Why the Chicks are dying?

[carlshave]

Hello all
I seem to have a problem, I have a pair of birds in a breeding cage, she laid 6 eggs but only 4 were fertile, well the other day the chick hatched but when I checked the chick was dead at the other end of nest, then today the same happened the chick dead at other end of nest, wot can I do to stop this happening and why is it happening

[BudgiesBuddy]

Small chicks have no immune system so there can be a number of reasons.

Were the chicks crops full? You should be checking the newly hatched chick every 8 hours or so to make sure they are fed and have full crops. Some hens cannot make enough crop milk so they ignore some chick and don't feed them. If that's the case, you would need a hand feeding formula and syringe to feed the chicks.

History of the hen is very important.
Is she a first timer? Young hens find it difficult to feed chicks. It all comes with experience.
If not, did this happen to her chicks in earlier breeding rounds?

It could be soft food. How often do you change their soft food? It should be removed every 6 to 8 hours. It should be made sure that nothing is left for the birds to nibble on, not even a small piece on the cage floor.

It can be a bacterial infection. Also the dead chick should be removed immediately and the concave should be checked and cleaned, if required.

Barrie said in another thread that it can be pneumonia, which can happen in the cages that has damp air due to lack of ventilation.

[baileysbirds]

I am not an expert and have only let my birds breed once. Went from 3 pairs (6 birds) to 16 and they were laying more. One of the first timer young pairs, were laying, hatching, then dieing. I finally figured out she was not feeding them. So I took the last one out, which had already hatched and put her in with another successful pair. Bingo, it worked. The other hen raised her, she had babies ready to fly, all the way down to the one I slipped in, that was only less then a day old.
The baby is now 4 yrs old and is my favorite bird. Comes right to me in a large aviary. So you can take the eggs or babies and try putting them with another pair. Good luck

[carlshave]

Thanks for the info
Well I didn't have another hen with chicks so had to swap eggs with another hen becos her eggs weren't due yet..... So the hen I gave the last eggs to hatched the chick yesterday and all seems well

[budgiebonkers]

I had an albino hen not feed her chicks i fostered over the remaining egg and the remaining 4 eggs hatched and is doing well.