New hatched chicks

[007Sean]

Knock on wood, no more losses yesterday or this morning. Chicks were a week old yesterday so I’m still thinking failure to thrive possibly?

Or maybe some never recovered entirely from trying to sleep in a huddle away from the heat plate Friday night/Saturday morning when I upgraded them from a small tote to their bigger pen. About 15 or so spent the night in a huddle pile and I found them in the morning cold and nearly comatose. I tucked them all under the heat plate and a couple hours later all but one were back up and active.

I’ve been going down to the basement to check on them with a small flash light every night since then and they mostly seem to get themselves tucked in. I only had to help three or four back under the plate.

What I can glean from your post's is, (huddling together) the temperature is the biggest suspect in the deaths of the chick's. I don't see any 'failure to thrive' issues. 85 - 87°F is too cold for newly hatched and week old chicks. 98° to 95°F for the first week is recommended, it's very important to know exactly the temperature under the plate or if using a heat lamp, ceramic bulb, very important to know the temperature at the chicks level.

 

[Sefirothe]

I had them originally in a large plastic tote with the smaller heat plate. But since there were so many of them, they were either picking on each other, or some couldn’t escape the mass of bodies under the heat plate. Either way, there were about 10 or 15 chicks with injured backs. Either pecked or burnt, tho I don’t think the heat plate would get that hot. But if unable to move away from it, maybe?

In either case, moving them to the bigger pen solved the back injuries. No more appeared and the ones that had wounds started healing. But as you said, they seemed to easily get lost at bed time at first.

One thing is for certain, I’ll never hatch this many at once again!!

I wanted 20-30 chicks so ordered 60 eggs. The seller sent 96….

 

[Sefirothe]

What I can glean from your post's is, (huddling together) the temperature is the biggest suspect in the deaths of the chick's. I don't see any 'failure to thrive' issues. 85 - 87°F is too cold for newly hatched and week old chicks. 98° to 95°F for the first week is recommended, it's very important to know exactly the temperature under the plate or if using a heat lamp, ceramic bulb, very important to know the temperature at the chicks level.

The temp under the plate eventually came up to 95F on the hygrometer I put under it.

 

[007Sean]

The temp under the plate eventually came up to 95F on the hygrometer I put under it.

Depending on the ambient temperature in the basement?...you may want to leave the heat plate where it is for another week. With newly hatched chicks the temperature at the chick's level should be 98 to 95°F, after that, the temperature should be adjusted by 5°F lower each week until they are fully feathered or if almost fully feathered, the ambient temperature should be at least 70°F to wean them off the heat source.
ETA-- Some people try taking them off the heat source by 3 or 4 weeks of age, I however, wouldn't recommend that unless you have a room that is consistent in temperature and at least 75 to 80°F.

 

[Sefirothe]

Depending on the ambient temperature in the basement?...you may want to leave the heat plate where it is for another week. With newly hatched chicks the temperature at the chick's level should be 98 to 95°F, after that, the temperature should be adjusted by 5°F lower each week until they are fully feathered or if almost fully feathered, the ambient temperature should be at least 70°F to wean them off the heat source.
ETA-- Some people try taking them off the heat source by 3 or 4 weeks of age, I however, wouldn't recommend that unless you have a room that is consistent in temperature and at least 75 to 80°F.

Ambient in the basement stays pretty cool at around 45-50F. I have no plans to take the heat plate out anytime soon, they can have it as long as they need it.

 

[Nabiki]

I had them originally in a large plastic tote with the smaller heat plate. But since there were so many of them, they were either picking on each other, or some couldn’t escape the mass of bodies under the heat plate. Either way, there were about 10 or 15 chicks with injured backs. Either pecked or burnt, tho I don’t think the heat plate would get that hot. But if unable to move away from it, maybe?

View attachment 4289829

View attachment 4289828

In either case, moving them to the bigger pen solved the back injuries. No more appeared and the ones that had wounds started healing. But as you said, they seemed to easily get lost at bed time at first.

One thing is for certain, I’ll never hatch this many at once again!!

I wanted 20-30 chicks so ordered 60 eggs. The seller sent 96….

It is possible for chicks to get burned if their backs are actually touching the heat plate. That is one of several reasons that I don't like them. Some people swear by them, but I don't like not being able to see the chicks. With a heat lamp (reptile heat emitter) I can see if they're too hot, too cold, or if any problems develop.

