I just recieved my second batch of chicks today, this time from Welp. They are doing incredibly well, they hatched Wednesday and so were two days in transit. All 53 were alive and full of energy. They ate and drank a ton and went through the gel pack I mixed for them. They are so different from the ones I got last week, who I have had nothing but problems with. The ones I got last week were shipped and recieved the very same day but were not doing so well when I got them. One was dead on arrival and a couple died very shortly after. They were not all that interested in their food or water (after I dipped their beaks in the water) and still aren't that motivated. They have always been very lethargic. They have grown considerably but I have lost alot of them and I have no idea why. The first day I found 4 dead in the brooder, the next day I lost another 4 or 5 and so it goes. I have done everything I was told to do and I contacted the hatchery and they said they had no idea what it could be, we went over all the variables and were stumped. I continued to lose 1 a day after that and lost one more this morning. However, I do have to wonder if it wasn't this particular group of chicks that weren't the problem after seeing the chicks I got today and how different they are behaving. Its like apples and oranges. I really hope I have better luck with these.
I got them from Meyer. I realize alot of people get them from Meyer and never have a problem so I thought it might have been something I was doing, even though I have done everything correctly according to everyone else. Then when I got this batch today I could see the difference in their health and vitality. Maybe the first batch was stressed during shipping, I just don't know.
I'm on my 3rd order from Welp and will continue to order from them. The birds are very healthy and active and look great. Hope you continue to have good results with this order!
Thank you, I have to say that if I hadn't gone ahead and got these chicks I probably would never have done the meat birds again. I just have not had a good experience with these other chicks from the get go so it was kind of a turn off, these new chicks are already a relief. I may run into issues, you never know but I had the other ones dropping dead on me shortly after arrival and it continued for days. On a side note one of the chicks ate so much of the booster gel that it's crop is flourecent green.
