Interesting about giving them table oats, as opposed to raw, instead of feed. There may be some truth to that since so many chicks get "pasty butts". flock, so that that problem does not perpetuate. Well I got some birds from him, after the culling, and they had pasty butted chicks. If culling is the method, it seems to me that you would have to cull a lot regardless of type to get there and I'm not sure with the damage that has been done to heritage chicks from factory manipulation, you would in your lifetime, get to the objective.
I did try the "warm water" method to avoid it; that had better results than regular temperature water, so I think keeping everything "warm" or pre-warmed before moving into the hatch is a better and less decisive measure.
I admit it was a small hatch, 4 Araucanas, out of20 eggs, but all 4 were good. Of course the other problem with Araucanas happened and that was that the tufts were in the wrong place and 3 died of the lethal gene issue -- tufts coming out of the head instead of the neck. But despite that problem, which is not related to the water, I think the pre-warm water is the way to go.
Of course all of my water comes out of the Berkey so it is super clean which has it is drawbacks as well as it's assets, but after that, I warmed it in the mike for 20 secs and then let it cooler just a bit and put it in. I was amazed how "warm" the survivor, a black Araucana chick, liked her water, but then all that matters is she never had pasty butt and is still thriving.
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