Been a rough year!

[BigECart]

I have lost so many chicks and chickens this last year and a half. Started with two Rottweilers that killed 4 of our 7 pullets/cockerels and one hen. Lost half of the replacement chicks to USPS rough handling. Lost the last couple of 9 year old hens, and 2 of the 3 surviving 3-year old hens (natural causes/mareks). And lost one of the surviving pullets to a hawk.

One of our survivors is a young Andalusian cockerel. He’s a bit rough with the hens, but in his defense there are only 5. My poor 3-year old hen lost her bestie and hates the cockerel. One of the pullets is in the house because she doesn’t have feathers from being overbred, and then her flock mates attacked her and she lost part of the skin under a wing. She keeps managing to get the mating saddle off, so I have a different design coming today. She really wants to be back in the coop.

Of the 8 chicks delivered last week, 5 died within 24 hours (rough handling by USPS). I have 4 survivors. (Chicken math, 4+5=9; just hoping the 9th isn’t an unwanted bonus cockerel.)

I went ahead and ordered another 6 chicks for this week. Hopefully they can be successfully integrated into the brooder with the existing chicks. One good thing - there have been hardly any indignant squawks from the 4 chicks, so hardly any pecking on each other.

Anyways, I’ve been away for a while. Hoping things improve. This is Buffy, the Minorca who wants to be a house chicken away from roosters. I’m a little worried that her comb has started flopping - hoping that’s not a sign of illness.

 

[Debbie292d]

So sorry to hear of the losses. That's rough but we learn from it and fix it so it can't happen again. Then our chickens can thrive.

I think I'd quit buying shipped chicks. That's what I keep telling myself about shipped eggs as not even half of them hatch x4 times I tried. Last year, I got 75% so the P.O. has definitely hired some horrible box handlers.

You could try finding a breeder that's within even two hours from you as buying chicks from there, the ride home in someone's lap would be safer than shipping. Plus, the price of gas would probably be a wash with what you're spending.

There are several causes of a floppy crop, and sometimes that's just how it is for certain chickens. Provided the color is about the same, the most common cause is dehydration, age, and molting.

Good luck with your flock!

 

[BigECart]

You could try finding a breeder that's within even two hours from you as buying chicks from there, the ride home in someone's lap would be safer than shipping.

I purchased my first pullets from a local breeder. They came with Marek’s. Losing all but 2 over a period of 4 months was awful. I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong; why they were dying. I also trust the sexing from a hatchery more than a breeder.

But if we don’t have a high rate of survival with this next set of chicks, I will need to figure something out.

 

[Debbie292d]

I purchased my first pullets from a local breeder. They came with Marek’s. Losing all but 2 over a period of 4 months was awful. I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong; why they were dying. I also trust the sexing from a hatchery more than a breeder.

But if we don’t have a high rate of survival with this next set of chicks, I will need to figure something out.

If they came with Mareks, then you have Mareks now there. I'm so sorry as that's a tough one. I've heard some die, some make it, but it's always the ones we love the most that die. I have a friend on here that got it in her flock. She culled some, kept some, and now vaccinates her hatched chicks herself.

 

[PoppasGrill]

We’ve never tried a hatchery, always Rural King or TSC, so wind up with at least 2 out of 6 being cockerels.
We do have a incubator, though haven’t used it yet. With me being out of town and my wife being busy handling the day to day at home it’s tough to monitor as I’ve read we would need to.

 

[aimee750]

So sorry, it is very tough losing our beloved birds.