Its too late now, but I'm wondering...

[Hestia]

Our chicks died. It's too late to do anything about it, but here is my question.

My father-in-law passed away on day 20 of lockdown, we had to leave home immediately, which if course meant leaving the incubator.
I had a friend come in to keep an eye on the chicks. It was a bad hatch rate anyway, only 5 from 25.
I left instructions as she's never done anything like this before.
We were away for a week, but the day we got home the chicks had died overnight. She said she had seen them weakening the day before.

Anyway, we wondered if they were just weak/sick, until I realized that in my 'detailed' instructions I had forgotten to write about tapping at the food to encourage the chicks to eat. I had written about dipping their beaks in water so she did that.
So could they have starved to death? Would they really not have figured out about eating if the tapping thing isn't done?
Feeling pretty bad about it if they starved because of my poor instructions!

 

[Down Under]

you don't have to tap on the food container to get them to eat, they do a pretty good job of that themselves. So long as your neighbour dipped at least one of the chicks beaks in water then they would all figure out where to get water. Baby chicks seem to follow each other to work out what to do and after 3 days they will eat their wood shavings, cardboard or paper brooder lining, feed and more feed, their own droppings, etc., etc.

Have you hatched before or was this your first hatch?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I'm sorry to hear about the death of your father-in-law. And then to come home to a lost hatch, sadness upon sadness. How discouraging! Please try not to blame yourself. You can't possibly know what caused the loss of your chicks. Perhaps the power went out and they got cold. I mean, it could have been anything totally beyond your or anybody's control. Beating yourself up won't change anything, and won't do anybody any good. It's just one of those things that happens, something you didn't cause and couldn't prevent. Better luck next time.

 

[LaFleche]

Very sorry you lost your father-in-law, my condolences.

With regard to the chicks there are so many reasons that could have caused their death and there is no way to find out why they died unless you send them in to your state vet lab for a necropsy.

If you decide to try again, make sure to disinfect thoroughly the incubator, brooder, heat lamp, feeder and water dispensers etc., just in case they already carried some kind of virus/bacteria with them from the parent stock.

Check and smell the feed for mold make sure the milling date the chick feed bag is recent, not older than max. 6 months.

Check the bedding you used for mold (it is best to use old towels or similar for the first week).

What heat source did you use and what was the temperature in the brooder after several hours? Can you post a picture of the set up?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Check the bedding you used for mold (it is best to use old towels or similar for the first week).

I'm partial to puppy pee pads, changed daily. No dust!

 

[Hestia]

Thank you for the condolences, it has been a very crazy time for us.
This is my third time hatching, I use a brinsea heat plate for keeping the chicks warm, in an enclosure in our shed. We are on solar power but I'm pretty sure it never went out during the few days the chicks were in there.
I'm very glad to hear it probably wasn't them not figuring out how to eat.
I guess with the very poor hatch rate ( although they were shipped eggs as well) that perhaps they may have had something else wrong with them.
I will definitely disinfect the incubator, although we're heading into winter now so I won't be trying again until spring.
Thank you all again for your replys

 

[Down Under]

Reading your post my initial thought was a vertical disease passed through the egg as that is one of the major causes of bad hatch rates with low to no survival rates of chicks. The only variable was if you were inexperienced in hatching but as you have done other hatches it rules out inexperience causing the bad hatch rate.

So I don't think that there is anything that you or your neighbour could have done differently for the chicks but I would loose that breeders details.