What am I doing wrong???

[NatJ]

what if it’s a nutritional imbalance or something similar.

Could it be the nutrition of the parents? Maybe they have slightly different needs than the other breeds?

Years ago, I had a nutritional deficiency show up in rabbits, when I had not changed the feed at all. I eventually decided the manufacturer must have changed the recipe, because supplementing a particular thing made the rabbits go back to their previous level of health & reproduction (same exact rabbits: good results, bad results, supplement brought back good results. Slacking off the supplement brought bad results again.)

So maybe the feed changed, and is still adequate for the other breeds but not for the silkies and kikirikis?

I don't know what nutrient it might be, but maybe you could try either a general supplement or a different brand of feed, and give the parents a few weeks on it before collecting eggs for another hatch.

 

[ella2025]

So the rest of the chicks from that batch did not get sick, thank God. they are a bit older now and doing great. I’m thinking it’s a problem with two specific breeds of mine. Silkies and Kikirikis. these guys are the only ones being affected and dying. I lost all 7 of them. now last week, I hatched again from the silkies and kikirikis and my chicks are yet again, failing and declining. I find it odd because it’s only these two breeds. I have a regular breed with them who hatched with them and he’s doing great. The silkies and kikirikis though, are not. They do the same thing the others did, standing under the lamp with their heads down, chirping, and eventually dying

Wow, I'm so sorry about all of this. It seems EXTREMELY weird. I know it's probably not genetics, but what if you buy some hatching eggs or chicks of silkies or kikirikis and try with them? Right now feed stores have a pretty low demand, i saw a bunch of almost week old chicks at tractor supply yesterday, when i'm used to seeing them being completely sold out, hundreds of them, within 15 minutes and I have to show up to the feed store 15 minutes before it opens to have any hope of getting chicks. Right now is a great time if you want to try that.

Since all your previous batches of them worked except the recent 2 batches, maybe there IS something wrong with genetics but it's not about the roosters and inbreeding, or it's because of the not deworming parent stock. I honestly don't know much about deworming or breeding but i'm just using some knoledge from online research and pieceing it together.

I have another theory. I just searched up if you can incubate eggs from young pullets and google says that the chicks will hatch out much smaller and weaker. Maybe that's the problem? Are your parent birds still young? I'm kind of a beginner but maybe these can help you figure out!

I know silkies and other bantams are pretty finicky, but i've raised 3 from a hatchery AS A BEGINNER (low quality, nothing id use for shows) but they were always strong and resilient, like all your previous batches, even though i did not use electrolytes, vitamins, and i used regular chick feed (same one ur using, the naturewise one). Maybe try from a hatchery, buy like 3 and try? Also i've seen feed specifically for silkies and ornamentals at Tractor Supply, maybe that could help? Anyway i hope your future batches are successful!!