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- #69
Update! Yay! The Buckeye, AZ Tractor Supply is now back to the tubs and are no longer using the stack brooder. All chicks in the tub today looked healthy with no pasty butt. The chicks were running around on nice clean shavings!! Thanks Tractor Supply! I am now a happy customer who will continue doing business there!Hi DA in AZ,
I'm scratching my head, thinking, hm, as I was in T. S. last Saturday and they had two tower brooders with not all sections filled with chicks One tower had ducklings and the other chickens. I heard that familiar pasty butt chirp from a chick, "cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep" the sound they make during a painful defecation, and noticed the one chick looking miserable and all of the other chicks were huddled under the black rubber heated pad. This is the first year our T.S. has had the towers. They appear clean. When I bought my six Americanaus from them last February and got them home in their heated brooder, within two days I was using tepid water and a cotton ball to remove the stuck on poop masses as four of the six got pasty butt. They were fine the next day. They are obviously getting stressed, but to point to what, who knows. The chicks all appeared to be a couple days old at the store. Oh, and I found out our local T.S. gets them from Hoover's Hatchery. Just seeing how most of the levels of chicks were huddled, I would think that the brooder heating device is junky overseas made stuff. At least a heat lamp is pretty dependable in how much heat it puts out. I'll be sure to sign the petition. Thanks for the heads up.