I emailed Meyer to let them know...

[SandraMort]

but it says it takes up to four days to get back a reply. With the holiday, I'd imagine I won't hear back from them until next week. But dh and I did a head count today and were pretty shocked to see how few of the buckeyes had survived.

From my Meyer hatchery shipment of birds on Oct 1, I have:

21 buckeyes and 3 brown leghorns that I can't tell apart -- 4 are left alive but sluggish
3 white leghorns -- 1 missing and 2 are left alive & doing well
6 easter egg & 1 gold laced wyandotte, I get those mixed up -- 6 lively chicks, one missing
1 silver laced wyandotte -- alive & perky
1 silver spangled hamburg -- missing
3 cornish cross -- All big and fat and healthy looking

Total living: 13 layers, 3 cornish cross
Total dead or missing: 23, mostly buckeyes

The missing birds probably escaped through the door when it got wedged slightly open by bedding when we didn't notice right away. Except for the leghorn, who ran out between my legs and I couldn't catch her. Drove me insane but I had arms full of baby, so what could I do?

In the meantime, my colored rangers are growing big and fat and healthy. I haven't had a loss in a while. I'm looking forward to processing them!

 

[jvls1942]

I must have missed the first post.

I am assuming these are very young birds?? Older birds might get out, but they seldom run away.

If you are missing birds, I would suggest looking for a weasel or a rat or if you are one of the blessed who lives where it is warm, a snake

Your sluggish chickens might have coccidiosis.. or mureks.. treat them immediately..

.......jiminwisc.......

 

[shelleyb1969]

I think I might have missed something...please fill me in if I did. Why are you letting Meyer know about your birds now, since you've had them since Oct. 1st? And if you initially thought they might be sick, did you treat them appropriately for their symptoms? As I said, I may have totally missed something somewhere, so please tell me...I don't want to sound mean, I'm just trying to find out the whole story.

 

[SandraMort]

Quote:
They're about a month old.

If you are missing birds, I would suggest looking for a weasel or a rat or if you are one of the blessed who lives where it is warm, a snake

No, they actually escaped. We had to round up the escapees on several occasions but apparantly didn't catch them all.

Your sluggish chickens might have coccidiosis.. or mureks.. treat them immediately..

.......jiminwisc.......

But that doesn't make sense that a coop with 60 birds would only have ONE breed get sick. Not to mention no bloody stool, sneezing or anything like that.​

 

[SandraMort]

Quote:
We thought they were being trampled but it only dawned on me recently that if that was the case, other breeds would be getting trampled as well!

And if you initially thought they might be sick, did you treat them appropriately for their symptoms? As I said, I may have totally missed something somewhere, so please tell me...I don't want to sound mean, I'm just trying to find out the whole story.

No, I initially thought trampling and only recently thouht maybe there was something wrong with the buckeyes from birth. In any case, I'm not angry with them, I just emailed to ask if there had been any other reported problems with that hatching of buckeyes. I really DON'T think it's something contagious, or the other dozen and a half remaining birds would be behaving similarly.​

 

[greyfields]

The trampling always occurs after death.

The problem we all have here is that the hatcheries all certainly ship healthy chicks. But, once they leave their doors, they are subject to vast temperature swings as they are trucked across the US to the consumer. They can't be responsible, or even know, what conditions the chicksn were transported in. So I hear a lot of people say "don't use hatchery XYZ, because my chicks died". It's entirely unfair.

Now, with all that said, I recall at one point a large internet hatchery with the intitials MM had a problem with some contaminants in their shipping boxes and had tons of birds die. Once they figured out what was going on, they did replace birds. But, generally, your gurantee is no longer than the first 7 days.

It can't hurt to e-mail them, obviously. But, at the same time, a lot of this is out of their control.

 

[pips&peeps]

I would conclude that you probably have mareks on your farm. Certain breeds and lines can be very susceptible to it.

It can also manifest in many ways, not just your typical splayed legs.

If I were you I would vaccinate the remaining layer type birds.

 

[SandraMort]

Quote:
I love BYC!!! I didnt know that!

The problem we all have here is that the hatcheries all certainly ship healthy chicks. But, once they leave their doors, they are subject to vast temperature swings as they are trucked across the US to the consumer. They can't be responsible, or even know, what conditions the chicksn were transported in. So I hear a lot of people say "don't use hatchery XYZ, because my chicks died". It's entirely unfair.

Of course. And all of the other breeds of the same shipment are thriving. I'm actually pretty pleased with the hatchery. But if nobody reports problems, they won't know... right?

Once they figured out what was going on, they did replace birds. But, generally, your gurantee is no longer than the first 7 days.

Day old chicks are relatively cheap. I'm not worried about replacements. I just want them to know.​

 

[SandraMort]

I'll have to look into marek's, thank you for the suggestion.