Some chicks look wet - can see skin underneath..

[FarmerGirl]

We have 112 chicks and they arrived on Wednesday. We've had three die. The ones that died just seemed weak. They weren't growing like the others. I have two chicks currently in the "hospital" away from teh stronger and more aggressive chicks. On the sick chicks, their fluff looks wet but it's not, and you can see the skin underneath. What do you make of this? They are 5 days old. I think they were just the "runts" and perhaps haven't gotten enough nutrition, not that there is some chicken disease. But why does their down look so odd on these compared to my others which are lil furballs?

 

[Barb Schuetz]

It almost sounds as if they didn't get to spend the time to dry off in the nice warm inucbator. Poor lil things! That's the only thing I can think of. Sorry i couldn't be more help.

 

[silkiechicken]

Yeah, all I can think of is that they didn't fluff out and were sticky hatches so that egg gunk is still stuck on them. Not quite ready to leave the bator. You can take a warm damp cloth and rub away the goo that has now dried. Usually if you just scratch lightly at it, it will flake off.