How to build up chicks resistance to diseases from their day of hatching

[LMeyer97]

We just brought home week-old chicks with the intent of eventually adding them to our current flock. They haven't been vaccinated for anything, and after doing a lot of research we have decided to vaccinate them for mareks. I like the idea of adding grass to the brooder, yet should I wait a few weeks post vaccination to prevent a possible stress on their immune systems?

 

[Sire12]

Sorry to keep asking unrelated questions here but I've opened a few different threads recently and wouldn't want to be a nuisance by opening any more lol.., the chick crumb I bought for mine when they hatch is out of date yesterday I just noticed :/ if you live in the UK don't shop at pets at home seriously.. they sold me a male guinea pig by mistake and I ended up with babies so they aren't in my good books right now.. Is it ok to feed the chick starter crumbs to my hens since its best before was only yesterday? Or should I toss it

Also, something I forgot to ask earlier, the first two hens I started with are really bossy to the others, one of them is just a big bully to the hens under her, always pecking at the younger hens and chasing them away when it's feeding time etc, i got a blue orpington and when she had lived with my other 2 bully hens she seemed to turn bossy herself, asserting herself to the young hens which I thought odd since I heard orps were supposed to be really placid, so I'm wondering does that sort of attitude rub off on other young pullets? Like when my chicks are ready to mix with the rest of the flock will they see this bullying attitude and pick it up? If so I might get rid of the original 2 and give them a fresh start so that they grow up to be as placid as possible, I know bullying is normal in the hierarchy but if I can avoid it and raise a very docile good natured flock id rather do that if I can, thanks again

 

[Beekissed]

Sorry to keep asking unrelated questions here but I've opened a few different threads recently and wouldn't want to be a nuisance by opening any more lol.., the chick crumb I bought for mine when they hatch is out of date yesterday I just noticed

if you live in the UK don't shop at pets at home seriously.. they sold me a male guinea pig by mistake and I ended up with babies so they aren't in my good books right now.. Is it ok to feed the chick starter crumbs to my hens since its best before was only yesterday? Or should I toss it

Also, something I forgot to ask earlier, the first two hens I started with are really bossy to the others, one of them is just a big bully to the hens under her, always pecking at the younger hens and chasing them away when it's feeding time etc, i got a blue orpington and when she had lived with my other 2 bully hens she seemed to turn bossy herself, asserting herself to the young hens which I thought odd since I heard orps were supposed to be really placid, so I'm wondering does that sort of attitude rub off on other young pullets? Like when my chicks are ready to mix with the rest of the flock will they see this bullying attitude and pick it up? If so I might get rid of the original 2 and give them a fresh start so that they grow up to be as placid as possible, I know bullying is normal in the hierarchy but if I can avoid it and raise a very docile good natured flock id rather do that if I can, thanks again

Don't toss it..it's fine to be fed to your hens.

The pecking order is not bullying in the chicken world, just looks like that to us. It's just how chickens sort out things and it doesn't rub off on young pullets.....when they get to laying, they too will be enforcing their status upon one another. That's just normal. The only way to lessen this behavior is to give them tons of space, such as free ranging. When they can get away from one another easily, they can more easily maintain the correct social order in the flock. Busy chickens are calm chickens, so free ranging them gives them something to do all day besides enforcing the pecking order.

Feed in a trough style feeder....this allows the hens to line up on either side, lessening the ability of older, more dominant hens to run others off the feed. They can't guard the whole, long length of the trough and still get their own feed too.

 

[Sire12]

Perfect thanks! Yeah my girls are out first thing in the morning and shut in when they head into their coop so they have alot of time to free range in my yard I made them a little jungle gym type dealy that they love too, I actually have a long length of pvc pipe that I could cut in half and use as a trough, great info

 

[mobius]

In daily observations of my six chix, even in deep winter, it is becoming my opinion that free ranging in the yard and foraging seems so much to be "in their nature", they really NEED to do it, and they stay busy all day. There is a pecking order, and some food guarding, but I don't see them pecking each other....they are together (within sight of each other) all day long (and I think it is adorable to see them as a flock).

