I KNOW WHATS WRONG WITH OUR CHICKS!!!!!

[MaransGuy]

I also agree with Catherine. Several people on this thread have pointed out that aspergillosis is found everywhere, especially in litter, damp wood, etc... NONE of those are present in the hatchers McMurray uses. Do you guys think they are using a bunch of musty old Sportsmans? Plus, those chicks are at the hatchery for a matter of hours before they are shipped out. If you stop for just a second and think about how many places chicks can be exposed to this thing it becomes apparent that it is almost impossible to determine where it came from. I would bet that the fungus could be cultured from nearly every house in the US. Remember, it is a fungus and fungal spores are so minute they can float on the air and are invisible. Was there damp wood in the postal truck? The post office itself? In your basement? I know I can say for a fact that I have some in my basement and in the store I own. At this time of year molds are EVERYWHERE. The weather has been incredibly wet all winter long which only adds to the problem. Before we jump on a company and try to destroy their reputation I think it would be best to use a bit of common sense. Like someone pointed out earlier, McMurray ships 100,000 chicks a week. If they have 4 people call and complain about chicks that got sick a week after arrival it would certainly be understandable for them to claim there is no problem. If they had a report of 10,000 chicks dieing, then that would be a problem.

Richard

 

[Stormhorse23]

must i remind you that these are little lives? and before you say "then dont order in the winter," then why is this the only problem ive ever had with a hatchery?

if it isn't them (which it very well may not be), then what could have exposed them to this. I'm a clean freak and feel bad if the brooder smells a little...um...chickeny? so, what do you think? More opinions would help, guys!!!!

 

[MaransGuy]

If you think that molds and fungi are only present in"dirty" houses then you do not have a realistic understanding of them. Spores of all types are floating in the air that you and I are breathing right now. They can be within your walls without you even knowing it. Your body is constantly fighting them off every single day. My point is, logically and statistically, it is much more likely that the (relatively) few chicks involved have picked up the spores somewhere other than the hatchery. The problem with spores is that you don't need to touch anything to be infected by them. Additionally, Aspergillosis species are probably some of the most common fungi worldwide. As another example, say you spend the night at a hotel. You then take a taxi to the train station, ride the train for a few hours, then reach your stop in your home town. Get off the train and walk a few blocks to your house. A few days later you come down with a bad cold. Now, tell me, where did you happen to pick up the infection. Remember, even though you, and perhaps a few other people who stayed at the hotel got sick, the vast majority of them did not.

Richard

 

[patandchickens]

Stormhorse, I'm really sorry your chicks are not doing well and I know it is very distressing to you. But however well-intentioned, I am really uncomfortable with so much ill-will being publicly fomented against an individual hatchery without any particular evidence that hatchery actually caused the problem, let alone tried to cover anything up.

in my experience, it takes a lot to kill a chick. they arent at all fragile, in my opinion.

As plenty of people here will tell you, chicks DO QUITE OFTEN die from things like the stress of winter shipping. (Especially, stress from winter shipping weakening them so that they catch something else to die of). Just read all the many many threads on the subject, for heaven's sake. If you yourself have placed wintertime hatchery orders lots and lots of times and never had problems, then lucky you, but there is normally a lot of variation in outcome, you know?

And lucky as you may have been in the past, chicks can and do get sick while they're being raised, and it is NOT necessarily the source hatchery's fault. Again, look at the experiences of others on this site.

Aspergillosis, if that is indeed what your chicks have, CAN PERFECTLY WELL be contracted at home in a person's brooder, there is no reason at all to assume the chicks had to have caught it at the hatchery.

Upset though you are, please try to take a deep breath and remember that sometimes things do just happen -- it is not always some heartless company's fault. It sure does sound like the exact same thing could have happened to you if you'd ordered from any other hatchery and gotten an unfortunate roll of the dice so to speak -- certainly it does happen to many other people.

