List of supplies needed for baby chicks?

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Dilly

Dilly

Cooped Up
11 Years
Apr 15, 2008
483
3
141
Would some of you really great chicken lovers please give me a list of what I need to get prior to going and picking up some new baby chicks?

What food, when I need to switch to another food source (age) that is of chick?

Water of course and should it always be luke warm?

Bedding for chicks a couple days old? Is pine shavings okay this young?

Light? What sort of bulb is best? regular light bulb, heat bulb etc?

Any other type of food or rock crunchy stuff?

I guess the best way to ask this is at what ages does one switch up the food or add new things the chicks need?

Please give me a list of what is needed up to the point where they can safely go into the coop.

Thanks
Dilly
 
Quote:
1. good idea to have an extra or 2, incase you need to set up a hospital brooder (cardboard box) for an injured or sick chick.

2. same as above

3. I prefer pine shavings

4. have atleast one spare, incase of hospital brooder scenario

5. keep several spares on hand...they'll go out at the most inconvient times and for hospital brooder

I use room temperature water for our chicks, with no problem. I fill gallon jugs with tap water and let them set for 24 hours to let the chlorine evaporate (yucky city water here)

I use pine shavings in the brooder from day 1. Just place several layers of paper towels over the shavings (so chicks can learn what their food is and not eat the shavings. I remove the paper towels anywheres from day 5 - 7.

This is from my experiences, different things work better for different people.
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Hope this helps!


Dawn
 
I like the paper towels over the shavings. That sounds like the way to go. Lots of soft bedding and they are not exposed to it.

Great and thank you all so much.
 
Almost forgot...for food, you want to get chick starter/grower. We use Dumor starter/grower (20% protein) because thats what our Tractor Supply carries.

The back of the bag has a recommended feeding program...
feed starter/grower for the first 10 weeks, then switching them to grower/finisher (15%). Once the girls begin laying or just before they start, you switch them to laying pellet/crumbles.

When switching over feeds, we "try" and mix the two to give the birds a chance to get used to the new food.

As an example:

s/g 75% to g/f 25%
s/g 50% to g/f 50%
s/g 25% to g/f 75%

Hope this helps!

Dawn
 
Can someone tell me do I have to use Terramycin in my chicks water? they are one week to two week old. Do I need to use this at all for my baby chicks? How about vinegar? thanks for the advice
 

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