Losing Whole Batch of Chicks

[jhen13]

I placed an online order through Chickensforbackyards.com. I have ordered from this company twice in the past and had a great experience. This time, terrible.

I ordered 6 chicks, they sent the 6 and 2 extras. The order took 3 days to arrive at the post office.
The order was picked up from the post office at 0630 yesterday. Upon arrival, 2 chicks were dead, and one was severely lethargic and died hours later.
Checking on the chicks before bed, there were 2 more looking lethargic, and in the morning, those 2 were dead, and two more were looking lethargic as well. One of those died within an hour of checking.

As I am writing this, 6 of the 8 chicks sent are dead, and one more is close to dying. I have one "healthy" chick at this time.

I emailed the company, and they are willing to give me a full refund for the order, minus a $15 USPS surcharge.

I hate to leave the one survivor chick alone, but I'm concerned for disease at this point, and I don't want to risk putting more chicks in with it to get sick potentially.

I am planning on getting an all-new brooder set up for when I do get new chicks to avoid potential contamination.

I just wanted to share my experience and see if anyone had any advice on what to do with the lone survivor.

Edited to add: I have the brooder with a heat lamp at 100 degrees at the warmest part, with plenty of area to get out of direct heat. They are on hemp bedding. Fresh water and kambalch check start available. All equipment was cleaned before chicks arriving.

 

[arianna7]

wow, im so sorry, i have had one chick come dead before, and one die shortly after, but never all or most, do you have other chickens?

 

[jhen13]

wow, im so sorry, i have had one chick come dead before, and one die shortly after, but never all or most, do you have other chickens?

I have 12 adult hens outdoors. This is my 6th year raising chicks, and I have never had anything like this happen. I've only ever lost one chick in the past. I've always raised my chicks in the basement, under very controlled circumstances. I'm really just baffled.

The company did not offer any possible causes or any words other than offering the refund after I asked for it.

 

[arianna7]

I have 12 adult hens outdoors. This is my 6th year raising chicks, and I have never had anything like this happen. I've only ever lost one chick in the past. I've always raised my chicks in the basement, under very controlled circumstances. I'm really just baffled.

The company did not offer any possible causes or any words other than offering the refund after I asked for it.

again... WOW, well i would do your best to raise the one, and then introduce it to your flock, like you would a new chicken. good luck!

 

[SunriseChickers]

I placed an online order through Chickensforbackyards.com. I have ordered from this company twice in the past and had a great experience. This time, terrible.

I ordered 6 chicks, they sent the 6 and 2 extras. The order took 3 days to arrive at the post office.
The order was picked up from the post office at 0630 yesterday. Upon arrival, 2 chicks were dead, and one was severely lethargic and died hours later.
Checking on the chicks before bed, there were 2 more looking lethargic, and in the morning, those 2 were dead, and two more were looking lethargic as well. One of those died within an hour of checking.

As I am writing this, 6 of the 8 chicks sent are dead, and one more is close to dying. I have one "healthy" chick at this time.

I emailed the company, and they are willing to give me a full refund for the order, minus a $15 USPS surcharge.

I hate to leave the one survivor chick alone, but I'm concerned for disease at this point, and I don't want to risk putting more chicks in with it to get sick potentially.

I am planning on getting an all-new brooder set up for when I do get new chicks to avoid potential contamination.

I just wanted to share my experience and see if anyone had any advice on what to do with the lone survivor.

Edited to add: I have the brooder with a heat lamp at 100 degrees at the warmest part, with plenty of area to get out of direct heat. They are on hemp bedding. Fresh water and kambalch check start available. All equipment was cleaned before chicks arriving.

Sorry to hear about your struggles and best of luck going forward. It's great of the company to be willing to refund, but I'd sure want an explanation too, if I were in your shoes!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Yeah. Makes no sense to me. And quarantining the chick? It's already been exposed to anything its companions died of.... of course keep it from any new chicks to keep from contaminating them, but that's not what they said. Anyway. Whatever.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I have 12 adult hens outdoors. This is my 6th year raising chicks, and I have never had anything like this happen. I've only ever lost one chick in the past. I've always raised my chicks in the basement, under very controlled circumstances. I'm really just baffled.

The company did not offer any possible causes or any words other than offering the refund after I asked for it.

I placed an online order through Chickensforbackyards.com. I have ordered from this company twice in the past and had a great experience. This time, terrible.

I ordered 6 chicks, they sent the 6 and 2 extras. The order took 3 days to arrive at the post office.
The order was picked up from the post office at 0630 yesterday. Upon arrival, 2 chicks were dead, and one was severely lethargic and died hours later.
Checking on the chicks before bed, there were 2 more looking lethargic, and in the morning, those 2 were dead, and two more were looking lethargic as well. One of those died within an hour of checking.

