chicks dieing, can any one help!

[darren]

hi all just wonderd if any one knows whats going on? i had a hen with chicks every thing was going ok the oldest was around 4 days old, i check them every night and everything was fine checked the nest boxes in the morning and found a dead chick the colour of it was green and its stomach was bloated,the following day the other chicks were also fine over night same thing happened, i havnt changed there food at all i clean the cages out regular and have no problems in any other nest box,anyone have any ideas?

[BudgiesBuddy]

The chicks should be examined at least every 12 hours.
How often you change their soft food?

[darren]

the chicks are last checked at 7pm and checked again 7am then again at 4pm around my work times , soft food is changed every day but i do make enough to last a couple of days but keep it in the fridge,i dont use boiled eggs i use dried egg food, i have no problems in any other nest and they are all fed the same food

[nat]

Possibly a bacterial infection. Can't say I know for sure, but as you lost all the chicks then its the most likely cause. Also the bloating and odd colour chicks would indicate this.
If you're feeding any soft food it needs removing every 6-8 hours and also the cage bars, fixtures and fittings need a wipe over as any soft food debris can be left on these when the parents clean their beaks. This applys to all breeding pairs.
The parents have the antibodies to fight any bacteria, but the chicks under 2 weeks old won't have strong enough immune systems to fight any bacterial growth off.
Even if you don't feed soft food, some parents are a bit messy about their regurgitating skills and that would need cleaning off where ever they do it as regurg will start to grow bacteria very quickly. Sometimes it can plaster around the chicks beak.
The other thing that people might mention as a cause is the hen not producing and feeding crop milk for the first few vital days. Its very hard for a hen to produce crop milk from a seed only diet, so this is where soft food is vital. However I have bred a few rounds where neither parent has cared to eat softfood and have brought uop their chicks on seed diet only.
Just a few ideas as to what happened.

[darren]

hi nat, i do feed them soacked groats,oats,sweetcorn ,carrott and dried egg food,this is all mixed together and given every day, she is a first time hen and this is her second brood so will start giving them some soft food in finger draws as well,i did thnk it might of been the food but as the other nests are fine with no problems i did rule this out,so will give the soft food as well , either way this was her last brood so fingers crossed the last one makes it

[nat]

I hope he makes it Darren

[darren]

hi nat, the other chick is doing fine, out of 3 chicks 2 died seemed to be of the same thing ,cant understand it, if it was something to do with bacteria how comes they all didnt die ? surley they would of?

[barrieshutt]

One cause of chick deaths is pnuemonia which can often happen in a vertical row of cages that has stagnant damp air due too lack of ventilation