 

[Sefirothe]

It is possible for chicks to get burned if their backs are actually touching the heat plate. That is one of several reasons that I don't like them. Some people swear by them, but I don't like not being able to see the chicks. With a heat lamp (reptile heat emitter) I can see if they're too hot, too cold, or if any problems develop.

I thought about getting one of those ceramic heat emitting bulbs. But I’d have had to build some kind of stand to hold it over the pen. And I had the plates already from having chicken chicks.

I’ll have to think about it for the next (much smaller) batch.

 

[catesquire]

I'll weigh in as someone who does use heat plates and likes them: the exact temp under it doesn't matter as much (since they work differently than heat lights), the behavior of the chicks do.

Chicks that are under and sleeping quietly are happy warm chicks; chicks that are peeping a lot are too cold; chicks avoiding it are too hot. In general, you want the chicks to be able to comfortably touch their backs to it when laying down, while still having room to easily come out of every side to avoid suffocation if a bird can't escape the huddle. For new chicks, I place the heating plate in the middle of the bin to reduce the risk of them losing it, and listen closely after lights out the first night to make sure they're comfy. I also do a health check in the morning and randomly throughout the day where I lift it up for a head count.

Heat plates should NOT get hot enough to burn a chick, even in direct contact with them (since they're SUPPOSED to be in direct contact with it). Your plate is defective and should be returned or exchanged, which should hopefully be easy with the burned chick photos. I can't tell your brand from the picture, but I use Rent-a-Coop (with the anti-roost cone, save yourself endless poop scrubbing), if you need a brand rec.

Also yeah, as you realized, that was WAY too many chicks for a single heat plate. People doing big hatches typically use lights.

It sounds to me like there wasn't enough room and it was too hot, so some chicks left to huddle together, got too cold, and health issues spiraled from there. Hopefully the rest of the chicks are good from here!

But again: good heat plates DON'T burn chicks, the whole point is that they're LESS of a fire risk than lights, get a new one ASAP. Then do health checks and keep an ear out for any unhappy peeping.

Edit: Also make sure you're slanting it so there's a low side and a high side: this lets the chicks pick how warm they want to be and gives more wiggle room for your faster growers.

 

[Sefirothe]

I'll weigh in as someone who does use heat plates and likes them: the exact temp under it doesn't matter as much (since they work differently than heat lights), the behavior of the chicks do.

Chicks that are under and sleeping quietly are happy warm chicks; chicks that are peeping a lot are too cold; chicks avoiding it are too hot. In general, you want the chicks to be able to comfortably touch their backs to it when laying down, while still having room to easily come out of every side to avoid suffocation if a bird can't escape the huddle. For new chicks, I place the heating plate in the middle of the bin to reduce the risk of them losing it, and listen closely after lights out the first night to make sure they're comfy. I also do a health check in the morning and randomly throughout the day where I lift it up for a head count.

Heat plates should NOT get hot enough to burn a chick, even in direct contact with them (since they're SUPPOSED to be in direct contact with it). Your plate is defective and should be returned or exchanged, which should hopefully be easy with the burned chick photos. I can't tell your brand from the picture, but I use Rent-a-Coop (with the anti-roost cone, save yourself endless poop scrubbing), if you need a brand rec.

Also yeah, as you realized, that was WAY too many chicks for a single heat plate. People doing big hatches typically use lights.

It sounds to me like there wasn't enough room and it was too hot, so some chicks left to huddle together, got too cold, and health issues spiraled from there. Hopefully the rest of the chicks are good from here!

But again: good heat plates DON'T burn chicks, the whole point is that they're LESS of a fire risk than lights, get a new one ASAP. Then do health checks and keep an ear out for any unhappy peeping.

Edit: Also make sure you're slanting it so there's a low side and a high side: this lets the chicks pick how warm they want to be and gives more wiggle room for your faster growers.

The small heat plate is probably too old to get a return on. I've had it for three years now and raised 4 batches of chicken chicks under it.

In the last day or so I've noticed these chicks choosing the bigger plate and avoiding the smaller one so I pulled it from the brooder.

The bigger plate is set so the rear is lower than the front and there's plenty of clearance around all four sides of it for chicks to come and go.

I'll probably keep the small one as a back up in times of desperation and stick with the bigger plate. Once these guys are off heat maybe I'll see if anyone I know has one of those temp guns that can read surface temps and compare the performance of the two.

The brand is Comfort Chick and the reason I went with them is that they don't have a minimum ambient temp requirement, and they have over temp protection...but I supposed there's still room for malfunctions.