vitamin supplements??

[Stan Alder]

I've had a few stargazers in my last two hatches...my research says this is a Thiamin deficiency ...I've been using Red Cell vitamin mineral supplement once a week in their drinking water and feeding what I believe is a quality commercial feed by Southern States or a local mill that includes animal protein...is this possibly just a case of pullet eggs or should I be adding something else to supplement the breeder pullets/hens???  The chicks that are hatching wothout problems are all doing well...

[John W Blehm]

Did the hatch include more than one variety and if so were the stargazers all the same variety? 

It is ironic that Jeanette Frank sent an article to me the other day that she wrote years ago about vitamin B-1/Thiamin deficiency. 

[Stan Alder]

I've had maybe 5 of 200 chicks???...one buff that I remember, and the others were silver ..are you thinking genetic rather than environmental??

[John W Blehm]

I've had maybe 5 of 200 chicks???...one buff that I remember, and the others were silver ..are you thinking genetic rather than environmental??

It is possible and the chances would be greater that it is genetics if the affected chicks are all the same variety or somehow closely related.  Decades ago I had a bunch of bantam buff chicks that would put their heads way back and act dopy. 
Still today my bantam buff chicks get pasty butts while the other chicks don't, so I have to chalk that up to genetics.
I think you are on the right track with the Thiamin and also not ruling out other possibilities yet.

[Mike Gilbert]

John, I have had pretty good success at eliminating pasty butts in baby chicks this year.   The trick is to make sure they are drinking before they get anything to eat.   They may act hungry, but it is far better to get some water in them first.   And lukewarm water, never cold until they are about a week old or so. 

[John W Blehm]

John, I have had pretty good success at eliminating pasty butts in baby chicks this year.   The trick is to make sure they are drinking before they get anything to eat.   They may act hungry, but it is far better to get some water in them first.   And lukewarm water, never cold until they are about a week old or so.

Before I set them in the brooders their beaks are dipped in the water founts and they are dipped one or more times that first day.  Fresh water, with a little sugar, is put in the brooders the day before hatch day, so it is warm...brooder temperature when the chicks are moved in from the hatchers. 
Hardy any other chicks get the pasty butts, but most bantam buffs get it.

[Tailfeathers]

I use the powdered Rooster Booster in chicks water for at least first 2wks to a month.  Normally I give it to the birds in the breeding pens starting the week before I collect but I didn't do it this year.

John, I've found that there is a direct correlation between the temperature in the brooder and pasty butt with it occurring when it's not warm enough.

[Shari Nees]

Like John, I mostly use Simple syrup.  Lately, I have poultry Nutri Drench,  have a line of d'Uccles that are prone to getting pasty butt no matter what one does.  The Nutri Drench seems to help with that.

[Suki]

What's a stargazer?

[John W Blehm]

I had one hatch today.  It is a bantam from one of my outcross projects using buff and silver.