Lost a chick

[Benny8]

We have 5 week old pullets and picked up 16 Cornish Rocks last Thursday. All the meaties seemed to be doing well until this morning when I put the food down for them. 15 of them swarmed the feeder, but one just stood in the corner. Then it would lay down. Later in the morning, my daughter picked it up out of the tub and it looked like it had black and blues on parts of its body. It could barely keep its head up. We isolated it to its own box and had some errands to run. About an hour later we got home and it was gone. Any ideas what might have happened? My daughter and I are kind of sad right now. She thought she was doing an awesome job.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

What sort of brooder setup are you using for the CornishX? It sounds like he may have been trampled on (not uncommon).
Tell your daughter she IS doing an awesome job. This sort of thing happens when one is raising livestock and it doesn't sound like anything that she did (or didn't do) was involved in what happened, so this is not a reflection on her. To the contrary, when a problem was noted immediate, correct, action was taken - that is doing an awesome job.

 

[Benny8]

Thank you Mare. I told her she was doing a great job. Told things like this happen when raising more than a few birds. It's just part of life. They are in a 2'x4'x2' galvanized stock tank with a heat lamp on one end. She does well keeping fresh shavings over the poop and keeping the food and water clean. Wondering if I even need the heat lamp in there. They lay at the other end of the tank where there is no heat.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Thank you Mare. I told her she was doing a great job. Told things like this happen when raising more than a few birds. It's just part of life. They are in a 2'x4'x2' galvanized stock tank with a heat lamp on one end. She does well keeping fresh shavings over the poop and keeping the food and water clean. Wondering if I even need the heat lamp in there. They lay at the other end of the tank where there is no heat.

The fact that they are avoiding the warm end indicates that it is likely too warm for them, however it does not necessarily mean they don't need heat at all as it's not an all or nothing sort of thing. What it is more likely to mean is that the light is currently setting too low (to the floor) - raising the light up will lessen the temperature below it and may offer them a more comfortable environment so that they are not crowding in one end or the other which will also lessen the risk of trampling, etc.
Meaties grow so quickly - you really need more space for them even at this point.