Just lost a 2wk old chick, trying to figure out why?

[BawGock]

I had a 2wk old chick die this morning.
The chick was from purchased eggs that I hatched myself.
Hatched in a sanitized bator and placed in a sanitized brooder.
The brooder is at 90F under the heat light and the chicks are not clustered under the light either.
The brood of chicks was not vaccinated.
I examined the chick and it was not pasted up or had a messy back end.
Only difference in behavior before it died was that it was sleeping a lot the day before.
All the other chicks seem to be behaving normally, eating preening and running around.
This just makes me nervous because I have never lost a chick at this stage of the game.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Carolyn

 

[chickpip]

Oh no, Carolyn i'm so sorry! Was it at all weak? All I can think of is maybe its heart was deformed or something just shut down overnight?

 

[Chieftain]

I started out in February with five straight run RIRs, and we lost one of the chicks at about three weeks. It was smaller than the rest from the start, and I suspect that a more aggressive candling of the eggs would have culled it before hatching. She never thrived, just stood around, and finally just gave up the ghost and died for no particular reason that we could tell.

Story's Guide to Raising Chickens says that you should expect a small percentage of your flock to die for no apparent reason; some chicks just do not thrive, or have some fatal flaw that you can do nothing about. They also say that often by the time a chick is sick enough to manifest symptoms that you can notice, it is often too late to do anything to save them.

My advice is to stay vigilant for problems with the rest of the flock, and don't get overly worried because you lost one. It does happen, so don't beat yourself up over it....

 

[BawGock]

Thanks guys

Yeah, he just was sleeping a lot the day following up to dying.
I've been watching the others in the brooder and every one seems frisky.

These little guys hatched from shipped eggs and it makes me wonder if that could play into it, too.
Just compromised from what the eggs go through in transit.
Carolyn