Lost 2 new chicks and need advice...

King218

Hatching
7 Years
May 25, 2012
1
0
7
I am a "new chicken" owner and received my first chicks on Tuesday. I ordered 6 and they all survived shipping and looked perfectly healthy. They began eating and drinking immediately. I purchased a chick starter kit, with brooder supplies and have their brooder temperature at 95 degrees (thermometer in brooder).
Yesterday when I got home from work, one was dead and this morning another one was dead. They seem perfectly fine. they are active and eating and drinking. I have created the pefect environment for them.
I would love any advice as to why they may be dieing. Does this usually happen with chicks or should I be concerned about the others?
I'm planning on calling the compnay I purchased them from as soon as they open at 10:00.
 
I'm only on my 2nd round of chicks, but I've found that some of them just aren't very hearty, no matter what you do with them. With my 1st batch, I lost my baby light brahma at 5 days of age, for no apparently reason. The only odd thing I noticed about her was that her toes were fused! With this batch, I lost one on the 1st day and lamented about the rest of them seeming less hearty than my 1st batch. So far, I haven't lost any more, but I still handle them with kid gloves!
 
The travel is very stressful on the chicks. You might have noticed, if you had had time to just sit and watch them for hours, that not all the chicks were eating, that the ones that died were mostly sleeping. Sometimes they just don't have the strength on their own to eat and drink. I nursed one of my Dominiques for her entire first week, forcing her to drink sugar-water, then electrolytes, then crushed fine crumble mixed with water through an eye-dropper. She is alive and well today. However, while I was concentrating on her, my little roo, who had been fine and active all the first and the second day, died suddenly the second night. My only clue--he had been sleeping a lot that evening when the rest were still eating. I thought he'd made it over the dangerous time, that since he'd been active and alert at the first, that he was just extra tired. I was wrong. I should have dosed him with the electrolytes, too.
 

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