replacing baby chick - will other chicks accept the new one?

[elaineinspain]

I, too, am at a loss for what is happening to your chicks. At which point I usually try different things. It appears your eco glo is in the lowest position. What would happen if you tried making it higher? Do your chicks seem content? (Just wondering if it was too warm, but in which case they should move away, unless it was at night and they were asleep.

I only have the one chick left now. The chicks all seemed content and happy until just before death, when they stayed under the ecoglow.

When it was the four of them they all lay together under it.

My last remaining chick is spending most of her time under it and peeping quietly to herself or sleeping. When she does come out she drinks fine but then she will stand on her food bowl and make loud cheeping between pecking at the food. (maybe calling to her deceased friends to signal a food supply???)

I've also put some food on the floor near to the ecoglow so she doesn't have to come out so far and run the risk of catching cold. She is pretty much ignoring the food on the floor and walks straight over to the food bowl or water bowl. has a quick drink, or peck at food and then starts cheeping loudly (I can hear her with the door to the room shut) She only sounds peaceful when she's under the ecoglow. and sort of dozing.

But all four of them spent more time under it than out. I figured it was because it's like comfort for them...

 

[dekel18042]

I only have the one chick left now. The chicks all seemed content and happy until just before death, when they stayed under the ecoglow.

When it was the four of them they all lay together under it.

My last remaining chick is spending most of her time under it and peeping quietly to herself or sleeping. When she does come out she drinks fine but then she will stand on her food bowl and make loud cheeping between pecking at the food. (maybe calling to her deceased friends to signal a food supply???)

I've also put some food on the floor near to the ecoglow so she doesn't have to come out so far and run the risk of catching cold. She is pretty much ignoring the food on the floor and walks straight over to the food bowl or water bowl. has a quick drink, or peck at food and then starts cheeping loudly (I can hear her with the door to the room shut) She only sounds peaceful when she's under the ecoglow. and sort of dozing.

But all four of them spent more time under it than out. I figured it was because it's like comfort for them...

Were the ones that died eating? Did they have full crops? I'm assuming they were incubator hatched, not hatched with a broody hen? How long were they in transit to you? Any chance they could have been chilled then?
This is very mysterious.

 

[elaineinspain]

Were the ones that died eating? Did they have full crops? I'm assuming they were incubator hatched, not hatched with a broody hen? How long were they in transit to you? Any chance they could have been chilled then?
This is very mysterious.

I saw the first one who died eat and drink just about one hour before she died. I don't know if she had a full crop or not as I don't know what that is. However she wasn't very interested in eating or drinking. She preferred to spend her time under the ecoglow sort of dozing towards the end.
I saw all of those who died being perfectly active, eating and drinking and running around. I witnessed them being 'normal' before I went to bed, and then in the morning about 9 hours later, I found them dead. All except for the first one who died at 3.30pm who I was with approx 45 mins before she died.

Yes, they were incubator hatched. We picked them up from the supplier and brought them home in a box. They were in the box for around 1 hour and 45 minutes. When I got them home I made sure they all got a drink of water and placed them in the brooder near the ecoglow, which they found pretty quickly. The temperature that day was around 21ºC ( 70ºF)
When the first one died I also thought maybe she had got chilled or stressed during the journey.

After aart mentioned coccidiosis I did some research here and on other sites. Maybe they had that - picked it up at the supplier. The research I did states that the death rate is highest around 4 days after initial contact with the protozoa through infected droppings or just through having it carried in on shoes, hands, etc. The research also says that if the chicken gets through day 6 after initial contact she will have built up an immunity to it. This ties in with how long the chicks were here before they started dying.
So now I'm hoping that my last remaining survivor has built this immunity and that she doesn't die tonight, if it truly IS cocci.

These are the first chickens I have ever had. The brooder that I have for the chicks is made from a dog crate with hardware cloth around it. After one died I put a plastic tote box (new and never before used) in the dog crate in case there was a draft. There was fresh wood shavings on the floor, and then after the 2nd one died I put fresh paper towels on top of the shavings, in case they had been eating the shavings and that was hurting them in some way.

