I have raised many chicks in the past and never had a problem like I am having now. I ordered lavender orpington chicks and got them at the same time a group of my own chicks were hatching. The orpingtons arrived a day late and out of 15 birds, 3 had died in shipping. Not an hour after I got them home, another one didn't make it. When I got them home, I gave them some sugar water and the rest seemed to be doing fine. Three days later, however, another one died. Then tonight, when I last checked on them, one of the larger sized orpingtons had also died. Out of the chicks I hatched myself, 3 of those didn't make it (which has never happened to me before. Usually once they make it through hatching, I've never lost any after that.) Because I didn't have room in my normal brooder (a plastic tote I have used through 4 hatchings), I bought a heavy duty plastic tub from the feed store and put the chicks in there. I change the water about every 3 hours and give them fresh food twice a day. I checked everybody this afternoon at 3:00 and when I went to check them again at 6:00, that's when I found the orpington. I am wondering if the problem would be due to the fact that there are approximately 35 birds in the tub (which is actually quite large), so it gets dirty very quickly. I change it every day, but even that doesn't seem to keep it very clean. I tried putting paper towels down on the bottom, but they started picking at it and I was afraid they would eat it. The temperature stays consistent in one corner and they have the other corner they can go to if they get too warm. I have seen no panting or signs of overheated chicks. I am using a standard plastic waterer and sometimes the chicks walk in it, which causes some of the food that has been kicked out to get moist. Could the problem be due to wet feed? How in the world would you prevent that? The strange part is that one minute they seem fine, then all of a sudden they're just dead. Anybody have any possibilities as to what could be causing this?
