Thebantyhenhomestead
Chirping
Hello backyard chicken family, I’m looking for some advice
Now I’d like to start off with this isn’t my first ball game with raising chicks including silkie chicks for that matter, and it’s always been smooth sailing in the past, maybe a weak chick here and there but I’ve never dealt with this much of a death issue till now so I’m always open to learning tips from other people’s experience.
So let’s start with someone I know and I gotten some chicks from a highly known silkie breeder and they all ended up dying, we thought oh maybe they were struggling to eat the crumbles, but even after making a wet crumble mash or grinding their food smaller, electrolytes, nutri-drench, between the both of us all of them ended up dying.
(Obvi I clean and disinfect brooder between all new chicks)
Fast forward to a month later I got like 20 silkies from a farm store rural king and my own silkie flocks eggs have started staggering hatching.
Now I have 3 hens laying, one is a year 1/2 and the other two are about 9 months old and have been laying for almost two months.
All the eggs have been hatching and there have not been any deformed chicks or any that struggle within the first couple days.
Now once they get to a few days old, I keep having chicks die on me what feels like every other night (the rural king ones and my own that keep hatching), I obvi feel like it’s coming down to a food issue where they just are not thriving enough to try to eat enough the whole day by themselves, even with offering scrambled eggs which they go crazy over and the chicks that eat that will still end up dying. (Ive felt for full crops at night and some of which still end up dying.)
I’ve tried everything under the sun to help them that I know of, even through my goal is to have hardier chicks that I don’t have to baby sit all day to get them to live another 24 hours.. like all the past normal chicks I’ve had ! Here’s a list of everything I’ve tried, not all at once:
On a side note I have about 10 other chicks of varies breeds that are in the same room and they have been thriving just like chicks normally do this whole time
What else can I possibly do for these silkies ?!? I started hatching my own for a hobby I’m working towards and all this is extremely discouraging!! I’d say maybe it has to do with me having some younger layers, but that wouldn’t make sense for why I lost silkies from two other sources as well (which months prior I have 3 sets of silkie chicks from my usual breeder who all acted like normal chicks with no additional help and are beautiful juveniles now.
Now I’d like to start off with this isn’t my first ball game with raising chicks including silkie chicks for that matter, and it’s always been smooth sailing in the past, maybe a weak chick here and there but I’ve never dealt with this much of a death issue till now so I’m always open to learning tips from other people’s experience.
So let’s start with someone I know and I gotten some chicks from a highly known silkie breeder and they all ended up dying, we thought oh maybe they were struggling to eat the crumbles, but even after making a wet crumble mash or grinding their food smaller, electrolytes, nutri-drench, between the both of us all of them ended up dying.
(Obvi I clean and disinfect brooder between all new chicks)
Fast forward to a month later I got like 20 silkies from a farm store rural king and my own silkie flocks eggs have started staggering hatching.
Now I have 3 hens laying, one is a year 1/2 and the other two are about 9 months old and have been laying for almost two months.
All the eggs have been hatching and there have not been any deformed chicks or any that struggle within the first couple days.
Now once they get to a few days old, I keep having chicks die on me what feels like every other night (the rural king ones and my own that keep hatching), I obvi feel like it’s coming down to a food issue where they just are not thriving enough to try to eat enough the whole day by themselves, even with offering scrambled eggs which they go crazy over and the chicks that eat that will still end up dying. (Ive felt for full crops at night and some of which still end up dying.)
I’ve tried everything under the sun to help them that I know of, even through my goal is to have hardier chicks that I don’t have to baby sit all day to get them to live another 24 hours.. like all the past normal chicks I’ve had ! Here’s a list of everything I’ve tried, not all at once:
- Save a chick probio/ electrolytes water
- Plain water
- Non-medicated feed
- Medicated feed
- Purina flock raiser crumbles (just started this)
- Game bird chick feed for higher protein
- Wet chick feed to make a mash
- Nutri-drench
- Milk (tried this for a baby that was really struggling so I tried my best to have some type of hardier liquid in it-didn’t help)
- They have brinsea heater plates
- I’ve tried heat lights instead-same problem
- Just puppy pads for bedding
- Pine shavings for bedding
- Making sure the room has enough light so darkness isn’t an issue during the day
- Making sure the room they’re in isn’t too cold or hot
- Using a puppy play pen for brooder
- Using a large wooden shelf laid on its side for brooder
On a side note I have about 10 other chicks of varies breeds that are in the same room and they have been thriving just like chicks normally do this whole time
What else can I possibly do for these silkies ?!? I started hatching my own for a hobby I’m working towards and all this is extremely discouraging!! I’d say maybe it has to do with me having some younger layers, but that wouldn’t make sense for why I lost silkies from two other sources as well (which months prior I have 3 sets of silkie chicks from my usual breeder who all acted like normal chicks with no additional help and are beautiful juveniles now.
