*Update* (No longer) Losing broiler chicks!

[KatyTheChickenLady]

wow anthony I still think that's a lot of protein for that age.
I feed Purina Flock Raiser start to finish with zero problems like yours. You might try pulling out your small ones and giving them that for awhile . . . see if it make a difference.
According to the animal nutritionist I spoke with, 16% is the optimal protein amount for a birds liver to process.

 

[Yardbirds286]

I read in a book to start broiler chicks at 90'F and then decrease it slowly after a couple days. I have a dozen in our brooder right now, and they are all doing great. They are feathering out nicely along with the decreasing temps.

 

[dltc96]

Quote:
Yes, that's pretty much how it's gone for us. We did have one the other night that started showing signs of trouble, but we were able to get it to drink a little and after a while it started eating. It seems to be doing fine now. However, we have now lost one of our layers. She would just stand in one place and was not very active. I checked on her after a bit and she was laying on her stomach. When I picked her up she was very limp and seemed to be gasping. She would not take any water and she died in my hands after a few minutes.

Today our free exotic started acting the same way. I was able to get him (we are assuming it is a rooster) to drink a little and then he started eating. Now he shoves the other chicks out of the way to get to the food, so I think he'll be fine (but, I am going to monitor him closely).

All but three of ours came from McMurray. The other three are a week older and have shown no symptoms at all. They came from a local breeder. I plan to call McMurray on Monday just to put this on their radar. I don't expect a refund or anything, but I feel they should be aware in case it is happening to others.

KatyTheChickenLady - I was able to find the PolyViSol last night at Walmart in the vitamin section. We put it into the water immediately and then upped the dosage when we read your post. We also administered it to the free exotic when he was doing so poorly (one drop on the side of his beak). Thanks for your help.

Now we'll just keep an eye on all of them and pray that we lose no more. It was getting to the point that we were dreading going in to check on them. Our kids were handling it pretty well until we lost one of the layers. Then the freebie was taking the same route. It's been rough!

If it is the "Starve Out", I'm not really sure what we did to start it. It is supposed to phase out around day ten, so we still have a couple more days of nail biting I guess. Hopefully we will come out of this with at least a few chicks left. I hope things begin to look up for you as well. Please let me know how it turns out.

 

[dltc96]

Quote:
This is an interesting point. I had thought that all chicks should be kept at about 95. We will definitely have to keep that in mind if we decide to do meat birds again after this batch. I think it will all depend on how ours do over the next couple of days. We've read so much over the past year that is all starts to blur. I might have come across this before and just forgotten about it. Thanks for the info. *steps out to raise the lamps*

 

[vtgirls]

Todays check at 6:00am - no losses, no one looking sick, everyone eating and drinking, every single one (I watched

. We've had them 7 days now, so they are likey 8 0r 9 old. Hoping the "loss period" is behind us and for you as well. Keep me posted!

 

[dltc96]

Update ** Thank you for all of your help and suggestions. As of right now, it has been two and a half days since the last death; we lost nine total.

Seven of our losses were Cornish and two were layers. The two layers were always the most docile and timid. That probably means they were just not thriving as well as we thought. I think now it was mostly our inexperience with the meat birds. I'm pretty sure that we had it too hot for them (we were trying to compensate for our unheated garage and below freezing nights). They would lay right in the light, so we assumed they were comfortable even though they did not move around much (we had heard how lazy they can be). I think the heat caused the "starve out". We did so much research and thought we were prepared; now we feel guilty that our leaning curve cost so many lives. I do not mind humanely killing an animal for food; it is another thing entirely to watch it die and not know how to help.

Now we have both heat lamps on but raised much higher. The temp is staying around 85, and they seem to be more comfortable. After feeling how much heat they put off by their own metabolism, it makes sense. They are all very active and eat voraciously when I put the food in with them in the mornings (then they pout when I remove it at night).

So...the count is 19 Cornish Roasters, 2 green laying EEs, 2 SLWs, 3 Columbian Wyandottes, 3 blue laying EEs (we got them locally), and 1 Egyptian Fayoumi (our freebie from McMurray - pretty sure he's a cockerel). We also still have our 6 from last spring (1 green laying EE and 5 BAs).

Thank you again for the support!

 

[vtgirls]

After we lost 3 in 24 hours on the 6th day we have lost no more, so leaves us with 27 of the original 31 (1 did not survive shipping). Our free chick has just moved in with the brand new laying chicks - we also lost one of those through shipping and another within just a couple hours, everyone else seems OK (they just came today). We plan to start restricting feed as of tomorrow for the broilers who will be about 12 days old.

I think you should be careful to not overly blame yourself. I am honestly very comfortable that it was not the brooder set up (heat, space or any of that) that was responsible for the losses here. I have hatched out incubated eggs, both turkey and chicken, and raised them here, and not lost any. I really feel shipping is super hard on them, some much more so than others and sometimes they just cant adjust.

These two batches are the first time I have ordered by mail and I wont do it again - not because I blame the companies I purchased them from but because I am so nervous now I cant imagine waiting again - even though thats excatly what I am going through one last time - I have turkey poults I bought from Welp coming next week and am super apprehensive, hoping they all are healthy and thriving....