laying a few inches away, sprawled out on it's side. I thought it was dead. I didn't move it immediately as my dogs were eager to pee and I needed to get them out. I left to go take care of the other animals.
About 45 minutes later, I came back to check on the chicks. Four of them were romping about happily, eating, drinking and kicking up shavings, and the fifth was still lying in the same spot. I moved to pick it up to depose of it, but when I touched it, it moved. I was shocked. I poked it again, and it moved again.
I carefully righted it so it was sitting like a normal chick. I started dipping droplets of water in it's mouth. It was drinking them. I did this for about 5 minutes. The chick was not interested in eating, so food was left directly in front of it. We had to leave for work, so now the chick will be alone until tonight.
I am so worried about the sick chick, and concerned about the other dying off too. Is this kind of mortality rate normal? How can I stop my chicks from dying? They are toasty warm, they have food and water, and I put yogurt in with them until they decided they weren't going to eat it.
Please tell me how to keep my chicks alive! What can I do for them when they start acting sick? Is this sickness contagous and that's why they are getting it? Or is it some kind of shock? I feel like I see people on here buying x amount of chicks, and they still have x amount of chickens weeks/months/years later. It's something I'm doing wrong!
The other one I found dead kind of away from the light, like a third of the way down the bin. So not in the coldest part, but not in the hottest part.
). Anyway, while looking thru the lamps I noticed the bulbs (these were red bulbs). They were all labled "shatter resistant". What that means is they have a teflon coating to keep them from exploding. When teflon is heated, it releases a toxic gas that will quickly kill small critters (your teflon pans will do the same if you leave them on the hot burner with no food inside). These bulbs are specifically sold in the chick section with the heat lamps, so BEWARE! There are also teflon coated incandescent bulbs, all of them labled shatter resistant or something to hint at them being stronger than normal bulbs.
