TSC chicks keep dying despite ideal conditions

[Broxi]

I also noticed that my local TSC had switched to the new brooders and then back to the tubs with heat lamps and shavings.

 

[jspeese]

Next time I go to our local tractor supply, I'll be curious to see what they do. It's about time, I think, for fall chicks to arrive. Intuitively, I would think the new brooders would be more sanitary and therefore better, but evidently that isn't the case. Even when the chicks didn't look bad, I've always seen them clustered under the heating elements, neither eating nor drinking. In the tubs with shavings, however, they are usually walking about, scratching and eating and drinking. Hi-tech is definitely not always better. I'm not sure the chicks can figure out or even find the waterers and feeders in the new brooders.

 

[jspeese]

Next time I go to our local tractor supply, I'll be curious to see what they do. It's about time, I think, for fall chicks to arrive. Intuitively, I would think the new brooders would be more sanitary and therefore better, but evidently that isn't the case. Even when the chicks didn't look bad, I've always seen them clustered under the heating elements, neither eating nor drinking. In the tubs with shavings, however, they are usually walking about, scratching and eating and drinking. Hi-tech is definitely not always better. I'm not sure the chicks can figure out or even find the waterers and feeders in the new brooders.

 

[Laura Anne]

We’ve only gotten ducklings from TSC and will never do that again. We got 6 and they have had health issues since we brought them home.

I just don't like my Tractor Supply store, and I wouldn't buy anything live from them. I'm fortunate to have a great local feed store that has everything I could possibly need. We had two, but TSC built right across the highway from one of them and ran it out of business.

 

[jspeese]

I'm with you on that. I get a lot of supplies from Tractor Supply but have heard too many negative stories about buying anything live from them. Plus as we've discussed already, I've seen too many batches of chicks that just didn't look healthy. And the fact that ducklings have had health issues is especially alarming, as ducklings are usually the toughest, most disease-resistant poultry there are. We too have a good local feed store and another that isn't terribly far.