My keets have been in the brooder box for two days now, but starting this morning the straw where they sleep is getti g SOAKED. It's not the waterer, that's at the other end of the box. The one chick was soaked and shivering. I got him dry, put in dry straw, but two hours later it's soaked again! What's happening? Is something wrong???
I'm guessing that even though not evident, your waterer is leaking, or perhaps wicking water, and if the floor is a bit uneven, or even if the shavings are lower where the chicks are, the water is seeping to there. Is your waterer raised up off the bedding? Set it up on some bricks or something similar. Take it out, set it on dry paper towels and wait a bit see if any dampness collecting under it. Where is your brooder box? How big is it?
Take out or turn off you current watering system and drain it. Put a stable dish that the chicks can drink from. I start mine out immediately on an inverted water er and they do fine. That will solve the immediate issue of the chicks being wet. If you can remove the water system fill it and set it so you can see where water is dripping from to wet the bedding. If you want to go further get a hose you can blow in, put a good seal of saran wrap over the fill hole, poke the hose through, submerge the system and blow. See where bubbles come up that they shouldn't. You may have to tap other openings so you can generate enough pressure with you lungs. You could use compressed air but you must be able to control it and not blow out something in the water system.
You need to get a towel and gentle dry her off, then you should hold her for a little bit to make sure she is recovering.
I had a waterer leak in our brooder. Thankfully our bedding soaked the majority of it up! Once we dried our chicks off and snuggled on them to get them warm, they all perked up and were feeling great! This was more than a week ago and they are all still in great health. Even though it's frustrating finding the source of the issue I am sure your chicks will be fine! ~Best of luck~
