Our babies died!

[Chickensweeney]

This is our first hatch & we only hatched 2 eggs. Pipped yesterday, one came out this morning & the other this afternoon. They visually had zero problems & seemed perfectly healthy in the bator. When I got home from work I put them in the brooder as they've been in the bator all day. My husband just went & checked on them after maybe 20-30 minutes & they were both just lying there. One dead already & the other struggling hard. What did we do wrong?!?! I shouldn't be so attached but I'm upset they died due to our error!

 

[MeepBeep]

What is the temp of your brooder?

 

[Chickensweeney]

99.5 like our bator...

 

[MeepBeep]

Any further information on your brooder? Does it have sufficient airflow? Does it have varying temperature areas?

 

[Chickensweeney]

It was just a homemade brooder and it was even on the temp throughout. We have it in a spot that no air blows over and such.

 

[MeepBeep]

Well to be blunt you are going to have to toss us a few bones of info before anyone can give legit speculation of cause...

Pictures, verification of temps, food and/or water availability, location of the dead chicks in the brooder, heat source and anything else relevant even if you don't think it's important...

 

[Chickensweeney]

The brooder was constructed from an Styrofoam cooler similar in size to the incubator it was lined with wash cloths until they were big enough not to eat bedding and had easy access to water and feed. The heat source was a 250 watt heat lamp spaced high enough to make the thermometer register 98+/- degrees. the brooder had no lid or cover so air was free moving from out bedroom to the brooder but the temp was constant inside the brooder. All I can speculate is both chicks pipped the wrong end of the egg and maybe that was the beginning of a loosing battle?

 

[MeepBeep]

A 250W light even spaced away is IMO way too much for such a small brooder, even if the air temp in the brooder was 98-99° the IR radiation from that big of a light could overheat (give them a sun burn) the chicks if they can't get out of it directly shining on them...

 

[Chickensweeney]

And that was my next guess as I did not have in place yet an area for them to move out of the light if they needed ( i figured that the few minutes they were in there would have been ok but apparently not because when i returned to check them and give them a shaded area they where both on there backs one already stiff and the second was struggling and soon died.

 

[spotsplus]

I'm sorry to hear you lost both chicks My first guess would be that it was too hot in the brooder for them and they were unable to get out from under the heat. A brooder should always be set up so that the chicks can move away from the heat source. The other thought was that the chicks just didn't develop in the way that they should in order to sustain life outside the shell. For a brooder I use a cardboard box with shavings inside with paper towels over the shavings and a 75 or 100 watt bulb for heat. The chicks are able to get out from under the heat if they like. This has worked great for me for many years. Good luck on your next hatch