I am even beginning to think it would be harmful to them to keep them from foraging...it seems so important to them. They even have a little schedule: forage, sit on the bench, forage, dust bath, forage, preen, forage, nap, forage...

Ergo I am planning "salad bars" for spring....

Pictures of jungle gym, pls?

 

[Beekissed]

In daily observations of my six chix, even in deep winter, it is becoming my opinion that free ranging in the yard and foraging seems so much to be "in their nature", they really NEED to do it, and they stay busy all day. There is a pecking order, and some food guarding, but I don't see them pecking each other....they are together (within sight of each other) all day long (and I think it is adorable to see them as a flock).

I am even beginning to think it would be harmful to them to keep them from foraging...it seems so important to them. They even have a little schedule: forage, sit on the bench, forage, dust bath, forage, preen, forage, nap, forage...

Ergo I am planning "salad bars" for spring....

Pictures of jungle gym, pls?

I agree with that! It's just what chickens DO. Like dogs and cats love to hunt prey, chickens do also, except their prey is a tad smaller. Hunting and foraging for their food is how they are designed, it's in their very DNA to do so, and all creatures are healthier physically and mentally if they can fulfill their design~even us.

Chickens will scratch and hunt even when there is nothing there to hunt or forage....it's just what they are programmed to do, so they do it. How much more rewarding and fulfilling it has to be when they actually find something in their efforts.

Just as with humans, idle hands are the devil's workshop....I'd venture a guess that 99% of the problems people have with penned birds displaying "bullying", cannibalism, feather picking, etc. stems from lack of space for adequate exercise and their utter lack of anything else to do that expresses their nature.

 

[Sire12]

I hadn't heard of a salad bar until your post and I googled it, that is a brilliant idea!! Just what I need for mine I will get started on making a few of those this week! Yeah mine also love to sit on the kitchen window sill and preen themselves I wish they'd use their swing too thatd cool to watch, and yes indeed I will it's night time here now but il take some pics of it tomorrow!

 

[Sire12]

Also mine have 24/7 access to the yard they've actually never been locked in, I've lived here for 12 years and never seen a fox sometimes a stray cat but my girls are all very big birds so I thought they would be fine going in and out as they please, I have a large composting area where I dump my guinea pigs used savings and they LOVE scratching around in it, each time I work it with the shovel they all run over and spend hours scratching through it, the only thing the lack is the vegetation unfortunately but I feel more optimistic now with the thought of adding some of those salad bars around the yard, also I was pleased to see that one of the first hens I got who was also very skittish at the start ha started to do that squatting thing when I walk up to her, she must finally acknowledge me as head of the flock xD I saw on YouTube that you apply a little bit of weight to their back when they do that and they think they've been served by a rooster so that's awesome that they she thinks I'm the roo of the flock now lol

 

[mobius]

If you don't have predators, those are some lucky chickens to be able to come and go! I lock mine securely in their run/coop when they go to bed, it even has an electric fence on it cause the predators are so rife in this area.

Glad you like the salad bar idea, I think it will be super easy to knock some together...I may even use a raised flower bed now in their part of the yard and put hardware cloth over it, and then I am thinking clover and lettuces....part of the bed will be the salad bar, leaving aside the part they have commandeered as a dust bath.

 

[Beekissed]

We just brought home week-old chicks with the intent of eventually adding them to our current flock. They haven't been vaccinated for anything, and after doing a lot of research we have decided to vaccinate them for mareks. I like the idea of adding grass to the brooder, yet should I wait a few weeks post vaccination to prevent a possible stress on their immune systems?

I wouldn't wait. And you may want to read this...it's an interesting read: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/tthis-chicken-vaccine-makes-virus-dangerous/