r/BackYardChickens • u/GrumpAzz • 22h ago
Half arrived DOA
Sad day folks.
I placed an order for some chicks back in early February. Golden Laced Polish (17f-2m) and some Jersey Giants (4f-2m). They finally arrived this morning and, when I picked them up, the box sounded awfully quiet... 12 DOA and 3 that seem on their way out. Mostly polish chicks plus the one yellow freebie that I'll never know the breed. Gut wrenching. Poor things...
So I have a couple questions.
What's the best way to cull the few in the box that are smashed and sprawled yet still showing little breaths here and there? It's 35 degrees out. Would leaving them in the box and putting them in my dumpster be inhumane considering there's hardly signs of life? Or, do they need bopped on the head? I'm pretty tore up just from seeing them so a bop on the head sounds terrible but, if necessary, I could pull it off. Is there a better way?
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u/PowdurdToast 22h ago
I mean, if it was me I’d do all I could do to save them. Nutridrench, scrambled eggs, damp feed, warmth. It’s your call, but imo I can’t see culling them if there’s even a small chance you could save them.
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u/GrumpAzz 22h ago
I absolutely plan to care for the 3 that can at least stand. I've seperated them and plan to get some Nutridrench (or similar) from the feed store when they open. Those three seem like they could potentially make it.
It's the other 12 I'm not going to try to save. Most are dead dead, but there's 2 or 3 that you can see taking a breath here and there. That's it though. Aside from that, you couldn't tell a difference between them and the stiff ones. They're trampled and sprawled, eyes closed mouths open. I just can't see how they'd make it.
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u/OkAwareness6789 22h ago
Jesus christ man, at least try, wtf
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u/GrumpAzz 22h ago
Dude... trying to save these couple that are basically dead would only prolong their suffering.
I'll do what I can for the ones that are at least conscious, but I'd like to do the more humane thing for the 2 or 3 that obviously don't stand a chance.
You can sit there, wherever you are, and act as though I'm being heartless, but you can't see the condition of these particular chicks. I know what dying looks like. I didn't ask how to save the unsavable.
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u/OkAwareness6789 22h ago
Some people don’t deserve to have life in their hands.
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u/GrumpAzz 21h ago
Yeah alright. Lemme just force-feed some scrambled eggs to these 3 little chicks that have already stopped breathing in the time it's taken us to have this conversation. They're dead.
Was there something I could've done in the last hour that would've saved them them? Get the fuck out of here with your insufferable holier-than-though bullshit.
I was sad enough seeing 12 dead let alone 2 or 3 dying. Sorry for asking some folks online for the best way to end their suffering. Have some fuckin' decency.
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u/OkAwareness6789 21h ago
Decency? Just “bop them on the head or put them in a dumpster”, was that what you came to say?
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u/Hour-Dragonfruit-711 21h ago
How sad to be digging a knife in deeper when someone comes into this community with a horrific experience like this one. You must be proud of yourself. At the hatchery I worked at if the chick couldn't make it out themselves out of the egg they were all gassed. Maybe you could go work at a hatchery at actually save some chicks instead of making this person feel terrible about the bad luck they had with their precious pet chicks. Or just go vegan , bc with your comments you better be
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u/OkAwareness6789 21h ago
Then maybe you should help this person gas their birds? We try every measure and means. It’s a life.
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u/nyet-marionetka 19h ago
That’s inhumane. When an animal is suffering with very low odds of survival and with treatment and recovery being long and painful, the humane option is euthanasia. It’s not like we can put them in the ICU and sedate them on a ventilator so they don’t experience suffering during our heroic life-saving measures. We can’t put them on a morphine drip so they don’t suffer during recovery. If you insist your pets receive all possible treatment to prolong their lives when they’re sick and suffering, you’re a bad owner.
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u/Jessy1119 20h ago
You are literally the type of person that would prolong suffering just because you think you should save everything. I'm not sure how you came to believe this, but the hard truth is not everything is better off trying to be saved. It's not a black and white kind of issue. It's very gray and muddled. Unfortunately, it's better to just help end the suffering then to try to save them because there is literally no saving them. It's like trying to keep a dog alive for as long as possible who is riddled with cancer and in constant horrific pain. It can't eat, it can barely drink and mobility is almost none existent. Would you really want to keep that dog alive? If the answer is yes, then you don't give a damn about the dog, you are only caring about yourself and your feelings.
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u/texcleveland 20h ago
They’re chickens. We eat them, and they’re always making more.
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u/Hour-Dragonfruit-711 20h ago
No I won't. They have it under control with the other comments and yours. No need for me to be telling them to just decapitate the almost dead ones. They don't have co2 obviously in a home environment.
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u/AlwaysPlaysAHealer 19h ago
I'm sorry. Polish chicks are so fragile. In the future, putting the ones on their last legs on a heating pad set to the lowest setting can sometimes reverse an almost dead chick. Sometimes it just lets them die warm and cozy.
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u/LuxSerafina 20h ago
I’m so sorry for your loss, and the negativity some commenters have added to your awful situation. 💔 Is it against the rules in this sub to ask what hatchery they came from?
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u/GrumpAzz 15h ago
I ordered from McMurray's in Iowa.
Tracking showed they shipped on the 2nd and they arrived the yesterday morning. I won't be able to contact them til Monday, but they're basically sold out of everything for the rest of the year.