Today the remaining chick was cheeping loudly while under the ecoglow a few times, so I made a sort of hill with the shavings and the paper towels under the middle of the heat plate so she could choose to lie closer to the plate or further away. Last time I checked on her (about an hour ago) she was lying on the top of the 'hill' with her back just touching the heat plate.
Even with the heat plate in the lowest position the chicks only actually touched it when standing up. The moment they squatted down they were no longer in contact with it. They used to sleep all together, side by side, under it. I don't know if this means they weren't warm enough or not. They didn't make any loud cheeping when under there. Only today when the last one was there on her own did she cheep loudly while under the ecoglow.

Thank you so much for your help and suggestions with all this...

 

[aart]

Very good explanation of timeline and scenario.

The remaining chick will likely cheep more because it is alone...sometimes a little stuffed animal to cuddle up to can comfort them.

 

[elaineinspain]

The remaining chick will likely cheep more because it is alone...sometimes a little stuffed animal to cuddle up to can comfort them.

The remaining chick is still alive, but she's not looking so good. She is only eating and drinking when I hold her in my hand and spoon feed her. She cant stand up without my help. And if she looses her balance while sitting down she just stays lying on her side. When I hold her cupped in my hands she cheeps quietly and dozes. I just hope she's not in any pain...

 

[aart]

Quote: Oh Geez, Bummer!...but not surprising. I'm so sorry you're having such rotten first time luck, hard way to start out.
I conclude that those chicks had something wrong with them from the get go, disease or internal deformity.
Any way to quietly review that hatchery's reputation? I would not buy from them again, that's for sure.
Sad the last chick will likely succumb, but makes moving forward simpler in a way.
Sanitize the cage and all equipment with a strong bleach solution, let all air dry in the sun for a week, and start over with chicks from another source.

 

[elaineinspain]

Oh Geez, Bummer!...but not surprising. I'm so sorry you're having such rotten first time luck, hard way to start out.
I conclude that those chicks had something wrong with them from the get go, disease or internal deformity.
Any way to quietly review that hatchery's reputation? I would not buy from them again, that's for sure.
Sad the last chick will likely succumb, but makes moving forward simpler in a way.
Sanitize the cage and all equipment with a strong bleach solution, let all air dry in the sun for a week, and start over with chicks from another source.

while holding her today, I noticed little beige/brown lice(?) crawling through her feathers close to her skin. And on the feathers round her beak have little white dot things on them. Could it be these lice things that are killing my baby chicks? When I took the dead ones out of the brooder I should've looked at them better, I know, but it's difficult to see properly when you're crying. How do I get rid of these lice things? I have put diatomaceous earth on her very carefully avoiding her eyes and beak, and I've sprinkled it in the wood shavings under the paper towels (I use DE on my cats when they get fleas, so was hoping it would treat this infestation of lice things too - they are not fleas because I've not seen any jump.)
I have neem oil too, which I know kills pretty much all insects and pests.

Is it possible that week old chicks can die from lice?

My husband phoned the "hatchery guy" (before I read your recommendation to go to a different supplier) to explain that we would now need 3 or even 4 more chicks, and he says he still has some from the same hatch. What makes me wonder is how come his babies are still alive?
I'm still hoping against hope that this last one isn't in pain and will survive, although the last time I went to hand feed her, she wasn't interested in either the water or the feed...

 

[aart]

Yes, lice could possibly kill a chick...google images of lice and mites and their eggs to help ID what you have.
DE won't likely stop an infestation, but it might help....I use a permethrin product if birds have lice but have never treated chicks.

Is 'Hatchery Guy' using an incubator or broody hens?

 

[elaineinspain]

Yep, I googled it - Lice. But nowhere near as bad an infection as the photos on google! But I do know they can reproduce very quickly if I don't do something quick.

I sprinkled the DE on the baby and in the brooder about 3 hours ago. One hour after when I was holding her, I still saw a lice on her head. An hour after I saw none.

