My new babies are dying!! : (

[melaniekemp]

@junebuggena,
Thank you! I have now moved them to a low setting heating pad and a towel next to me. Also I tried egg earlier with them but they seem completely uninterested in anything solid. Only accepting liquids (grudgingly) from the dropper. Should I smash some egg into the liquid too?

 

[junebuggena]

Yes. Smashing the yolks and blending them with water so they turn into a runny paste is a good idea. You can also dissolve chick feed in water to make a slurry. Basically, anything you can do to get them some nutrients is good at this point.

 

[pfields]

What kind of brooder is this? I'm wondering how they get fresh dry air because it looks like it's all glass. Do you have a heat lamp going and a way to track the temp?

 

[melaniekemp]

@pfields,
It's only glass around the sides. The top is mesh and there are adjustable vent holes on the sides. There are two uva/uvb full spectrum heat lamps up top plus an infrared night heat lamp. There are two thermometers one for hot side and one for cold. Normally I raise herps. They are pretty high maintenance. But wow birds are way more delicate. I'm so sad!

 

[junebuggena]

You might want to get some smaller feeders/waters. The ones you have are taking up a lot of space. And chicks NEED space. That brooder is pretty small for all those chicks. At one week they need 1/4 sq ft per chick. At 2 weeks, they'll need 1/2 a sq ft. By the time they are a month old, they need at least 2 sq ft. They double in size each week for the first 6 weeks, and their space needs expand with that growth rate.

 

[pfields]

I'm so sorry for your loss!

I couldn't tell by the picture but it sounds very nice.

I agree with junebuggena about the waterer and feeder, and they grow so fast. Do you have a coop for them when they outgrow the brooder?

 

[junebuggena]

@pfields ,
It's only glass around the sides. The top is mesh and there are adjustable vent holes on the sides. There are two uva/uvb full spectrum heat lamps up top plus an infrared night heat lamp. There are two thermometers one for hot side and one for cold. Normally I raise herps. They are pretty high maintenance. But wow birds are way more delicate. I'm so sad!

They need a 'warm' zone and a cool zone. They don't need the whole brooder to be the same temp. They need to be able to self regulate and get away from the heat if needed.

 

[melaniekemp]

@junebuggena,
Thanks I will try adding the eggs to the mix. I already have chick crumble, sugar and garlic dissolved in there. And another posting pal earlier suggested I ditch the garlic in favor of yogurt. I will be doing that in the am since I don't have yogurt on hand currently. Now I will also add egg. It amazes me the huge difference between the well chicks and sick ones of the same age and shipment. Night and day. Amazing. And also tragic : (

 

[Pattycat]

Thanks you guys! At least you don't seem to think I'm a horrible willfully ignorant chicken killing monster. Haha
I mean I got these chickens because I hate the way American giant farm industry treats livestock. So I decided if I want eggs then I'll just have to do it myself. I don't necessarily disapprove of eating animals or their products. But I strongly, hardily disapprove of torture. It's so not necessary. Ugh. And Anyway now here I sit possibly slowly killing these sweet babies anyway. Makes my heart hurt. WTG me!

Please don't feel like oyu are a monster. I had a very similar experience this year and I promised my husband that I would not be buying chicks from a hatchery again. I wanted to do the same thing as you are, I have a daughter who wil not eat meat, even though she is a true carnivore, until animals are treated better. She found a baby quail one day and had to save it. I didn't know how to help it with staying warm and growing up to be a bird besides getting some chicks. We raied that quail with the chickens until she was big enough to go away, by that time my chickens had started laying. I found that my daughter started eating eggs when she could thank the chickens for laying them for her.
I became so excited that I ordered 40 more chickens so that I could raise and grow my own. Well, when they arrived, a day late, there was one in the box dead. I buried that one in the front yard (My husband laughed and told me that the scavengers would dig it up, I didn't care. We live on10 acres in the country and we are butted up to the national forest, he never had a chance) and went back to two of them like yours. I kept those two in a separate little bucket brooder I created so I could monitor tremp and dropper water to them. They did not make it, even with the sav-a-chick. I ended up losing 20 of them in the first 48 hours, I had this little mass graveyard by the end. I talked to the hatchery about this loss and they told me that when things like delays happen this type of loss is not uncommon. They sent me replacements and those are fairing quite well. I only lost 3 of the 30 they sent (they sent extras because of the loss I had suffered.) and they have deeper graves cause the ground wasn't frozen this time.
Best of luck and I hope your babies make it!!!!!

 

[melaniekemp]

@junebuggena thanks or the advice! The feed store guys talked me into the giant feeders. Silly me. But I have a space also setup outside for the chicks. It's about 65-70 here in the daytime. I was thinking by the time they outgrew the tiny brooder they would be good for outside. No? Please advise. If I need to give them my bathroom at this point I will totally do it!