Alright so it’s been a while later and I have an update because it’s happening again. So as I said in the original post, my chicks were dying and it can’t be genetics because I use different breeding pens but looking back at the post and the time when I had the chicks, the ones becoming weak and later dying were my silkies and kikirikis. My other breeds were dying too but that was during the time when we went on vacation and I took them with and they had to sleep outside in a box warming each other up. I’m pretty sure that’s why those chicks were dying during that time. As for the original post, my silkies and kikirikis were appearing weak and later dying. I would lose a few a day or one to two. I never figured out what the problem was because I narrowed it down to everything I was doing and they had it all right. The warmth, feed, water, a good brooder, so clearly it wasn’t me doing anything wrong. So I thought to myself, hmm it’s odd that it’s just the silkies and kikirikis dying, what if it’s a nutritional imbalance or something similar. I unfortunately lost all 7 chicks during that time but the rest of my other breeds of chicks from their batch thrived and are now bigger. After that, I took a short break from hatching but my silkies and kikirikis started laying again so I figured why not hatch again. My two favorite breeds. I didn’t think anything would go wrong this time since it was a smaller batch, just 9 chicks to a big brooder all to themselves. These babies just hatched 7 days ago. They are now doing the same thing the other silkies and kikirikis did. They start off well for the first 3-4 days and appear strong and healthy and after about day 4, they start standing under the heat lamp with their heads down and wings down and rarely ever lay down to sleep. They chirp like something is wrong and eventually die. I had 9 chicks, I have 5 left. They all started doing this and 4 died. 2 yesterday and 2 today. It’s just so strange to me that this only seems to happen to the silkies and kikirikis. These chicks are the siblings of the first silkies and kikirikis who died. I don’t think it’s anything wrong with the parents themselves because the first kikirikis who died on the original post came from a different hen than these new kikirikis who are now dying. And for the silkies, the first silkies who died came from a different rooster than these new guys. So I do not believe it is the parents, but maybe their breed? It’s just so weird to me because in February I hatched 7 silkies from the same hen I’ve always used and not a single one died or even struggled. Same with the kikiriki rooster, he has an older daughter who is 3 months now and she didn’t struggle either.
Now when I made the original post, I went out and bought corid and treated the chicks for 7 days but I don’t think it was coccidiosis because the chicks died anyway. I also bought durvet vitamins and electrolytes and put it in their water but like I said, chicks still died.
Now with this sick batch, I gave them durvet vitamins and electrolytes in their water since birth but regardless, they got sick. I ordered a poultry nutri drench that just got here today and put some in their mouths directly and in their water so I guess we will see what happens. I’ve also been giving them egg yolk directly or in their feed. With every silkie and kikiriki batch of mine, it’s always the same thing, standing looking depressed under the lamp and later on dying. I work so hard to get the chicks I have, especially the silkies, and yet, they die on me.
