my chicks are starting to die

[rbncourtney]

I have 9 (plymouth rock and rhode island reds) chicks that are 1 1/2 months old. All were fine and running around this morning. My husband just found one Plymouth Rock had passed and another two Plymouth Rock are not moving much. They are in a coop that we built and have been fine until now. Any ideas of what is happening and how we can stop it.

 

[Peeps61]

I am guessing that your chicks have plenty of food, water and access to shade. It's pretty hot this time of year and mine pant during the worst part of the day, even though they are in the shade and have plenty of food and water. They are the same age as your chicks. Do you think your chicks were exposed to diseased birds somehow? Or have the avian 'flu possibly?

 

[rbncourtney]

My chicks have not been exposed to others. We only lost one yesterday. The others seemed fine yesterday evening and today. I am thinking it is the heat. We are giving them fresh feed and water twice a day.

 

[Peeps61]

What part of the country do you live in? You can try adding ice cubes to their water and giving them a shallow pan of cool water to wade in. Some people even freeze blocks of ice to keep in the waterers to help them stay cool longer. This may help them to keep cool enough to remain healthy. They also need to have well ventilated, shady areas to retreat to when it's really hot during mid-day.

Good luck! It's hard to lose chickens when you get attached to them.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I imagine the coop is much hotter than outside. I'd get them outside in shade and put ice in their water fountains. Heat is hard on poultry. People worry about winter when in reality it's these heat waves that do them in. Other than a few predators I've only lost a bird to summer heat (she was all black and not enough shade). I also was slacking on fresh cold water for them I must confess.

 

[rbncourtney]

They have plenty of shade and ventilation. I will start trying the ice blocks in the watered. We are in Maryland and are experiencing a heat wave right now. It was a black chick that we lost and I am thinking it was from the heat. Thank you everyone for the advice and suggestions.

 

[donrae]

Do they also have a run, or just the coop?

Any bloody poop?