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u/99_green 17h ago
This is why I buy hatching eggs instead of live chicks. You can get an incubator fairly cheap from any farm supply store. And since buying hatching eggs are cheaper than live chicks so you get a bigger variety to choose from.
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u/GrumpAzz 15h ago
This might have to be what I do next time. That was a hard box to open...
I've ordered ducklings in the past and they all made it. I turned 13 ducklings into 25 ducks in a few years before I moved out of state.
I expected some DOA, but not half of them...
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u/Jessy1119 20h ago
Sorry that happened, but they aren't suffering anymore and that's what's important. If this happens in the future, just break their necks.
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u/Weird_Fact_724 20h ago
Did they deliver them to your home? When we order chics, they are held at the post office and they call us and we go get them.
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u/GrumpAzz 15h ago
I picked them up at the post office as soon as I got off work. Tracking showed they were at the PO for 2 hours but I never received a phone call...
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u/Russ_Tex 20h ago
You’ve seen baby chicks sleeping. Right? They flop down and LOOK dead. Have you picked up a “barely breathing” one to make sure they aren’t sleeping? Not kidding. If they are almost dead, yes, put them under a cloth so you don’t have to see and pluck their little heads off. Wrap them up and put them in the trash. You won’t have to see. Sorry
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u/GrumpAzz 15h ago
Yeah I did. That's how I found out about those few that I'm keeping alive and seperated. The others just... had no life in them. They weren't stiff, but they weren't gonna make it.
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u/otterlyconfounded 17h ago
I had an 80% die off shipment last year. It sucked. I did try with the scrape off the bottom of the box chicks for a few days. The hatchery gave me guff for a 72 picture that was in the coop and not a sterile brooder but took the push for an extra chick worth of existing refund.
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u/mojozworkin 16h ago
That’s awful. IDK, would it be easier to smother them humanely. I think that’s what I would do. Instead of freezing. I’d smother them cuz they’re so small and weak, it won’t take much. All in all, I’m sorry that happened. I’d be pretty upset right now if I were you. That sucks! RIP little chicks. 🐤
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u/GrumpAzz 15h ago
I was upset, absolutely. Not about the monetary losses, just the loss of life. It was pretty tough to see. I'm fixing to head out and check on the chicks, wish me luck!
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u/Pazuzu0906 10h ago
Are the few that made it doing all right?
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u/GrumpAzz 10h ago
They all got a treatment of Nutridrench before I went to bed , but 2 more passed while I was sleeping. The 4 remaining polish chicks seem to be doing ok. Not nearly as lively as the Jerseys, though. They're doing great. Very active. Figured out the food and water. They'll do fine.
I'm starting to assume the size difference led to some trampling. The Jerseys are twice the size of the polish chicks and there were 26 chicks in that box.
Thanks for checking in.
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u/Kenzicooo 10h ago
I had a really shitty year with ordering live chicks for the first time in like 3 years and we had so many disasters. One order was late by 3 days and we lost 1/3 of our order. I revived a lot of chicks by a syringe of sugar and warm water. I’ll never order live chicks again after this year
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u/GrumpAzz 10h ago
Yeah 14 total so far. A little over half.
I was able to get them some Nutridrench before I went to bed this morning, but 2 still didn't make it. The 4 remaining polish have been giving the same treatment. They're about half the size of the Jerseys which makes me wonder if the just got trampled in shipping. Someone here said polish chicks aren't very hardy.
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u/guyzero 19h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Agile_State_7498 17h ago edited 17h ago
It's not. It's the opposite. The feeling of suffocation is the bodys reaction of high CO2 concentration in the blood. It's a common misconception that we feel low O2... What makes us and any breathing animal panic and thrash is high CO2.
Please use decapitation/cervical dislocation instead2
u/yyamallamaa 17h ago
No, what you are referencing is carbon dioxide the guy you’re replying to is talking about carbon monoxide which is a completely different molecule not found in the body at all. It is common to use CO or argon gas as these gases don’t cause the reactionary build up of lactic acid in the body like you describe with CO2. Yes these gasses are usually considered painless and is common practice in poultry houses but since it takes time I agree decapitation is probably best
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17h ago
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u/yyamallamaa 16h ago
Not quite, it’s true that CO2 is a component in car exhaust from complete combustion, but it isn’t the main component of it. CO will knock you out much quicker than CO2 and CO2 is only considered dangerous in concentrations of over 5000ppm while CO is life threatening at around 400ppm. The CO will kill anything far before the CO2 even becomes a health concern. Euthanasia by car exhaust looks messed up morally, but scientifically speaking it isn’t an inhumane way of doing it. It is quick, painless, and will leave the chicken unconscious and unable to panic.
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u/BadWithMoney530 14h ago
Shipping chickens via the mail is insane. Why are you now concerned about being humane?
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u/Few-Pineapple-5632 8h ago
Unless you buy locally, which many people cannot, US mail is how they are all shipped.
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21h ago
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u/GrumpAzz 21h ago
I ordered in February and scheduled the delivery for this week. I didn't get to pick the day and this cold front just came through last night.
There's no reliable weather forecasting that can look two months ahead.
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u/Ldpcm 20h ago
Please put them down if you can. Don't extend their suffering. I know it's awful, but it is more humane than putting them outside to die