I'm feeding her every hour.

Twenty mins ago she didn't want to eat anything, but the time before she ate quite a lot and actually stood up on her own to eat. She did an enormous poop! NOT diarrhea. (It was only the first one who died who had poop like water, with no solids in.)

It's saturday - half day closing, so I can't get that permethrin product till Monday at the earliest because Sunday is .... Sunday. Nothing is open except church and restaurants/bars. And people selling baby chicks.

Hatchery Guy uses an incubator. He has about 7 or 8 chicken runs each with about 6 chickens and one or two roosters in each. The breeds are separated. He breeds the chickens as a hobby. He shares the facility with one other guy. His incubator is about the size of a small fridge. he has all the young chicks in one large room that looks like it was once used as a stable. He has 3 brooders of different sizes with chicks of different ages in each brooder. Now I come to think of it, there were two or three dead baby chicks which he quickly removed from one of the brooders - maybe the one that I chose my babies from - I can't be sure, but probably was because the other brooders had larger birds in.

He apologised for not having such a large selection and explained that about 20 baby chicks had drowned in the waterer two days earlier. He had put the full size waterer in by mistake instead of the one for babies.
After I chose the chicks, he showed us around his chicken runs so we could see the parents.
Some chicken runs had concrete floors, some had earth floors.
He doesn't live on site - he goes every day at 6pm to look after the chickens.
He collected the eggs from each nesting box, wrote the date and breed on the egg and put them in a container, I presume to put in the incubator after we'd left.

Yes, lice could possibly kill a chick...google images of lice and mites and their eggs to help ID what you have.
DE won't likely stop an infestation, but it might help....I use a permethrin product if birds have lice but have never treated chicks.

Is 'Hatchery Guy' using an incubator or broody hens?

 

[JadedPhoenix]

Yep, I googled it - Lice. But nowhere near as bad an infection as the photos on google! But I do know they can reproduce very quickly if I don't do something quick.

I sprinkled the DE on the baby and in the brooder about 3 hours ago. One hour after when I was holding her, I still saw a lice on her head. An hour after I saw none.

I'm feeding her every hour.

Twenty mins ago she didn't want to eat anything, but the time before she ate quite a lot and actually stood up on her own to eat. She did an enormous poop! NOT diarrhea. (It was only the first one who died who had poop like water, with no solids in.)

It's saturday - half day closing, so I can't get that permethrin product till Monday at the earliest because Sunday is .... Sunday. Nothing is open except church and restaurants/bars. And people selling baby chicks.

Hatchery Guy uses an incubator. He has about 7 or 8 chicken runs each with about 6 chickens and one or two roosters in each. The breeds are separated. He breeds the chickens as a hobby. He shares the facility with one other guy. His incubator is about the size of a small fridge. he has all the young chicks in one large room that looks like it was once used as a stable. He has 3 brooders of different sizes with chicks of different ages in each brooder. Now I come to think of it, there were two or three dead baby chicks which he quickly removed from one of the brooders - maybe the one that I chose my babies from - I can't be sure, but probably was because the other brooders had larger birds in.

He apologised for not having such a large selection and explained that about 20 baby chicks had drowned in the waterer two days earlier. He had put the full size waterer in by mistake instead of the one for babies.
After I chose the chicks, he showed us around his chicken runs so we could see the parents.
Some chicken runs had concrete floors, some had earth floors.
He doesn't live on site - he goes every day at 6pm to look after the chickens.
He collected the eggs from each nesting box, wrote the date and breed on the egg and put them in a container, I presume to put in the incubator after we'd left.

Sounds like he knew he had a problem but made excuses that would sound believable so he could make a sell. Do NOT go back there again. If he knew what he was doing with chicks, he wouldn't have made that "mistake" with his chicks since those chicks are his means of extra income. With his set up, he is in business, this isn't just a casual hobby. Not to mention, I would have assumed that he'd have a waterer for each brooding box just for chicks and not bring in a waterer from outside that is for his larger chickens.