Significant size difference

[Rose Quartz]

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.

 

[My Bagurks]

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?

 

[Egghead_Jr]

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.

 

[Iluveggers]

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.

 

[Huntmaster]

Failure to thrive is fairly common can be from several things, incubating can also be from breeding stock. Health or bad nutrition of breeding stock. So really hard to say what the culprit could have been. You might want to give them something like nutri-drench or vitamins/electrolytes to give them a little boost especially the few slow growers.

 

[Rose Quartz]

Idk guys, I put them on Kijiji as available for free cause they're both females, but I did clearly state that they're not growing like the rest and there were incubation issues.

I just got a message asking if they were still available so it looks like someone who has more time to dedicate to making them better might get them.

 

[NatJ]

You could put a bit of their chick starter in a very shallow dish and add water. Chicks usually love that, and because the pieces fall apart when wet it may be easier for the small ones to eat.

(Of course, if the small ones actually have some other problem, that will not help them, but it should not hurt them either.)

 

[NatJ]

Right now I am too busy helping my friend with her farm to really take care of these guys more than I am. The people who want them seem to be fine with the idea that they might not be perfect.

That does sound like a good solution

Good idea, including the photo of feed with your hand and a chick for scale. That looks like normal size chick starter, so I don't think the feed size is the problem. I'm not sure why it was looking so much bigger in some of the other photos

 

[Jeanw]

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.

 

[Rose Quartz]

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