Baby chicks that die off slowly

Where did you get them?

what kind of wood?

If they were hatched under a broody it is possible they are being killed by mites. Brooding mamas don't dust bathe regularly like regular birds and can get overrun in a few weeks if they started out with a modest infestation at the beginning of the brooding period. When the chicks hatch they can get infested with them and they fail to thrive and just dry up like a little piece of popcorn with extra skinny toes and just look listless... hope it's not, but that was one of my learning curve lessons from last year... :ashamed:

Sometimes I think it's just the batch of chicks. Not where they're from or what you're doing wrong but just a weak batch for whatever reason. I've gotten chicks from two different hatcheries never having a problem and didn't even have to go to the extra length of lights, etc (I was a newbie so didn't know at the time) but I never lost a chick besides the one or two that got loved on too much by the dog. Then the last batch I got I lost half of them in the first week. Go figure. After the first two died I changed things and went all out like they say you should but it didn't help much. After about two weeks and it'd been a week since one had died I figured the strongest must have survived.

If you've raised chicks previously and haven't had any problems and don't see any obvious ailments I would just call it a fluke and try with a new batch. It will probably work out like you're use to.

JMHO

Kiln dried wood bedding, keep them WARM enough, no drafts.

I actually combined chicks from three different feed stores. The thing is - this happened last year too so I must be doing something wrong.

They are in a huge rubber trough with a chicken mesh lid on top (weighted so cats don't get in), heat lamp and on those bedding pellets - same pellets the feedstore uses. They're eating StartNGrow medicated chick feed. Getting water changed 3 times per day and they're sleeping a little ways from the lamp, so not cold, even at night.

I hate this. They are my 10 year olds and he gets his heart broken once a week.

Cliff, sometimes they just aren't up to snuff and there isn't anything that will keep them alive. So it could very well not be anything you are or are not doing.

You can try putting red pepper in the feed and give them some probiotics. These will help their immune systems and may fend off whatever is causing the deaths.

Ok, I'll try that. Thank you.

One feed store may have the sick birds & its infecting the others. Might try finding just 1 new/different store that has all that you are looking for.

Is it possible they are finding small pieces of wood to eat and that's plugging up their crop?

That happened to a batch of pheasants that I raised. Every day or so I would find a dead one until I swept every speck of sawdust out the pen.

I would try replacing the wood with paper covered with paper toweling to see if that helps.

cjb said:

I actually combined chicks from three different feed stores. The thing is - this happened last year too so I must be doing something wrong.

They are in a huge rubber trough with a chicken mesh lid on top (weighted so cats don't get in), heat lamp and on those bedding pellets - same pellets the feedstore uses. They're eating StartNGrow medicated chick feed. Getting water changed 3 times per day and they're sleeping a little ways from the lamp, so not cold, even at night.

I hate this. They are my 10 year olds and he gets his heart broken once a week.

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Asphyxiation? If a tub is tall, there might be lack of fresh air on the bottom. Need circulation.

forfreedom said:

Asphyxiation? If a tub is tall, there might be lack of fresh air on the bottom. Need circulation.

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Hmmm... I wonder. This is really smart thinking. Only thing is, the entire top is open air with mesh and I've raised babies successfully in it before.