Quail chicks dying one by one - can I do anything?

[Kippers302]

One thing you can do...

When you have large amounts of chicks not make it, its a good sign the nutrition ratios in the feed aren't good. That's what I learned when I had a couple batches of ducklings not make it. (Its similar even if not the same animal.)

How I adapted... the feed from mills and stores isn't adequate nutrition. So you supplement it. Real whole seed is good because you can't tamper with unmilled seed like you can with milled feed product.

Basically they are fluffing milled feed too much with filler garbage.

Now... I'm not encouraging you to go to war or complain or be angry. Its just that agriculture in this country has a lot of issues. You still need feed because you have to have a budget. You have to have affordable feed. But what you can do is have like 80% feed, and then 20% unmilled seed mixes from all kinds of stuff. And if that doesn't work, try 70,30, etc until you get it right. But for me doing unmilled seed WITH the normal feed worked pretty well to solve my issues.

But when there's economic damage, crop troubles, all kinds of problems with farms... the natural tendency is to compensate this with having animal feed take a hit on nutrition as inexpensive fillers are put in. People don't actually try to make this unhealthy though, its just they are trying to save their farms and lots of farms having trouble.

The result is you have to be more aware of how to do a feed mix and mix supplements in.

This is my opinion on why lots of people are having laying hen issues. Plus why some chick batches come out with high mortality rates right now. Its related.

Wow, thank you for this reply, this is great information.

 

[nao57]

Sounds like nutrition from what I have learned through study (read not experience). The thing I do know from experience is that guaranteed analysis on feed is per crumble or pellet unless its a mixed feed like seeds then its per whatever measurement they list as a serving. Blending the feed for any animal is not recommended. Commercial food blenders are expensive and control hot spots and other things that can destroy some nutrients and prevent certain stages of powdering which releases other nutrients and separates others that need to be combined to properly absorb. if you want to make the feed smaller then put it in a bowl and crush it up a bit with the back of a spoon so the bigger chunks are gone but thats it.

If ya'll experience the analysis to be wrong you absolutely need to be reporting that to your local agriculture extensions. That is a SUPER big deal and is not taken lightly.
I am new to Quail but not new to farms & livestock in general

I guess I said this already. But from my earlier comment, after I fixed the feed with my own supplements I stopped losing ducklings. It was amazing the difference. Egg production went way up also.

One complaint I do have... I wish cities wouldn't be so idiotic about banning backyard activities that don't cause harm, like poultry or rabbits. But that's a side issue.

 

[countrybumpkin5]

I guess I said this already. But from my earlier comment, after I fixed the feed with my own supplements I stopped losing ducklings. It was amazing the difference. Egg production went way up also.

One complaint I do have... I wish cities wouldn't be so idiotic about banning backyard activities that don't cause harm, like poultry or rabbits. But that's a side issue.

And actually their bans are not lawful but most people don't know this nor know the correct way to stop it but it's doable. Like you say, another issue.

 

[Kippers302]

humidity during incubation wouldnt really affect mortality 5 days+ after hatch. might need to keep the drawing board up

thanks for the tip! They died of wry neck which is what made me think it was humidity… but good to know it might not have been that

 

[BigBlueHen53]

a treatment for any and all things and that's silver. It can get very expensive if you have a lot of animals and are buying it but it's worth considering getting your own generator and making it for pennies.

Sorry, make your own silver?