As I am writing this, 6 of the 8 chicks sent are dead, and one more is close to dying. I have one "healthy" chick at this time.

I emailed the company, and they are willing to give me a full refund for the order, minus a $15 USPS surcharge.

I hate to leave the one survivor chick alone, but I'm concerned for disease at this point, and I don't want to risk putting more chicks in with it to get sick potentially.

I am planning on getting an all-new brooder set up for when I do get new chicks to avoid potential contamination.

I just wanted to share my experience and see if anyone had any advice on what to do with the lone survivor.

Edited to add: I have the brooder with a heat lamp at 100 degrees at the warmest part, with plenty of area to get out of direct heat. They are on hemp bedding. Fresh water and kambalch check start available. All equipment was cleaned before chicks arriving.

Welcome To BYC

I'm sorry to hear about your chicks.

Can you give your general location and temperatures? The hatchery you order from is in MO. Do they drop ship from other hatcheries or do chicks come directly from there?
What was the weather like from MO to where you are?

If temps were very cold, the chicks may have suffered not only from shipping stress, but from cold temperatures as well. Sometimes folks experience quite a bit of loss on shipped birds in cold weather just as they do in the middle of summer. They may have been in the back of a cold truck for 3 days, just like some are in sweltering heat for the duration of shipping.
Did the chicks have a heat pack in with them?

I would be looking at conditions of shipping. Sad to say, often we do not know how a box was handled either, rough handling can (and sadly does) happen.

Perhaps there may be illness that caused the deaths, but just shipped chicks like this, I'd chalk up to shipping stress, etc.

If your weather is pleasant and the route is going to be agreeable with temperatures, I'd have them ship more chicks to me. Especially if it's a hatchery I have used before and am satisfied with.

It that's not the case, then I'd see if my local TSC or similar store has chicks in stock, chick days have started some places. Get a few chicks to keep the healthy one company and go from there. A lone chick is quite lonely.

For the survivor, I'd give her some Poultry Nutri-Drench twice a day. 2-3 drop orally each time. See that she's warm, eating/drinking.

 

[Eggcessive]

I would suspect shipping stress. It is really not good for a small number of chicks to be shipped during cold weather. They include heat packs with smaller than 25 chicks, but I have received them the next day when they were cold. I prefer to order from the closest hatchery, and in April when it is warmer. The less time in shipping, the better. Our post offices do not deliver them in a timely manner sometimes. Sometimes they may be handled roughly or spent time in the back of a truck or post office. I would try to get more chicks from a feed store to add to the only chick, and hope they do well. Sorry for your loss.

 

[Iluveggers]

I'd see if my local TSC or similar store has chicks in stock, chick days have started some places. Get a few chicks to keep the healthy one company and go from there. A lone chick is quite lonely.

This.

 

[jhen13]

Welcome To BYC

I'm sorry to hear about your chicks.

Can you give your general location and temperatures? The hatchery you order from is in MO. Do they drop ship from other hatcheries or do chicks come directly from there?
What was the weather like from MO to where you are?

If temps were very cold, the chicks may have suffered not only from shipping stress, but from cold temperatures as well. Sometimes folks experience quite a bit of loss on shipped birds in cold weather just as they do in the middle of summer. They may have been in the back of a cold truck for 3 days, just like some are in sweltering heat for the duration of shipping.
Did the chicks have a heat pack in with them?

I would be looking at conditions of shipping. Sad to say, often we do not know how a box was handled either, rough handling can (and sadly does) happen.

Perhaps there may be illness that caused the deaths, but just shipped chicks like this, I'd chalk up to shipping stress, etc.

If your weather is pleasant and the route is going to be agreeable with temperatures, I'd have them ship more chicks to me. Especially if it's a hatchery I have used before and am satisfied with.

It that's not the case, then I'd see if my local TSC or similar store has chicks in stock, chick days have started some places. Get a few chicks to keep the healthy one company and go from there. A lone chick is quite lonely.

For the survivor, I'd give her some Poultry Nutri-Drench twice a day. 2-3 drop orally each time. See that she's warm, eating/drinking.

I'm in MI. The chicks were originally scheduled to ship last week, but the company pushed back the date d/t too cold temps. But for the 3 days they were being shipped, the temps from here to there were at least 40 degrees F. There was a large heat pack in with the chicks.
The company does drop ship from other hatcheries.

The company did reach out to me via phone call to go over what had happened. They went over my husbandry of the chicks and determined that it was nothing from my care. They offered a full refund and said it was likely from a rough shipping or failure of the heat pack. I wish I would have checked the temp of the shipping box upon arrival, but that's hindsight.

Lone chick is active, eating and drinking, chasing around the laser from my temp gun. I am planning on going to Family, Farm and Home tomorrow to get more companions.