Spring 2017 first timers post!

[faery69]

Try this...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/yes-you-certainly-can-brood-chicks-outdoors

thanks for the article! i will definitely be trying this we are getting 8 chicks, will a standard size heating pad work? thankfully i also have a thermostat that can control the temperature for peace of mind that i used back when i owned snakes lol

 

[Blooie]

Yep, a large sized pad should work just fine, as long as you can bypass the "automatic shutoff" feature. You don't save a thing if you have to turn it back on every two hours or so. I don't know anything about trying it with thermostatically controlled temperatures. My heating pad is digital, setting one through six, and others use pads with high, medium and low. Also not sure if reptile pads will work as well.... folks have mentioned them over on the Mama Heating Pad thread but nixed them in favor of a heating pad. Good luck!

 

[BacktoBasics13]

First timer!! Here are my 8...2 each of Buff Orpintons, Barred Rocks, Gold Laced Wyandottes and Amerercaunas.

Question? Is it normal to have one of the bunch be somewhat picking on the others, pecking and pushing? My one Amerercauna is my rebel child so far.

 

[Red5]

BacktoBasics13, where did you get your chicks from if you don't mind my asking?

 

[AlynaD]

The top one looks male and the bottom one looks female. How old are they?

they are about 4-5 weeks got them from tractor supply in a batch of mixed bantams I was thinking that half-pint looks like a boy

 

[Merrymouse]

In case it helps anyone else:

The chicks were ignoring the horizontal nipple for 2 weeks, used a vertical immediately when I offered it and now after a day of using the vertical have figured out the horizontal also. The vertical definitely leaks a lot more so will be only temporary until I am sure they can all use the horizontal.

My vertical nipple was leaking too but it was leaking from where the cap and nipple meet. I took a rubber band and wrapped it around the part that was leaking and no more leaks! Try that and see if that works. The leak was driving me insane at first.

 

[Merrymouse]

Another post initially put in the wrong place, New Thread. The "computa" stuff is complicated!

THREAD STARTER

• bajabirdbrain
• 
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• Location: Whidbey Island, WA
• Joined: 12/2016
• Posts: 81
• online

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Greetings everybody!

Here is one of my 2 New Hampshire Reds. Check out her new tail feathers!!

This was taken Sunday 4/9 when she was 14 days old.

Merrymouse said it was okay to name this chick after her, BTW.

How is you little Cochin doing, Merrymouse?

I did not see your sick chick thread until just this afternoon as I have only been following this thread and the Mama Heating Pad thread.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery for your little one. You have been doing an awesome job!

My limping BO, Margie, appears to have made a full recovery and was running with the bigger chicks today just fine.

Amazing size difference in my chicks at 14 days old...6 big ones and 5 little ones without any signs of tail feathers.

We let everyone out in the run for a hour this morning and offered them another turn out this afternoon and wouldn't you know it, the 6 big ones came out and the 5 littles snoozed, 3 under the MHP and 2 on top.

Finally had a sunny, breeze less day today!

Best wishes to all!

BB
Im behind on all the posts too so just seeing this now. Now if I was only as cute as my namesake

My cochin is doing awesome!!! Its really amazing that she made it. She couldn't even walk or balance and now shes back with the big girls. She is really tiny but shes been eating a lot so hopefully she will start to grow. It was a lot of work to save her. I fed her with an eye dropper every 3ish hours for probably 6 or 8 days, I lost count. Anyway so far so good.

Finished the coop today and putting the girls out tomorrow probably after work. I'll post pictures on my coop thread some time this weekend. I did some creative painting that my kids think is ridiculous and it probably is silly, and the chicks will not care about the decor but I thought it was fun so I did what I wanted anyway

The chicks really love the run. I just told my DH that I need a comfortable chair out there once they go out for good. I literally spend hours and hours just watching them on my days off. Meanwhile my house is a pig sty

and I have company coming Sunday. I already warned the kids that Saturday is going to be "whip this house into shape" day.

My family wanted to take me out to dinner tonight because today is my birthday but I'm so chicken addicted I didn't want to go.....I had to finish the coop so the girls can move in tomorrow, I have my priorities you know

Loving all the chick and coop photos here...this thread has exploded!

 

[Merrymouse]

AERIAL ATTACK! I was sitting in the run enjoying the sun and the show. For the first time ALL 11 girls walked down the ramp from the coop by themselves. They were running around being chicks when either a Cooper's Hawk or a Sharp Shinned Hawk crashed into the fencing less than 10 ft from where I was sitting! Chicks froze in their tracks and so did I. The cover over the run is clear poly chloride corrugated roofing and the top 2-3 ft of the walls is chicken wire, bottom 4 ft is 1/2" hardware cloth, thankfully.!

This makes me VERY nervous about taking the chicks out when they are a bit bigger to the lawn and let them explore around while I watched over them. This was planned to be in a non fenced area. I "thought" that if I were sitting with 20 ft of the chicks a predator would not attack. This episode makes me rethink this, sadly. I dislike the thought of some kind of "tractor" coop to allow them some very limited free ranging. TBC, BB

Wow! The hawks are bold. One day my DH was in the driveway with my two dogs that had found a mouse. The mouse was alive but my dogs were kind of pawing at it. My DH and my two big dogs were standing in a circle about approx 5' wide with the mouse on the ground and a huge hawk, red tail, I believe, swooped between my two dogs and my DH, grabbed the mouse and off it flew. You would think the hawk would think twice about getting that close to a big guy with two big dogs for such a tiny meal. Crazy. Keep an eye to the sky from now on and listen for the hawk calling.

 

[ADVaughn]

Pretty sure JOEY is a cockerel. Pitty he's a pretty bird.

Or he will be once all the feathers are in.

 

[BacktoBasics13]

BacktoBasics13, where did you get your chicks from if you don't mind my asking?

I picked them up this afternoon from the poultry hatchery about an hour from where I am located. Everything has seemed to settle down for the night. I did notice it was during a time when my so called rebel child was being pushed out of food and water so i guess she was just retaliating.