Water spilled overnight/ half my chicks dying!

[cinnamoncockatiel]

How much water did you have in there? I use a mayo lid

I also use a lid from a jar like mayo. It is the best for the first few days of a chicks life and they love drinking from it.

 

[AltonaAcres]

Also, you'd be surprised how quickly and miraculously quail chicks bounce back. Once, when I was raising young button quail in my shed, one escaped somehow. I found it many hours later extremely cold. It wasn't moving or visibly breathing. I decided to put it back with it's buddies so it wouldn't die alone. However, when I checked back in the morning, I couldn't even tell which chick was the near-death one.

 

[ackie]

Also, you'd be surprised how quickly and miraculously quail chicks bounce back. Once, when I was raising young button quail in my shed, one escaped somehow. I found it many hours later extremely cold. It wasn't moving or visibly breathing. I decided to put it back with it's buddies so it wouldn't die alone. However, when I checked back in the morning, I couldn't even tell which chick was the near-death one.

Getting a bird warm does amazing things.

 

[cinnamoncockatiel]

Getting a bird warm does amazing things.

 

[HomesteaderWife]

Aww poor dears. Best wishes for them to warm up and get better fast. Keep us posted.

 

[cinnamoncockatiel]

Also, you'd be surprised how quickly and miraculously quail chicks bounce back. Once, when I was raising young button quail in my shed, one escaped somehow. I found it many hours later extremely cold. It wasn't moving or visibly breathing. I decided to put it back with it's buddies so it wouldn't die alone. However, when I checked back in the morning, I couldn't even tell which chick was the near-death one.

 

[CaptainCupcake]

Thanks all for your advice! I only lost one, and the rest seem to be doing ok. I set up a second brooder for them to recover better. I probably should have split them up in the first place, as I have about 35 babies.

they didn’t tip the water over, I think either the jar wasn’t level, or too many shavings fell into it so the water just slowly spilled out by capillary action.i used a quail specific waterer, like this one below. And of course I put a mostly full jar on top.

now I’ve got paper towels down instead of shavings and the waterers are only partially full.

 

[ackie]

Depending on what the brooder walls are made out of, you could tie it down with just a loop around the middle/top of the waterer like the top metal band here

 

[NatJ]

they didn’t tip the water over, I think either the jar wasn’t level, or too many shavings fell into it so the water just slowly spilled out by capillary action.i used a quail specific waterer, like this one below. And of course I put a mostly full jar on top.

If you put a scrap of plywood on the floor of the brooder, and the waterer on that, it can be easier to make it level, and it can also keep shavings a bit further away. (Doesn't have to be plywood--just something hard and flat, not too tall for the baby quail to get on top of, not too slippery.)

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't know why that is a quail specific waterer but I don't do quail, just chickens and an occasional turkey. You are right, that type of waterer needs to be level or the water will drain from it. The way I managed that was to put a heavy board, 2x6, in the brooder and attached it so it was level. I attached mine with screws so it stayed level, but my brooder was wood, not a tote.

That type of waterer depends on suction to keep it from draining dry. I've had trouble when I did not screw the lid on correctly. A pin hole will cause it to leak too.

if you build a platform above the shavings the chicks have a lot harder time scratching shavings into it. They can move around really well, including hopping up on low platforms. I have not tried the experiment but I'd be more worried about water wicking out if they scratch some paper towel up in there.