Updated: bloody beaks....why??...Now...chicks just dying! 6/3

[silentrunning]

Quote:
OK. The next hatch I will try dry from day 1. It will save a heck of a lot of work and mess if it works. Thanks Bettacreek.

Doug

 

[Bettacreek]

No problem. When you watch them, you'll see them picking at food for awhile without actually eating it, but they will get the hang of it shortly. Some of the much bigger pieces (sometimes I even find whole pellets!) may be passed over, but they'll peck at it later until it breaks up.

 

[wilds of pa]

If picking starts, make sure the room you have them in has no outside light coming in and use the darkest red lamp you can find..

if you have windows cover them up with card board or something to stop outside light from entering your brooder room. make sure the brooder is not to hot as that will cause picking to start fast..

once it starts it tough to stop them.. also give more space if possible and one also could put a lite layer of hay in the brooder and it may help take there Lil minds off picking..

As for the red and blue accent lights (100 - 150 watt bulbs) true value hardware is were we purchase them..im sure lowes and home depot carry them as well..

~Wilds~

 

[yotetrapper]

Okay they're still dying, but they dont have bloody beaks anymore that I saw. I pulled out 3 dead ones today. So far we have lost over 1/4 of them, closer to half I think. I'll look in, and they'll all seem fine, and an hour later there will be one lying there dead. I dont know why, or what to do, and I'm really frustrated.

So far, I've got them off of wire, switched to a red light, and ground up their crumbles.

 

[robbie34]

it sounds like the pheasants are jumping in to the walls of the boorder or cuting there beaks on the feeders the quail i raise i give a 22% turkey starter feed and try putting a small spone of sugar in the water this helps keep them stronger

 

[luvarabhorses]

Is there ANY chance they could have been exposed to worms at any point? I know worms can be present in chicken eggs but I was unable to find anything on the internet about pheasant eggs. Why don't you put some safeguard (fenbendazole) in the water and see if things improve. I know this will kill gapeworm and roundworms which are the most problematic.

 

[yotetrapper]

Ok, if I wasn't clear, quail are dying, not pheasant. I lost one pheasant early on, but the other two are doing fine in their own box.

But I'm just so disgusted about the quail. 2 more dead this morning.

Worms? I guess it could be possible? All of my chickens seem healthy...

 

[luvarabhorses]

Wouldn't hurt to try. I had problems getting my quail to eat the starter, that's when I started adding mealworms.

 

[Bettacreek]

Sorry that I didn't go back and check your previous posts, but, have you checked the actual temperature on your brooder? I think someone else mentioned a bad bag of feed already, but, if nobody else is dying and is eating from the same bag, that kind of excludes that. Is there maybe something that you used to clean the brooder that is maybe poisoning them? Umm... I can't think of anything else off of the top of my head at this point.

 

[Mrs MIA]

I lose quail every single day. I hatch a LOT of them every week, and it always seems like one gets trapped in the bottom of the huddle and squashed. I've had bloody beaks before, but I figured they were cutting it on the wire or the feeder, but now I wonder if some of the quail are picking at it.
How many quail did you have, and how big is your brooder? Is there enough heat to keep them from piling? I've also noticed that you have to be very diligent about keeping the food and water full... they are so small that they lose body heat and dehydrate very quickly and will die in a matter of hours. They just get weak, and then the others pile on them for heat, and voila'! chick pancake.