fl-chicken-tender
Chirping
Hi all,
Our flock turned one week old today! I thought I would share how it's going and what I've learned so far (and all the baby pictures, of course).
Brooders
I started out with a large Bankers box and a heat lamp in my office closet. I taped a meat thermometer to the inside of the box so that I could measure the temperature at chick-height. It was a toasty 95 - 100 degrees in the brooder, depending on whether I had the closet door opened or closed.
But, I knew that with 15+ birds, they would need more space sooner rather than later. I read on here that some folks used a camping tent as their brooder with great success, and I thought that was absolutely genius. I got a 6x6 ft kid's camping tent from Walmart for about $30 and assembled it in the office. I laid down some scrap plywood and cardboard on the bottom, then a cloth painting drop cloth, and finally two 40lb bags of the pine pellet bedding from Tractor Supply. For a heat source, I switched to the Producer's Pride heating pad from TSC. I moved them into the larger enclosure over the weekend, and it's a lot of fun to watch them run around in their new space. I have to crawl into the tent to change their food and water, but I also love that I can put a towel down and sit with them for a while.
Loss
I made a separate post last week about an unfortunate accident the first day with one of the Welsummer chicks. Long story short, she drowned in the water dish, but I learned from it and added glass marbles to the waterer to prevent this from happening again.
We also had one Black Australorp chick who declined rapidly the day after we got them. She was lethargic and too weak to stand up, and the other birds were stepping all over her. I tried syringe-feeding her NutriDrench and raw egg yolk, but it wasn't enough to revive her, and she passed the second evening.
It was sad to lose two birds in the first two days. This is our first time raising day-old chicks, and they are so incredibly fragile. I learned some valuable lessons, and I'm so grateful that the other 15 birds seem to be thriving.
Pecking
We had some issues the first few days with one of the chicks (a Buckeye named Chucky) eye-pecking all of her siblings. I only had the one heat source and only one feeder and waterer at the time, so I couldn't separate her from the others for very long. She would cheep incessantly if I put her alone, and there was nobody I could pair her with that she wouldn't pick on. I did expand the brooder into two large Bankers boxes after the first day to give the others space to get away from our bully. We used a red lamp, and I noticed that she went after the light colored birds the most, probably because their eyes were the most visible, making them easy targets.
Expanding into the tent brooder seems to have helped with the pecking. They still pick at each other occasionally, but they have plenty of space to get away from each other if needed. I also gave them some branches to climb on and ping-pong balls to play with, and that might have helped too.
Here's Chucky, the little hellion:
Closing / Bonus Baby Pictures
I'm having a lot of fun with the birds. They're growing so fast and already have so much personality.
Thank you for reading!
Our flock turned one week old today! I thought I would share how it's going and what I've learned so far (and all the baby pictures, of course).
Brooders
I started out with a large Bankers box and a heat lamp in my office closet. I taped a meat thermometer to the inside of the box so that I could measure the temperature at chick-height. It was a toasty 95 - 100 degrees in the brooder, depending on whether I had the closet door opened or closed.
But, I knew that with 15+ birds, they would need more space sooner rather than later. I read on here that some folks used a camping tent as their brooder with great success, and I thought that was absolutely genius. I got a 6x6 ft kid's camping tent from Walmart for about $30 and assembled it in the office. I laid down some scrap plywood and cardboard on the bottom, then a cloth painting drop cloth, and finally two 40lb bags of the pine pellet bedding from Tractor Supply. For a heat source, I switched to the Producer's Pride heating pad from TSC. I moved them into the larger enclosure over the weekend, and it's a lot of fun to watch them run around in their new space. I have to crawl into the tent to change their food and water, but I also love that I can put a towel down and sit with them for a while.
Loss
I made a separate post last week about an unfortunate accident the first day with one of the Welsummer chicks. Long story short, she drowned in the water dish, but I learned from it and added glass marbles to the waterer to prevent this from happening again.
We also had one Black Australorp chick who declined rapidly the day after we got them. She was lethargic and too weak to stand up, and the other birds were stepping all over her. I tried syringe-feeding her NutriDrench and raw egg yolk, but it wasn't enough to revive her, and she passed the second evening.
It was sad to lose two birds in the first two days. This is our first time raising day-old chicks, and they are so incredibly fragile. I learned some valuable lessons, and I'm so grateful that the other 15 birds seem to be thriving.
Pecking
We had some issues the first few days with one of the chicks (a Buckeye named Chucky) eye-pecking all of her siblings. I only had the one heat source and only one feeder and waterer at the time, so I couldn't separate her from the others for very long. She would cheep incessantly if I put her alone, and there was nobody I could pair her with that she wouldn't pick on. I did expand the brooder into two large Bankers boxes after the first day to give the others space to get away from our bully. We used a red lamp, and I noticed that she went after the light colored birds the most, probably because their eyes were the most visible, making them easy targets.
Expanding into the tent brooder seems to have helped with the pecking. They still pick at each other occasionally, but they have plenty of space to get away from each other if needed. I also gave them some branches to climb on and ping-pong balls to play with, and that might have helped too.
Here's Chucky, the little hellion:
Closing / Bonus Baby Pictures
I'm having a lot of fun with the birds. They're growing so fast and already have so much personality.
Thank you for reading!
