Hatching chicks... What am I doing wrong? HELP!!!?

Question

Ok so I bought an incubator to hatch my turkey, guinea, quial and chick eggs. Most of them hatch fine but after about 1 to 2 weeks of living under a light they started to die, one after another. I give them plenty of chick feed and water. Now I bought some chicks at a livestock auction. I have them under a light, I've had them for only 3 days now and five have died already and some are weak... What am I doing wrong???

Thanks for any help that you can give!!!

Answer 1

I can’t really tell you your exact problem because I don’t know very much from your descriptions (symptoms of how they are dieing and so forth) or your set up. But, I can give you some suggestions towards what may be wrong and some tips.

First, one has to start with the parent stock are they healthy. Sometimes you don’t get the option of looking at the parents, but if you do they should definitely be checked. If you can’t it is best to talk to someone whom has purchased birds from that place already.

Then we have to look at how they were incubated. If they were incubated incorrectly then the chicks have a higher chance of dieing. But, they would most likely die towards be beginning of their life not a week or two later. As for incubator problems they could be anything from, incorrect temperature or humidity to air flow, and temperature change and more.

If you don’t think that those are the problems then your issue could be from the brooder that you are keeping them in. Here are some things that could be wrong.

Is the brooder completely safe? Nothing hanging out, and nothing that can trap a chick. Is the floor covered with a grip able surface so that chicks can’t slip around and harm their legs?

Is the air, food, and water clean? Make sure that there is no mold around, no sulfur in the water, and that the food is clean. All of these things pose a higher risk to chicks.

Are they getting wet? I know from past experiences that turkeys can easily die if they get wet. So can other chicks but turkeys are the worst. So make sure that your waters aren’t the types that the chick can walk into and therefore get very wet. If you have quial you should just have a quail waterier for them all until they are older, as they can all drink from that.

Are you keeping them all together? Turkey, chickens and quial, and guinea’s aren’t the same size. So if you are housing them together it is possible that the bigger birds are harming the little ones.

Is your temperature correct? Are they as far away as possilbe from the heat source and or panting? (To hot) Are they as close to the heat source as they can be and huddled together alot? (To cold) Are they evenly moving about the pen? (Perfect).

Other tips.

Leave enough space around feeders and waters. This will help prevent birds from fighting and possibly getting hurt. It will also help make sure that the weakest birds are getting enough food to eat.

Use a red light bulb. These will help calm down the birds.

Distract them. Put some grass or straw in the cage with them. This will distract the birds from pecking at one another.

Remember when buying birds from a farm action. That you really don’t know what you are getting and that those birds are usually in a box with no food and water, and sometimes on a very hot day. That can do a number to chicks to begin with.

Hope this helps, if you have any questions feel free to contact me via email.

Rhode Runner

Answer 2

You dont wanna put them under a light 24/7. I was at this barn and they had the light flckering (on purpose). Also chicks kill eachother....

Answer 3

Have you actually watched each individual chick to be sure they are drinking and eating? Are they huddled under the light, all together? That would let you know its too cold. Are they avoiding the light, hanging around the outsides and avoiding the middle? Too hot. Did you get the equipment used? Could it be infected, and that's what is causing the chicks to die? . Are you cleaning the litter every couple of days? Moist and/or dirty litter can lead to diseases and respiratory infections. Here are a couple of links to give you more information.

edit: The light can be on 24/7, and must be if its the only source of heat!