AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

Hi All

I am very new to all of this although we have had chickens for about 2 years now (my husband grew up on the land, I grew up in the city)

We haven't had a lot of luck with our chickens (long story for another time). We had a hen go broody and enclosed a small area in our chook house for her - we let her sit on her 8 eggs. We had 5 hatch last Friday and one more on Saturday - the other two did not hatch. They all seemed to be healthy and happy and the mother was eating and drinking - they were being checked regularly and given fresh food and water every few hours (it is hot here). Sunday morning my ten year old went to check on them and came back in tears - the mother had died through the night, one of the chicks was dead in the nest, two were missing and we had three little balls of fluff left (none of our other chooks appear to be ill although we did have another one die that same morning but we think it was blood poisoning from an infected cut on her foot - she was not in with the mother). There was no sign of predators and all the other chooks seem to be okay. The three survivors are living in a home made brooder on our bathroom floor and so far so good - the boys are on school holidays (15,14 and nearly 11) and the almost 11 year old has adopted them. It is about 25 degrees in their box and they do not seem to be cold however I have read that 35 degrees is the optimum temperature for their first week. I plan on rigging up a light for heat tonight and monitor - I'm paranoid we will lose them too I know there are no guarantees but I want to give them the best chance I can. All three are eating and drinking well. The temperature outside is 40 degrees in the shade so it is probably a blessing they are inside or they may have perished in the heat. (I have no idea what breed they are as all our chooks came from a local auction - I think most are cross breeds.) I'll try and get some photos up later (I'm at work at the moment.)

Although a little sad, it is still extremely exciting for us as we have never had chicks before!

We plan on relocating the chook yard and building better housing for them but that is another post!

Any advice on giving the little balls of fluff a good chance of survival?

Thanks!
Karen

HI Karen,

Sorry to hear about your losses. I feel for you. As it has been really really hot your little hen and chicks may have died from heat stress. A common problem with chookies in very hot weather. The surviving chicks may be fine for heat through the day in the bathroom at 25 degrees but may need a bit of a boost by setting up a light, 40 watt, in their box for the next couple of weeks after which they will probably be fine without it in the warmer weather even at night. Just make sure they have something like sawdust, clean straw or shredded paper to snuggle down into. Fresh water and chick starter with cocci meds added. Keep them on chick starter for at least 3 weeks then move them onto pullet grower crumbles again still with the cocci meds added. This can be feed to them until they are 16 to 20 weeks old.

Good luck

Thanks for the advice! We have paper towel down at the moment to help ease of cleaning (it gets changed at least twice a day) and they have rags to snuggle into. So far they have been laying down next to each other to sleep and not 'piling' on top of one another so that is a good sign I think!

Will visit the local feed store again this afternoon

Cheers
Karen

I just reread my post. It sounds a bit confusing. Chicks should be on chick starter from hatch to at least 6 weeks old. It reads like 3 weeks old but I think I thought your babies were 3 weeks old already.

No worries, we will keep them on the starter for 6 weeks. They are doing well so far - happy and cheeping and chasing moths etc. One has worked out how to jump on top of the feeder and the next jump would land it out of the box so I think mesh on the top will need to go on very soon! We have perspex at the moment with holes in the top but I was worried about the light melting it so have the lid up at the moment.

It is so nice to go in there and see them run up to the side of the box with their head tilting and listening to your voice They make some happy chirping noises too! All three are eating and drinking well and their droppings look 'normal' - so far so good!

Wow what bad luck, sorry to hear. I can only assume like country lodge it was heat stress, although did you check for chook mite/lice? Anyway in regard to your babies you are doing the right thing, in regard to the pullet crumble, you will struggle to get it in Dubbo I think. I live in Warren and haven't found any where that supplies it yet. All I can get at furneys is chick crumbs and layer pellets and scratch mix. I am about to check again with landmark, but either way chick crumbs are fine for first 8 weeks. For heat at night you could hover a lamp (do you have a desk lamp with a globe - not energy saver - in it?) ove the top of the box, provided they are sleeping relatively evenly like you mentioned then they are fine, more heat if they try sitting on each other. I have my 5 day old babies outside in a box (wooden with mesh on top) and I turn the lamp off during the day, it's so warm that they don't need it, then at 7pm I turn it back on just in case, but some nights they don't even sleep near it and spread out, it's so warm. Anyway i hope this helps. Let me know if you come across anywhere that has more chook food variety in our area.

It turned out I could only get chick crumble but they have been thriving on it! 4 weeks old today and they have gone out to the new chook shed (the yard isn't done yet). They are in a cage with the floor out of it so they can scratch in the dirt. The shed is in amongst trees and gets shade all day. Where they were in the house (without a heat source) was 30 degrees anyway, down to about 24 overnight. It's been about 25 overnight outside anyway. They spent their first night there last night and when I checked on them this morning they seem to be quite happy. I got a bigger feeder and waterer because they were going through the small ones so quickly! I'll put some photos in the photo gallery.

Cheers

This information has been a great help to me as the right temp is hard to find on the net even though it’s supposed to make life easy.

This forum has been great with helpful tips and information I am on the forum every morning with my cuppa in one hand and the other on the mouse.

The first two batches of chickens I tried to raise all died and I think it was because I kept mucking around with the heat source on the third attempt I left it alone and I got 3 chicks.

Fancy flock I will join you in a macona.

Just popping in to let you know my three chicks turned out to be hens and they are all doing well

They have gone into the big pen with 5 other hens and a rooster and settled in quietly and quickly.

I am a proud mum!

Cheers
Karen