What percentage of mortality is normal for baby chicks?

[aoxa]

My latest batch of 24 - only 1. I am not even sure what happened. It looked trampled to be honest

The first batch I did I lost 4 out of 29. 2 had eaten shavings, 1 was trampled and 1 is unknown - just died overnight.

Sick chicks like you are describing is not normal. I would avoid that breeder in the future at all costs.

 

[littlechicklet]

Sorry but I was using the reply button thinking it would reply to individual posters

So please accept my thanks.

 

[littlechicklet]

Sounds like marecks disease. I have lost one out of our last 80 babies.

Thank you. I too think it was Marek's especially since he mentioned a particular rooster & said the ones which survive will be immune to it. I don't know if this is true or not. I will do some more research on Marek's and hope for the best.

 

[HEChicken]

Sorry but I was using the reply button thinking it would reply to individual posters

So please accept my thanks.

No problem! If you want to reply to an individual post, you can use the quote button. And, if there are multiple posts you want to reply to, you can click "multi" on each post, and then "reply" or "quote" when you're done, and it will put all of the quotes in a post for you to reply to.

 

[littlechicklet]

My latest batch of 24 - only 1. I am not even sure what happened. It looked trampled to be honest

The first batch I did I lost 4 out of 29. 2 had eaten shavings, 1 was trampled and 1 is unknown - just died overnight.
Sick chicks like you are describing is not normal.

I would avoid that breeder in the future at all costs.

Thank you. I am definitely going to avoid him. I just hope if he has knowingly been selling "bad" stock his career as an Orpington breeder is short lived. I am going to try to find another breeder in my area or wait for one of my hens to go broody again and order eggs.

 

[chickenzoo]

Mareks is naturally occurring but can be shed by affected birds..... And unammune chicks are acceptable....some more than others. You would notice the tell tale one leg having trouble..... Then lose of use of that leg until it falls backward behind the bird. Then followed by weight loss, loss of neck use until death....... Typically.
Coccidiosis normally shows as a weakness, tired appearance often staying by itself in a corner, fluffed up, eyes closed, falling over, loss of weight, may have blood in poo after time.

 

[littlechicklet]

Mareks is naturally occurring but can be shed by affected birds..... And unammune chicks are acceptable....some more than others. You would notice the tell tale one leg having trouble..... Then lose of use of that leg until it falls backward behind the bird. Then followed by weight loss, loss of neck use until death....... Typically.
Coccidiosis normally shows as a weakness, tired appearance often staying by itself in a corner, fluffed up, eyes closed, falling over, loss of weight, may have blood in poo after time.

Thanks for your reply. I looked up the Coccidiosis and Marek's. I will probably never know the cause. They had clean litter, not overcrowded and were/are fed medicated chick starter. It is possible the Coccidiosis strain was immune to the medication in the feed & they were not exposed to the pen until 4 weeks of age. Also I think all the chicks were pullets & I think Marek's affects pullets more than cockerels (read it somewhere).

 

[AhyokaAcres]

Out of the last batch of 10 i lost 1, the previous batch of 10 I lost one at a few months old, out of the 6 bantams I lost none. So that is definitely not an acceptable rate. I suggest treating them all, at least at first with just some ACV, but if the symptoms keep going, treat for Cocci or look into Mareks.

 

[littlechicklet]

Out of the last batch of 10 i lost 1, the previous batch of 10 I lost one at a few months old, out of the 6 bantams I lost none. So that is definitely not an acceptable rate. I suggest treating them all, at least at first with just some ACV, but if the symptoms keep going, treat for Cocci or look into Mareks.

Thank you. So far the rest are fine & not showing any signs of illness.

 

[littlechicklet]

I just thought I would update this thread in case anyone is reading it. I have now lost 4 out of the 8 chicks I purchased from the breeder. I was going to send the last one for a necropsy but it was not feasible. I lost her about a month or so ago (would have to check date). She had the exact same symptoms & I finally had my husband to cull her. So now I have lost 50% of the chicks purchased. I was told by the breeder not to say I lost 50% but to say I lost 4 because it was inaccurate due to the group size not being large enough to quote statistics!

As much as I sometimes want to slam this breeder I am not going to because there is a chance it was something on my end and I did not get a necropsy to know with out a doubt what happened to the chicks.

I will hold to my word and never mention his name. I am planning on getting some chicks from someone here on BYC and if they have problems then I will know it is something on my end. I will update this thread after I get the new chicks.