Best of luck with your remaining chicks,

Pat​

 

[EweSheep]

I got my chicks this week on Monday and not one loss due to MM neglective acts. I lost three chicks due to my own reason and weakness that just happens.

I would have the chicks checked out post mortem and find out exactly.

I have to agree with Pat and some of the others regarding to this illness and quick to point fingers.....if there was a problem with MM then alot of us would be having dead chicks everywhere!

 

[BrahmaMama]

I'm going to throw my two cents in-while I'm truly sorry for your loss, and understand your frustration, it's just not right to continually post that you *hate* McMurray, that they are *horrible* etc. This could have happened to any hatch, any hatchery, etc. It could have happened to Ideal, Welp's, Meyer's, etc. I have never personally ordered from MM, so I don't have a dog in this fight, so to speak. I do however have two orders, one with Ideal, and one with Welp. Even though I have no experience with MM, I don't enjoy seeing in several different threads-and yes, some that I have already been involved in-bashing (what it does boil down to) of certain hatcheries.

As far as the brooder pneumonia having the same symptoms as problems associated with cedar bedding, wasn't it just last week that the chicks were on cedar, or am I off time wise...if that was the case though, isn't it possible that the symptoms could still be showing up-as in, the damage was already done?

Good luck with the rest of your chicks, hopefully you can figure this out.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
While certainly no expert on hatcheries, I am old enough, and hopefully wise enough, to know you never say never. I'm sure every hatchery has a certain amount of dead chicks. It's the nature of the business when dealing with fragile newborn critters.

 

[LoneCowboy]

I personally really like MMH. I'll order from there again. I've been very happy with my chicks. Yes, I lost 3, but I've done a lot of studying up on chickens, and every book I read tells me to expect at least 5% loss. MMH told me themselves that the weather had been bad, so keep an eye on their weather and feel free to postpone the shipment at anytime.

 

[speckledhen]

I think there's quite a bit of panic here. Aspergillosis is caused usually by wet, overcrowded conditions, eating wet moldy feed, drinking dirty water, etc, plus chickens lungs are quite susceptible to environmental hazards, especially young chicks. Cedar was mentioned. Intensely aromatic cedar would cause respiratory problems and maybe even death in a tiny chick when added on top of shipping stress, IMO. I think MMH may be getting too much of a bad rap here.

 

[Sharisr32]

what I thought was considering the number of chicks McMurray Sends out each year this is such a tiny number and I have never been a fan of the just a chick mentality

What I still haven't heard is if these chicks were vaccinated or not - the type of feed being used -- the reason is I am wondering if Dumor feed was used based on another post
or if vaccinated chicks were fed medicated feed
One of the things that happens here is we get so much help advise etc. we do have low chick morality rates but from everything I have read 50% out of 25 will die - no rythm or reason 1 in 5 makes to laying or 7.5 mos- Failure to thrive is a basic result from a rough start in life which canbe as simple as getting out of the shell or being shipped --We always rather it is human , bird etc... want someone to blame for death -
no matter how experinced you are go over the basics

temp - too high -- too low ? brooder conditions -drafts cold sections- was it used before ever and not disinfected ? - waterer -was it used before was it bleached/disinfected - storage ? - If all your supplies are new were they washed before used ?
crowding so that little chicks are pushed out and walked on ?
heat can the chicks get out of the heat to prevent dehydration ?were they givien vitamins -lytes on arrival ?
then adjust these things to try on the next group--
All of these hatcheries are big businesses and have been around for a very long time - they also seem to have off years last year everyone was yelling about mixed cochins and mean cochins --
I also rate by how fast they fix the issue and that is a major thing to me when spending money If you do anything well a 10,000 times ten or twenty may go real ugly but how do they respond - did they offer new chicks or a refund - or give you a stall -
I had a problem with Mcmurray and got excellant customer service - someone here mentioned doing it yourself and that is the solution so you can control the breeding pair especailly the nutrition aspect -