urgent! I am raising chicks off season NEED EGGSPERT FAST

[Tuffoldhen]

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[Junkmanme]

I ALSO don't think it was the "night air".

My youngest chicks..now 9 weeks old, have lived outside since they were hatched by their "broody" Momma Hen. There are only 4 of them. Momma was removed from that pen a week ago. I gets COLD here. Half of the nights for the last month have been slightly below freezing. No heat lamp. No medicated feed. Just fresh "start & grow" twice a day and clean water twice a day.NO SICK CHICKS.

I truly suspect the rabbit hutch had some virus in it OR they were dying of heat OR just "trampling" each other. Mine have plenty of room to roam in their area AND a plastic "dog-Igloo" to sleep in.

I seriously "doubt" that the problem was the "night air".

just my 2 pesos worth,

-Junkmanme-

P.S. Sorry 'bout your losses. That can be very "unsettling".

 

[Chook-A-Holic]

I have to agree with these guys/gals. I think it was to much heat and/or not enough fresh air. If they were truly exposed to a virus of some sort in the hutch, removing them from the environment isn't going to make them magically better all of a sudden.

Marty

 

[greathorse]

Try watching a broody take care of baby chicks. These chicks roam well away from the hen they run around even if it is quite cold and when they get cold they come get under her to warm up. It is very necessary for chicks to be able to get away from the heat. Also a broody does not keep them on preventative antibiotics. Your chicks will have antibiotic resistance like crazy if you keep them medicated for precautionary purposes.

 

[greathorse]

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I have a very similar 4x8 coop that I put 4 week old chicks in last winter. I put a 100 watt bulb in the middle of it, the coop had solid sides but had hardware cloth vents at the top. My chicks did very well even in the coldest weather with this set up. If you put your light in hte middle of the space and the birds huddle on top of each other it is to cold, if the huddle in a corner they are trying to get away from the heat. If the coop is not ventilated they could simply be suffocating.

 

[maf2008]

There are air holes along the side and my intention was NOT to cook the chicks- I used the process of elimination, not the feed, water or lights, nor amound of heat or hay made any difference. and still 3 days later NOT ONE DEAD because now I am keeping them in my barn

on cement (covered in hay) in a "hoop" of a chick brooder. This went on for weeks and it caused me a lot of grief..... really

My whole point was my sadness plus my $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ loss at losing money every day on pullets. Its really sad to throw away chicks dead and not know why. Well now I do not have to worry about that any more. I am positing my experience for every one to know something happened, now its fixed. no more dead chicks.

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[Katy]

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You asked for advice from those of us who have been hatching eggs for a long time and we gave it to you. There are many of us who raise chicks year round and have a lot of experiance raising them in cold weather. Whether you choose to believe you had too much heat and not enough ventilation on the chicks is your choice and since we can't see what your set up looked like unless you post a picture we can only go by your description. All I know is that chicks that age don't need as much heat as you were exposing them to and if you add a lack of ventilation by enclosing the hutch in plastic you are going to end up with chicks that are overheating, smothering and dying. Add those conditions to giving them unneeded antibiotics that can do nasty things to their guts and you're going to get chicks that are dying.

 

[dovecanyon]

have you used that particular rabbit hutch before? could it be something in the hutch itself that was making the chicks sick? did you build it yourself, or get it from someone else? If it is a "hand-me-down" hutch, perhaps it had been sprayed heavily inside with a flea killer for the rabbits, and that is what was killing your chicks. My daughter raises rabbits and she sprays the inside of her hutch with flea spray. The spray residue can last for a long time and it wouldn't take much to kill baby chicks.