Lost 14 of 19 chicks in less than 4 hours

[csharpdev]

New chicks arrived this morning, they all seemed fine. Dipped their beaks and put them inside my homemade heated cave. I watched them for awhile and 1 or 2 would occasionally come out explore and go back inside. I also got a single guard goose.

I sectioned off a portion of my main coop for the chicks. Their heater is a "mother hen pad" sort of thing built out of wood with a heating pad mounted to the ceiling. Their feed is New Country Organics chick starter that was fermented for 3 days. Water with apple cider vinegar, a little garlic juice and honey.

I went to check on them at lunch time and found 14 dead.
4 Chickens had escaped the brooder area into the main coop, 3 of those were dead, one was running around, caught it and put it back. Lots of dead chicks inside the brooder area fairly well spread out.

They wont be able to escape the brooder anymore and big chickens and/or lack of heat source could explain why the escapees died but it is a mystery to me why all the others died.

I would think if my coop had some sort of pathogen it would take more than a few hours. If the chicks were too cold it would seem strange they were so spread out.

Any Ideas?

 

[A_Fowl_Guy]

Could be shipping stress.

 

[chicksandchores]

I personally didn’t have any luck with momma heating pad. Got ten chicks, put them in with the mhp and they settled in. Next morning as I was on my way to pick up other chicks (bought from a private party and not much age difference; I had spent the night with my grandmother as she was closer to the meet point than I was) my sister text me and told me five of the ten were dead. Got the 21 new chicks, went home, arranged things differently with the mhp as most had died on the food away from the cave. Next morning I get up and I’ve lost five more. I completely got rid of the setup and turned to brooding inside with a lamp through a cold snap and then changed to brooding with a lamp outside. The chicks didn’t seem to know where the warmth was coming from and they’d get turned around and lost, one smothered between the towel and heating pad and another smothered under foot of its siblings, it wasn’t a good setup for me. Maybe things will work out with your setup and the remaining or any replacement chicks. Best of luck and sorry for your loss!

 

[csharpdev]

I personally didn’t have any luck with momma heating pad. Got ten chicks, put them in with the mhp and they settled in. Next morning as I was on my way to pick up other chicks (bought from a private party and not much age difference; I had spent the night with my grandmother as she was closer to the meet point than I was) my sister text me and told me five of the ten were dead. Got the 21 new chicks, went home, arranged things differently with the mhp as most had died on the food away from the cave. Next morning I get up and I’ve lost five more. I completely got rid of the setup and turned to brooding inside with a lamp through a cold snap and then changed to brooding with a lamp outside. The chicks didn’t seem to know where the warmth was coming from and they’d get turned around and lost, one smothered between the towel and heating pad and another smothered under foot of its siblings, it wasn’t a good setup for me. Maybe things will work out with your setup and the remaining or any replacement chicks. Best of luck and sorry for your loss!

This was my 3rd batch of chicks using heating pads. First batch was in an unheated garage in mid February 2017 lost 7 of 35 over a couple weeks, 6 of the 7 had pastey butt. 2nd batch I did outside but it was May ish I think...only lost 1 of 28 @ ~3 weeks. I think this is the first time I've lost chicks within 48 hours. Only difference this time is build a wooden frame for the heating pad instead of wire fence...and being out in the big coop which is WELL ventilated. I put up card board to block the draft though.