my new chicks - what breeds are they?

[The Laird]

Do you have a McMurray catalog? There are some decent pictures in it. Otherwise, try "feathersite" and look at the chicks of the breeds that you ordered. I had about 1/3 of the chicks that I got from McMurray die, and I did what they said. However, it did take three days to get them from Iowa to NY, so that was probably tough on them.

 

[TheBigWRanch]

I would stop using the vitamins made for finches, you should only use something that says it is for baby chicks. Also check to see how much calcium is in the vitamin you are giving them. Calcium is not good for chicks. Are the chicks spread out evenly over the brooder, or still huddled together? If they are huddling, they are definitely cold, no matter how warm the room feels to you. I would get a thermometer right away. What kind of light bulbs are you using? The gray chick is a Silver Spangled Hamburg, and the brown chick looks like it might be a Golden Sebright Bantam. Do you know if you ordered any of those?

 

[eichenluft]

The healthy chicks are now not huddled anymore, except when they are sleeping - they are most of the time moving around the box. They seem to be doing ok now, though this afternoon another one faded and died despite my efforts. The 5 chicks in the "hospital box" are now down to 4 - the last RIR chick died, and the last grey chick (silver spangled hamburg) died. I still have two dark brown chicks - figured out they are RIR bantams. They are in the hospital box but are holding on so far, though they are still not eating.

the supplement I put in the water is only electrolytes and vitamins, for birds. I had it for my finches, but it doesnt' specify finches - I assumed it would help the chicks and it's all I had so that's what I used. I do think it has helped the ones that didn't fade very quickly - some seemed fine and then an hour later were too close to death to save them

.

I've raised chicks before - my previous batch was not shipped though - came on the day they hatched from my neighbor's incubator - got 25 of them and didn't lose a one - in the same box/brooder/heat/light set up as this one. I don't have a thermomiter but I should have gotten one - spending so much time with the chicks I haven't gone anywhere since they got here. But their bodies are warm, and the healthy ones are active and eating.

Thanks for everyone's input and help!

molly

 

[AccidentalFarm]

Just my opinion, and so for whats it worth, i would definitely try the plain water just to see if maybe its somehow a possibility that the vitamins and electrolytes are too much for such tiny little systems.

There was a recent thread on this same thing and switching to plain water made all the difference.

 

[chickbea]

One quick thing - You should cover your bedding with paper towels, not newspaper. Newspaper can be slippery for baby chicks.
I wonder if your poor little things were handled roughly in transit and maybe some have internal or head injuries. Most postal handlers respect that there are living critters in the box, but I'm sure there are careless people, not to mention that accidents can happen. I can't imagine what else might be doing in so many of them.

 

[eichenluft]

well, all is finished I think - all of the chicks in the "hospital box" died last night. Now I have one silver wyandotte chick, two barred rocks, two that I think are black australorps, and two chipmunk-looking ones - araucanas? So 7 chicks survived out of 28. And good news is - these are doing fine, and I picked up 5 baby RIRs from my feed store yesterday (couldn't resist) and they are also doing fine. And the replacement order from McMurray is supposed to come next week. Hopefully one that will work out better.

molly

 

[keljonma]

Quote:
Aren't they adorable when they all lay next to and overlapping each other like kittens?

Quote:
Just a thought..... Did you thoroughly clean and sanitize the brooder box before using it on your new chicks? It's always a good idea to sanitize any equipment you re-use to prevent cross contamination. I would suggest saving your new shipping box to use as an infirmary for the new flock and trash the old one for the same reason. I'm not suggesting your birds died of disease, I just like to be cautious with new chicks.

I think if you put your original McMurray chicks, your feed store chicks and your new McMurray chicks together immediately they should do well as a flock. Just make sure they aren't over crowded.

Keep us posted.

regards,
keljonma

 

[eichenluft]

yes the 7 remaining McMurray chicks are together with the new RIR chicks, and I plan on putting the new McMurray chicks with them too - the box is big enough.
the chicks were dying or weak/sick when they arrived, so I'm sure it wasn't something they picked up from the box or the room or anywhere else - but I did clean the box after it was finished being used last year for the last batch of chicks.

thanks again for the good advice!

molly

 

[Aloha Moa]

How interesting. I know the pain when a chick dies. I've only had two clutches hatch, and have lost 5 out of 16 chicks from two hens (my flock is completely free-range). I think my losses are due to predators. What a completely different environment you guys describe for your chicks from the one my Hawaiian jungle chicks have! They find water and food on their own, make their own nests, hens and rooster try to keep the chicks safe from predators, but still it's impossible to have 100% survival rate, isn't it.

The reason I'm responding to this thread is I want to point out the finch issue. Although finches and chickens are both avians, the similarity might end there. I would NOT put them anywhere near each other. I would not use anything finch-related with the chickens. I would not recommend keeping them in the same room. (I'm still trying to understand the chicks in the house concept

) Perhaps there's some psittacosis or some other bug the finches are carrying that are infecting the chicks, or some other incompatibility. But it rings an alarm bell for me.

Good luck.

 

[Aloha Moa]

Oh yeah, one more alarm bell went off for me, although since I don't have ANY experience other than my outdoor birds it may mean absolutely nothing - but that is the bathtub and the warmth issue.

Porcelain bathtubs are very cold. If you put hot water in one, the water will cool quickly. You might want to investigate a place other than the bathtub, or that particular bathtub, to keep chicks.

BTW, here in Hawaii the temp averages about 75 degrees. I don't know how the young chicks keep warm. Perhaps the hens huddle over them. I don't know, but it's definitely not in the 90's outside, where they're thriving.