Why would 15 healthy chicks just die?

[chickenpal147]

I’m sorry if I sound rude or angry. I don’t mean to I’m just trying to put out there what works for me, and I know it’s not what the “rule” book for raising chicks says but what works for one person doesn’t always work for someone else. I also should put out there I live in a state that has 1000% humidity and temps over 100 until around October or sometimes into November. That’s also why lower brooder temps work for us.

 

[chickenpal147]

Did you have your chicks split up?

No

 

[TheOddOneOut]

I’m sorry if I sound rude or angry. I don’t mean to I’m just trying to put out there what works for me, and I know it’s not what the “rule” book for raising chicks says but what works for one person doesn’t always work for someone else. I also should put out there I live in a state that has 1000% humidity and temps over 100 until around October or sometimes into November. That’s also why lower brooder temps work for us.

I don’t believe it was temps. You would have noticed them huddling or panting. Not to mention the fact that they make a Buttload of noise them they’re uncomfortable.

 

[McChooky]

Yes I know I’m not knew to raising chicks. This is what I have found that works well for me and the chicks are never stressed out, hot or cold this keeps the temp comfortable especially in a plastic container that doesn’t let the heat escape like a traditional wood and wire brooder or outdoor coop brooder. If you notice with a momma hen, the chicks aren’t always under the hen in a temperature regulated box, a hen doesn’t have a thermometer to tell her what temp she needs to be at for her babies, they watch the behavior of the chicks to see when she needs to call them under her. I’ve found that most of the time when my hens raise their own, the chicks hardly ever spend time under the mom not even at night.

We all have to find what works for us.

 

[NatJ]

No she isn’t a whiting true blue

If you ordered Ameraucana and Whiting True Blue from McMurray, and if the chicks were in the same box with each other and not marked, then your remaining chick could be either one. Both can come in a variety of colors, both have pea combs, and both can have muffs on the face. Both are also supposed to lay blue eggs.

I've looked at quite a few pictures of Whiting True Blues, and seen a few in person, so I know they can have a variety of colors and they can have muffs on their face or be without.

And McMurray's "Ameraucanas" typically do not meet the standards for actual Ameraucanas, so folks on this board tend to call them Easter Eggers. (If you took them to a chicken show, they'd get disqualified for being non-standard colors, and sometimes for having wrong color legs or lack of muffs or some other cosmetic issue.) Although since McMurray says they've been has been calling their birds Ameraucanas since before the breed was recognized by the American Poultry Association, I can see why they would keep calling their same birds by the same name

 

[NatJ]

I know it’s not what the “rule” book for raising chicks says but what works for one person doesn’t always work for someone else. I also should put out there I live in a state that has 1000% humidity and temps over 100 until around October or sometimes into November. That’s also why lower brooder temps work for us.

With those temperatures, you could probably even brood chicks without extra heat at some times! Because of course the chicks care about having the right temperature, not about how it gets to that temperature.

It sounds like what you've been doing has been working pretty well for your climate and conditions

I’ve kept a close eye on her and watched her behavior

That's definitely the best way to fine-tune the temperatures. A thermometer is a good start, especially before the chicks arrive, but the behavior of the actual chicks is what really tells you if they have the right conditions

 

[bruceha2000]

You lower the temperature gradually each week and provide heat until they're feathered out . I provide heat whether they're in a brooder indoors or outdoors in a coop brooder .

Or use a Mama Heating Pad setup and skip all that "95° the first week" nonsense.

Um if I don’t turn the lamp off for an hour her brooder gets way to hot and she starts to pant.

MAMA HEATING PAD!!!!!!!!!

Fun fact Easter eggers are Araucana or Ameracauna mixed with other breeds to creat a different colored egg.

Um, not necessarily. Easter Eggers, while not a recognized APA breed are the PRECURSOR to both the Araucana and Ameraucana. Both of these APA breeds were created from birds by selecting for specific traits. Back then 1960's/70's the blue or green laying birds were called Araucana or Easter Egger. Some had muffs, beards, tails or tailless, ear tufts. Lots of selective breeding was needed to separate out the desired features.

You can breed Easter Egger (of the muffed, bearded, tailed, green leg, pea comb variety) and get blue/green color variation but you will have no idea what the color/feather pattern will be. Olive Eggers (again not a recognized breed) were created from Easter Eggers crossed with very dark brown egg layers like Marans.

If you notice with a momma hen, the chicks aren’t always under the hen in a temperature regulated box, a hen doesn’t have a thermometer to tell her what temp she needs to be at for her babies, they watch the behavior of the chicks to see when she needs to call them under her.

BUT she is always there when they want to warm up. Not necessarily true with heat lamps that are switched on and off.

No she isn’t a whiting true blue or true green, those two breeds are fairly new within the last three or four years.

And they are "non standard", meaning not recognized by the APA, same as EEs.

Although since McMurray says they've been has been calling their birds Ameraucanas since before the breed was recognized by the American Poultry Association, I can see why they would keep calling their same birds by the same name

That would be sort of impossible. The name Ameraucana was made up by the group that developed them when it was recognized by the APA. They couldn't use Araucana since that breed was recognized first for the tufted & tailless birds. Couldn't really be selling something by a name that hadn't been made up yet.

Also, until recent years it was not possible to buy an APA Ameraucana from a hatchery, they didn't have them. Yet they falsely called their EEs Ameraucana or Americana or Araucana. There are a few hatcheries that do now sell some colors of APA Ameraucana.

 

[NatJ]

That would be sort of impossible. The name Ameraucana was made up by the group that developed them when it was recognized by the APA. They couldn't use Araucana since that breed was recognized first for the tufted & tailless birds. Couldn't really be selling something by a name that hadn't been made up yet.

https://web.archive.org/web/20190726130824/http://ameraucanabreedersclub.org/history.html

Here's one page that shows the name being decided in 1979, with Ameraucana Bantams first being recognized by the ABA (American Bantam Association) in 1980, and Ameraucanas of both sizes recognized by the APA (American Poultry Association) in 1984. And apparently "American Araucana" was being occasionally used for some time before that.

So unless that page is wrong, there were several years in which the name existed but the breed was not recognized by the APA. (I have no way to check when McMurray started calling their birds Ameraucana, so it may or may not have happened during that time. But it is not impossible.)

 

[McChooky]

I'm concerned for lil Nugget! Both orders of chicks died around a week old. Nuggets the only one to make it 2 weeks

 

[TheOddOneOut]

Um if I don’t turn the lamp off for an hour her brooder gets way to hot and she starts to pant. She does just fine without the lamp for an hour. Actually the last few nights she hasn’t had the lamp, I’ve kept a close eye on her and watched her behavior, she actually prefers to have the lamp off.

Raise the lamp!!! If she can’t handle the heat for more than an hour it’s too hot.
Hmm…maybe it WAS heat that killed them. Malfunctioning lamp?