Significant size difference

Rose Quartz

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6 Years
Mar 18, 2018
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East Hants N.S. Canada
I have a group of chicks hatched Jan 27/28 so about 2 weeks at the moment.

These are barred rocks from my own flock. I have a whole bunch who are normal sized and 2 that seem to have barely grown since they hatched.

They can get in the food dish. There's one in there right now eating with the others. I don't have any bantam hens or rooster that might be gotten mixed in.

These chicks aren't growing feathers like the others either. I'm not sure what's going on with them.

I have lost 5 chicks so far with this group which seems like a lot to me, but they're on wood shavings and that's not a bedding I usually use.


It's possible they're behind because of the bedding, but I just find it weird that they're so far behind.

Anyway I'm looking for suggestions on what could be the problem or solution if anyone has any ideas.
 

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Losing 5 doesn’t seem right. I’ve only ever used wood shavings as bedding for chicks, so I doubt it’s that. More info would help narrow down a cause.
How many chicks total.
Brooder temp.
Feed type.

I am assuming you’ve done chicks before.

Pasty butts?
Anything sticking out about the losses?

Try adding electrolytes to the water. Maybe it’ll help?
 
Losing 5 doesn’t seem right. I’ve only ever used wood shavings as bedding for chicks, so I doubt it’s that. More info would help narrow down a cause.
How many chicks total.
Brooder temp.
Feed type.

I am assuming you’ve done chicks before.

Pasty butts?
Anything sticking out about the losses?

Try adding electrolytes to the water. Maybe it’ll help?
I've been hatching for about 5 years.

I had 25 chicks to start with. 5 was significant to me too it's why I mentioned it.

Feed is shur-gain non medicated chick starter.

The first 2 I lost were shortly after I moved them out of the first brooder I had them in, into a bigger one at about 1 week old. I'm sure they got too hot the kids had plugged in the second light, and they looked dehydrated. I wasn't able to help them in time. I only use 60 watt light bulbs, but their brooder is in my house and ambient temp is about 23C. (73.4F)

Directly under the light is 32C(89.6F) the small ones seem to still need the added heat but none of the others care to sleep under it.

The next 3 died consecutive days right after I changed their bedding.

The next one I lost died in the night.

4th to die was gasping for air and limp it's nose looked full of wood shavings it died while I was holding it.

And 5th to die was directly under the light when I found it. The others have been sleeping further from the light because it's warm in here.

No pasty butts since I moved them to the bigger brooder.

And I've had experience with cocci and no one seems to be showing signs of that.

I don't use non stick pans while they're in the house.

Idk I only ask because I'm stumped as to what it could be. After the last chick died I decided if there were anymore to die I'd take them down for testing, and then they miraculously stopped dying. Their bedding needs changing again now though and I'm a bit reluctant to change it.

I'll add some electrolytes to their water this evening when I refill their waterer.

Thanks for stopping by to help. :D
 
I am so sorry some of your chicks are having problems. 🙁

What kind of bedding? You could switch out bedding for puppy pads for a few days and see if it seems to make a difference. Is their good air circulation? How high up is your heat lamp? Are all of the chicks drinking throughout the day? Is the water directly under the heat lamp or further away?

Pics of the whole brooder and space would help.
 
I am so sorry some of your chicks are having problems. 🙁

What kind of bedding? You could switch out bedding for puppy pads for a few days and see if it seems to make a difference. Is their good air circulation? How high up is your heat lamp? Are all of the chicks drinking throughout the day? Is the water directly under the heat lamp or further away?

Pics of the whole brooder and space would help.
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I have hardware cloth around the bottom of the wire wall to keep the cats out, as well as the entire door. The roof is just chicken wire. 2 walls are thin wooden sheets. Repurposed faux wood wall panelling. The 2x4 above them is just a roost I stuck in there to give them something to do with their wings once they've got their feathers in enough to get up there.
 
Looks like good ventilation and space, and water is not too close to the light. If the shavings are pine they should be ok. I don’t know much about heat and wattage, (I brood w heat plates), but I’ve only seen brooders with heat lamps above the brooder and I believe the wattage is higher. I wonder if your light is too low &/or not hot enough? Hopefully someone with heat lamp experience will chime in. Do the chicks scoot around a lot or just seem to stay in the same place that they are in the pic. They should be freely moving about during the day. Wasn’t sure if the pic was a sleeping pic or if they tend to hang out there all day.
 
I’m sorry about your chicks, so sad. Just wondering if the light bulb is on 24/7 for heat? Maybe they aren’t able to sleep due to the light? Perhaps a brooder plate would be better, just my opinion.
It is on 24/7 they sleep, they were sleeping in the pics I took.

I've used heat lamps before, and a heating pad, the lower wattage works pretty well for me, my house is super warm to start with.
 
Looks like good ventilation and space, and water is not too close to the light. If the shavings are pine they should be ok. I don’t know much about heat and wattage, (I brood w heat plates), but I’ve only seen brooders with heat lamps above the brooder and I believe the wattage is higher. I wonder if your light is too low &/or not hot enough? Hopefully someone with heat lamp experience will chime in. Do the chicks scoot around a lot or just seem to stay in the same place that they are in the pic. They should be freely moving about during the day. Wasn’t sure if the pic was a sleeping pic or if they tend to hang out there all day.


I don't like to use the 250 watt bulbs in my house it gets way too hot. They were sleeping in the pictures, when they're awake they're running around and hopping up trying to get to the roost, or bumping chests lol they're pretty active.

Under the 60 watt is just barely lower than incubator temps so it's plenty warm for 2 week olds.

Starting out they were in a big storage tote with more than one light bulb to make sure there was enough space under the light for them all to keep warm.

Most of the babies aren't sleeping under the light they don't find it cold enough to have to go over to it.

Oh and yes they are line shavings
 
Some chicks just don't thrive. I assist chicks that won't hatch of their own because of my son. These birds rarely if ever become top birds. High mortality rate on assisted hatch birds and typically are the runts of the flock. Pushed aside at the feed and so forth. So a weaker bird can't keep up with feed intake of brood mates and is not growing to it's genetic potential.

To give them a chance to gain on their brood mates you may want to provide better access to feed. Seems a deep dish for small chicks to climb into to eat. My belief is feed access is slowing their growth.
 

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