New to chickens

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sarahsue468

sarahsue468

In the Brooder
8 Years
Feb 23, 2011
10
0
22
New member in Oregon and am really excited to start my own backyard flock. I have always wanted chickens.
Knowing this, my family and I just got 4 chicks yesterday! We Set up a brooder box in our living room after reading "Chickens in your backyard". Set up everything according to everything I have read. When I got home from work today one of our chicks was dead! The others seam just fine, but I wanted to know if this was common. I plan on replacing the chick first thing in the morning so hopefully my 5 year old won't notice, but didn't know how common this was and if I could handle coming home to a dead chick daily. Any pointers for this newbie??
Thanks,
Sarah
 
It's really not all that uncommon. I have found adding vitamins to the water can be helopful. You can get vitamin/electrolite powder at the feed store. Make sure they are warm enough and they should be alright. But yes new chicks are fragile and it is not uncommon to lose one.
 
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Welcome to BYC! I started with chickens over the summer and the people of BYC have been great. Please visit my BYC Page for my blog links that you may find informative or amusing.

Good luck with the chicks. Be sure to keep the brooder clean.
 
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from Ohio
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Yes, sometimes they do die,
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make sure they are warm enough, like 90+ degrees warm, not room temperature warm. I hope you know that already, but I just thought to remind you. Also my grand daughter got a hold of one of theirs and squashed it a little too hard, the next day it died, so watch that the child doesn't do something like that. The little chicks are kind of delicate that way.
 
Thanks for the replies already!! Can't believe how quickly y'all responded. I have put save-a-chick electrolyte powder in their water, and the temp in their brooder box is 90 degrees. I moved it away from the front door in order to avoid drafts. Hopefully we don't lose anymore!
 

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