my new chicks - what breeds are they?

[CashmereSussex]

the "chipmonks" are Duckwing coloured but im not sure of the breed something around a Leghorn they could be Duckwing Brown Leghorns

 

[eichenluft]

there's no water in the bathtub - it is raised off the ground (it's a dog bath tub) and it's not in the house - it's in the office (heated rooms, small building). There are finch cages in the same room, but no way for the finches to come in contact with the chicks (I'd be more concerned about the finches, they are very delicate). The chicks are warm, in a tupperware-type big box-container, with shavings and a cover and heat lamp on one side - they are and have always been, quite warm. Not to mention the room is kept on the warmer side for the finches who must stay warm and draft-free or they would all drop dead pretty quickly (tropical finches). So I know they are warm, and draft-free. Anyway, this dying-chick sage started before they ever arrived - they started dying in the box at the PO and just continued dying here, even though I tried to save them. I don't think anything I did caused them to die, they didn't have time to get sick from the finches - and if the finches are sick they would definately die, they are tiny fragile little things.

But thanks... - wish I lived in Hawaii - but it's cold and rainy here, the chicks definately would have zero chance at survival outside in the weather here.

molly

 

[eichenluft]

I know the "chipmunk" ones are not leghorns as I didn't order leghorns - I think they are araucanas. But still not sure.

molly

 

[johnny_smith09]

the black white speckled ones are silver laced wyandottes. and the black with the white on its face are australorps.

wyandottes-
http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/product/silver_laced_wyandottes.html

australorps-
http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/product/black_australorps.html

 

[mudhen]

I might add a belated suggestion here that your 'hospital box' may have been contaminated somehow?

 

[Hellebore]

The first chick is the same as the mystery chick that I received from MM. The only chicks I can find on their website that look close to this are Silver Spangled Hamburgs, but that is a guess. Do you remember ordering Hamburgs? I really want to know if I have one because I read that they don't like contact with people and we want to tame them as pets.

The second chick, which you have 3 pics of, looks identical to our Silver Laced Wyandottes.

The black and yellow look a lot like the Black Australorp chicks that we have, although that may be a coloration common to other breeds (I am new at this).

Hope that helps, and I hope that they are doing better. Did you see on the chick-care page of MM to put extra sugar in the water if they had a rough trip?

 

[eichenluft]

the first chick is a speckled hamburg - and yes the ones that are dark grey with thin stripes on back and white specks on head, are silver-laced wyandottes.

The hospital box was the box they were shipped in - but the chicks were placed in there because they WERE ALREADY sick and fading, so I don't think it was contaminated. But, who knows.

End result - all but 7 of the 28 chicks ordered, died. I got a replacement shipment from McMurray, and all chicks were alive when they got here, seemed ok, but by the end of the day 5 had died, and this morning 2 more had died. They seemed ok but I woudl come in to find them dead (so I guess they were not ok). No "pasty butt" and I made sure they were drinking - the water had the antibiotics they recommended, in it.

So far the rest of the chicks are doing "ok" though 5 of them are a little quiet and not eating yet (they just got here on monday) - so they are separated and under a warmer lamp. They were getting knocked over and trampled by the others in the bigger box.

I definately didn't have these problems with "fading chicks" when I got my first batch of chicks from my neighbor-farmer - they had just hatched the same day, in an incubator - I got 25 and none died. And I knew a lot less about raising chicks then, than I do now.

molly

 

[Hellebore]

Thank you so much for identifying my mystery chick for me!!

Since the chicks can't tell you about their journey.... who knows if they were left somewhere cold, or dropped, or who knows what.

I hope the next shipment is in better shape when they arrive.

 

[kalisgirl]

I don't know what is going on with MMs chicks right now, but it seems a lot of people are losing a lot of there chicks. I am really sorry you are losing chicks from your second batch too.

 

[keljonma]

We got our birds from McMurray last June.

Here is our Silver Spangled Hamburg, Bess, at 15 days

and last November.

She is one of our friendliest birds. If you hold and pet them a lot when they are young, they will be friendly. Bess loves to chat at the end of the day. It's almost like she's telling me about all the goodies she found while foraging the farmyard.

Your "chipmunk" is what McMurray lists as an Araucana/Americana.

I'm sorry you are having so many problems with your chicks. We only lost one of our shipment, but it was injured in transit. Maybe we had less problems because we got our chicks at the end of June last year. I was going to order more birds this March, but decided to wait until late June again because the weather this winter and spring has been so brutal.