Lost 17 five day old Cornish X in one day?!!!

[tumbleweedfarm]

Hi all,ev

I have been raising chicks for around eight years now. I have raised many from the feed stores and hatcheries alike. I lose one maybe two in a batch (and most of the times none) but have never seen anything like this. I ordered 75 Cornish X from Whelp Hatchery. This is the first time I have ever used this hatchery.They were hatched out on Weds. the 25th and I received them on Friday. All were in good health and eating and drinking fine. We have them in a brooder house with pine shavings and two heat lamps. The brooder house is a two horse trailer so plenty of space for everyone. Plenty of space to get away from the lights or be under them. This morning we checked on chicks and nine were dead. One of the heat lamps burned out last night so I attributed it to piling under the one heat lamp. The problem is we have lost eight more as the day has gone on today. Poop looks fine but I did add Corid to the water just in case. They just get sleepy and not wanting to move and then finally plop over on their sides and die. The interesting thing is I have them in with a little more than a dozen layer chicks, most of which have been bought at a local feed store. Not one of them have died, only the Cornish X. I am devastated, especially since 25 of these are reserved for customers. Any thoughts on what is going on?

Thank you!

 

[Judy]

Welcome to the forum! Sorry something like this is what brought you here. I have no idea what is going on. Have you called the hatchery? Many will replace chicks lost soon after shipment like this.

There's a good writeup on here under raising baby chicks about what causes losses in new chicks. I hope something in it will help you:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=39604

 

[lemongrass]

Maybe it has to do with the light, perhaps the cornish X were more aggressive with each other? How cold is it where you are? How big/what wattage is the light? Does it just hang from the top of the trailer or is it a different style? I've read about a brooder with one 125 watt bulb (or two bulbs reaching that same wattage combined) is enough for 100 chicks, as long as the weather stays above freezing (250 watt total for below freezing). But that was not one that hung down from the ceiling, it has more "barriers" to it in a 2' by 4' space, with plenty of room to rove around outside of that heat lamp space. So.... if your one bulb is ~250watt + I don't see how they could have gotten too cold unless they panicked trying to get the light, or fell asleep and were chilled and then headed en-masse for the working light... When I got my chicks from the hatchery they were very cold and needed the brooder VERY warm for the first several hours. They were huddled very close and it was much warmer than I would ever keep it normally. If your chicks got chilled and then needed he heat ASAP I assume they would have done the same thing and mass-huddled for the warmth. As for dying later.. I suppose the shock of it at such a young age might have been too much. It could be that all your other chicks were under the working light and never had an issue. Or..... I hate to say it, could just be a few bad chicks from the hatchery

Edit to add: Of the ones that died over night, where were they located? It might not matter, I'm sure they could have been moved by the other chicks, but if they were all in a centralized location near the light I suppose being trampled makes sense.