Help. What is wrong with my chicks?

[mwm715]

I’m so sorry you’re going through this with your chicken!

Thank you so much!! I’m so sorry you’re dealing with a hard time too!

Also, I’m not 100% sure how my mom did it, but she used stuff like a Kaytee plastic igloo, a heating pad inside a ziplock, and some sort of “cover” for the padbag to make her own heating plate for $20! (Not sure how safe it is, but her chicks really love it!)

 

[Pennys Mama]

My heating pad doesn’t stay on unfortunately. Can that be done for day olds too? I kind of want something fool proof after this rodeo.

Here is the post that's the most descriptive. Thank you @azygous
& @Blooie

Any heating pad will work just fine as long as the thing won't shut itself off after a couple hours. Right now I have an old fashioned three-speed heating pad set up in the run so my three-week old chicks can warm themselves on it since it's a chilly morning.
They have a MHP cave set up inside the coop with a heating pad that has six settings. Currently, they are down to the coolest setting at night since they are getting close to weaning off heat.
Read through the MHP thread by @Blooie. https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...d-in-the-brooder-picture-heavy-update.956958/ It has all kinds of suggestions and warnings as we became users of this method. Some folks, myself included, offered alternative iterations and shared experiences where we modified things due to a chick getting stuck between the heating pad and frame.
As for selecting the right heating pad to buy, it depends on how many chicks you will be brooding as the pads come in extra large and some models even have a control that resets itself after a power outage. This beats having to get up in the middle of a below freezing night to go outside in your jammies to start up the pad during a storm that knocked out the power. @Blooie had that experience and tells about how the pad retained enough heat to keep the chicks from freezing.

 

[cmom]

This is what I have done. I have went to our local Walmart and asked if I could have a melon box. They gave me one. Works great. I use a regular incandescent bulb. The chicks are warm and dry. They can dust bathe in the shavings. I put a piece of plastic under the shavings for easy cleaning.

 

[cmom]

I normally use a brooder I made from some shelves. I did put wire under the chicks. Their food and water stay much cleaner as well as the chicks. Their poop falls through the hardware cloth into pans under the wire with pine shaving in them and every couple of days I clean them out and put new shavings in them. For the first few days I put some paper towels down until the chicks find their feet and walk pretty well. I have had no problems. I hatch out a few hundred chicks each year. I use incandescent bulbs for heat.

 

[cmom]

As far as the melon box, I have also used those boxes the freeze pops come in.

 

[GodofPecking]

Yeah definitely understand.


You definitely have given me lots to think about. .... I do get what you’re saying.
Even in a brooder designed to make it impossible for them to eat their own poop, they have found ways to do that haha. I’ll definitely be doing things differently next time.

And yes I hear you about wheat, gluten, GMOs etc. I have been gluten and grain free for over a year and beginning to repair my gut has completely changed my life.

Thanks for your responses.

You're welcome and I'm very relieved.

I am glad you have changed your life. I think it is the poison sprayed onto the wheat that is the problem, and when people go against gluten it is misguided most of the time but IT DOES BY ACCIDENT also cut out on the actual problem which is the sprayed poison. but it's all good because if you are hysterically scared by maccas packaging you wont be eating as much bad food yes ? lol.

 

[GodofPecking]

Yeah definitely understand.


You definitely have given me lots to think about. No I don’t have adult birds and they are indoors so no wild bird poo either. While I probably won’t go gathering wild bird poop to put in their brooder, I do get what you’re saying.

Thanks for your responses.

You and everyone else who is against giving them POO TO EAT will do so anyway. Just that you haven't yet.

DUST BATHING contains POO and its ESSENTIAL microbes. Chicks n chooks need dust bathing facilities because they can't reach the faucets in your indoor shower, they like jump, and the little ones are good flyers but always miss the mark and even when they hit the tap they are too light to turn it, you turn the taps in your shower off hard don't you ? Cruel !!!

Fix them up a dust bath, don't worry about temporary cardboard until later, it's not ideal, but it will do temporary.

 

[GodofPecking]

I have raised all my chicks indoors for 4 years and haven't had a single sick one. Are you joking about feeding them poo? I've never done that.

not joking, not arguing, we are both too lazy to give a link to elsewhere where it spells this out concisely.

Do yours get the chance to dust-bath ? soil has POO in it. would do a similar job (harhar, pun) but not quiet as well.

 

[GodofPecking]

View attachment 1954789

Anyone used this one? Will the chicks pick at the cord?

way overkill. not necessary, no idea if it does anything else besides achieving it's primary purpose which is to sell.

An old fashioned lightbulb is popular, because you hang it out of reach and IF CHICKS ARE TOO HOT THEY MOVE AWAY AND if too cold, they move closer, the CHICKS REGULATE TEMPERATURE THEMSELVES.

You could find other things like a plugpack or i think you call it a wall wart that is warm to the touch and put that and the 'dangerous' lol cords in there (chooks won't electrocute themselves. Yet to see a single chick that can pull a cord out. or any other mild source of heat.

IF CHICKS ARE INDOORS they DON"T NEED HEAT in most cases. If it is warm for you it is fine for them if there are about 6 newly hatched chicks, or the 4 you have left which are larger. If food goes in, and poop comes out and in this case if they can process it in their gut in general, then they will process it into heat and more feathers, and they'll heat themselves.

 

[BluebirdHomestead]

You and everyone else who is against giving them POO TO EAT will do so anyway. Just that you haven't yet.

DUST BATHING contains POO and its ESSENTIAL microbes. Chicks n chooks need dust bathing facilities because they can't reach the faucets in your indoor shower, they like jump, and the little ones are good flyers but always miss the mark and even when they hit the tap they are too light to turn it, you turn the taps in your shower off hard don't you ? Cruel !!!

Fix them up a dust bath, don't worry about temporary cardboard until later, it's not ideal, but it will do temporary.

I didn’t necessarily say I was “against” giving them poo to eat...I just might not be brave enough to go looking for wild bird poo to give them, but I can see why you’re saying what you’re saying.

I’m going to add the hardware cloth to the inside and I’m sure they will be thrilled with their new set up, dust bath included.