Several day old chicks not thriving and not eating or drinking

[Silkie Chick 345]

Thank you to everyone who has helped out with great advice these last few days. I had 10 mini Silkie eggs and only one hatched, 48 hours later than expected (eight eggs did not develop and one stopped at about a week) and was extremely weak. This was obviously a bad start, but the chick survived the first night and we wanted to get it company to give it more of a chance. We bought two chicks locally, from someone who had only had a relative who only had the two hatch (panic buy, we are usually much more careful or for some animals take in rescues). These are also weak and one has a very wide-legged stance, so struggles to stand. We had conflicting information on the age, so are not sure if they are two or four days old. We are trying to help the chicks and will keep - they are under a warming plate, in a warm room in the house and I am feeding them sugar water from a pipette (placing a drop on the outside of their beaks to avoid drowning them). Please let me know if there is anything else I can do to try and help them?

I wonder whether to discard the egg brooder, rather than keep it to try again. We followed the instructions and the alarms for bad conditions did not go off. I read that problems with temperature can cause problems for the chicks and it is possible that the chicks we bought also had this issue, as only two hatched. I don't want anymore chicks to suffer if there is a mechanical issue with the brooder (on some of the reviews inconsistencies were found in the temperature inside, with mixed results for hatching).

 

[Tevian]

What brand is your incubator? I’ve had bad luck before with batches of eggs doing similar to what you described, and then the next time having great success. Sometimes the batch is just no good. But if there’s lots of poor reviews for your incubator you may have to consider alternatives or fixes

 

[Silkie Chick 345]

'Hethya NC Egg Automatic Incubator, Home, Farm Chicken Egg Incubator, 16-36 Eggs'​

It does not have a brand on the actual egg brooder - just made in China, even the instructions have no brand. I bought in on Amazon with what looked like good reviews, but now I look more closely some of those who wrote in detail had problems.

I do not want to risk it happening again. Glad you had success with another batch.

 

[Jjynx]

Many people suggest getting a second thermometer/ hydrometer to put in the incubator and test it to be sure the readings are correct or that there aren’t cold spots.