One lonely baby chick

[Gdsgirl32]

I need some help. My nephew bought 6 baby chicks from tractor supply Friday. He had everything set up right with a brooder light and thermometer. Last night when he came home 3 were dead and 2 died shortly after. He has one very lonely chick that I am babysitting today. She is fine if she sees me and would be even more content if I held her. LOL She seems very healthy. I just don't know about adding another chick with her since we don't know what happened to the rest. Any ideas on what to do?

 

[bj taylor]

she can't live alone, so i say go for more. it's a risk, but one chicken doesn't work. that's my opinion

 

[RonC]

You should either find the one a new home or get more. She won't do well alone. Do some research on here and see what possibly might have gone wrong and get some more. They are some work but alot of pleasure comes from caring and interacting with them.

 

[Gdsgirl32]

We have 17 chickens of our own from ages 5-7 weeks. We didn't have a bit of problem with ours from the beginning. After doing some research I kind of suspect that maybe while he was gone yesterday they got overheated.

 

[RonC]

Don't try to keep the whole brooder at one temperature. Put the heat lamp at one extreme end of the brooder so they have a cool area also so that they can escape the heat if too warm. They will try to regulate their temperature by moving closer or further from the lamp. If they stay huddled diectly under the light they are too cold, if they stay close to the edge of the light and never directly under it then probably need to move it up further away. After about 3 weeks mine stayed out from under the heat lamp most of the time.