1st Time Raising Baby Chicks

[digitS']

as any thread about chickens seems to make us ALL need to post , here's my $0.02.

Yes. This is all great information. Here's a sad story.

Chicks seemed so fragile

They are but my first chicks without benefit of a momma hen were quail, not chickens. I'd had the broodies and two flocks of adult/point of lay but never the full responsibility of 35 chicks.

It was a chilly spring day when I picked up these tiny quail at the post office. I was in a hurry to get them warm and had my brooder with heat lamp on. They were a tight tangle in the shipping box I set inside. I began pulling them apart. Stupidly!

I guess that I broke one chick's foot.

I hold them in my hand individually and dip their beak in the water. Don't drown them, just the tip of the beak is enough. That shows them where the water is

They make some specifically for baby chicks that have VERY small space for drinking out of. That way they can't fall in.

I don't know that he lived another day. It was a chick waterer but he fell in and drowned. That took care of that! ... but i have felt guilty about it for years.

Later flocks (no more quail!) were often day old chicks. I didn't break any feet! But, you are receiving these at a chilly time of the year. They may look like they are smothering each other. Get them into the warmth but allow them to adjust on their own. You can do the water training, later.

Handling for purposes of pet training is possible and fun. Keep in mind that if you have a pet, they won't be tiny chicks for long!

Steve

 

[catjac1975]

https://featherloverfarms.com/colle...ather-lover-farms-ayam-cemani-bloodline-chick

Did you get the chicks yet? Did you pay that much for them?

 

[catjac1975]

You know there is a backyard chicken forum , right? I actually don't use it much. It seems too large and unwieldy. We got some hatching eggs and chicks through them where we started our lavender orpington flock.

 

[catjac1975]

Yes. This is all great information. Here's a sad story.



They are but my first chicks without benefit of a momma hen were quail, not chickens. I'd had the broodies and two flocks of adult/point of lay but never the full responsibility of 35 chicks.

It was a chilly spring day when I picked up these tiny quail at the post office. I was in a hurry to get them warm and had my brooder with heat lamp on. They were a tight tangle in the shipping box I set inside. I began pulling them apart. Stupidly!

I guess that I broke one chick's foot.





I don't know that he lived another day. It was a chick waterer but he fell in and drowned. That took care of that! ... but i have felt guilty about it for years.

Later flocks (no more quail!) were often day old chicks. I didn't break any feet! But, you are receiving these at a chilly time of the year. They may look like they are smothering each other. Get them into the warmth but allow them to adjust on their own. You can do the water training, later.

Handling for purposes of pet training is possible and fun. Keep in mind that if you have a pet, they won't be tiny chicks for long!

Steve

I have had somme fall in the waterer and drown also. They seem to be the sick weak chicks.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

Oh. My. GOSH...... ^^what seedcorn said.....

 

[Nyboy]

I've done numerous chicks starting but I didn't do anything fancy. I used a cardboard box with chicken wire on top. I used a regular table lamp without the shade and had half of the box covered with a towel. I used shavings and changed the box every morning and evening. To make it easier I had a fresh empty box already prepared where I would put the chicks in to clean the other box. Never lost a chick. But my house is pretty temperature regulated 24/7.

Mary

what watt light bulb did you use in lamp

 

[Ridgerunner]

If you are concerned about them drowning in the red vacuum type waterers put marbles in the waterer so they can't. I used those for years without marbles for chickens and never had a problem but marbles or something similar would be insurance.

 

[Ridgerunner]

what watt light bulb did you use in lamp

Alex, take a thermometer and put it under the heat lamp. If you are 90 to 95 directly under the lamp and cooler at the other end of that aquarium you are good to go. What wattage you need will mainly depend on how far from the brooder floor it is. Configuration could have an effect. If you point it toward a a corner it will get hotter than if you point it into space.

In my heat lamp I used 250, 125, or 75 watt bulbs, depending on my conditions. But I brooded outside. In winter I used the 250. In spring or summer I used the others.

Like @RUNuts said in that other thread, if you keep the brooder dry and don't let the poop build up they will not stink. You do not need to clean up after them like you do a puppy but you need to keep them dry. As long as the poop itself dries you don't need to clean it up immediately but if it gets thick enough it will not dry and will stink. If you spill water in there and the brooder stays wet it will stink within two or three days.

RUNuts was raising a lot of meat birds. They eat, poop, poop, eat, eat, poop, and then do it again. They grow tremendously fast and poop a lot, they can get really messy. You don't have that many and they won't poop that much. They take work but it's not going to be that bad.

 

[Nyboy]

By raising them at work I will have help of my staff

 

[ninnymary]

what watt light bulb did you use in lamp

It's been a few years but usually our lamps have 65 or 75 watts.

Mary