Spring 2017 first timers post!

[ImportTheBest]

Sadly I just went out and found one of the meaties passed away. It was all quite sudden. And the Salmon Faverolle seems to go from her bum being targeted by one or two, to bring snuggled on and warmed up lovingly by a few meaties.

I am wondering if I should separate her with a hardware cloth "wall" until she strengthens up and stops having as many bum issues. Any advice? She doesn't run away when they pick on her, so that concerns me. We have to leave to an appointment but afterwards I will give her a drop of nutri drench and possibly separate her and give her the MHP to herself for a few days?? I can trim the hardware cloth to have a passthrough so that a corner of the feeder and waterer are accessible by her.
Or I could keep her alone under the heat lamp with a stuffed animal to make it easier to check on her even during the night??

 

[jessnurse05]

FERMENTED FEED GUIDANCE ANYONE?
All of my babies are picky eaters and refuse to eat the fermented feed so I'm doing dry starter crumbles for now because i don't want a weak one to starve from stubbornness! How on earth do i get them to eat FF when they'd rather go hungry??? Should i just wait until they're a week or two old and try again?

I saw that no one responded to this. I don't have any advice really, just my experience. I got my first chicks last year from a local breeder, they were a week old. I didn't give them fermented feed right away, I think I didn't ferment their feed until they were around 2 months old and they ate it happily like that for a couple months. I never found clear info about it, but I had read that the recommendation was to give them a break from the fermented food every so often so I stopped and I haven't gone back to it for my hens.

I tried to start out the first batch of chicks that I hatched this year on fermented feed right away and they wouldn't touch it. One chick would stand in the middle of the brooder and yell at me until I figured out it was the food and took it away and gave her some dry chick starter.

I might try fermenting their feed again this coming week though. After my chicks have gotten to be about 2 weeks old they seem to get even more picky about food and just dumping it out of the feeder! They waste so much food, but I don't remember my babies last year doing that at all.

 

[pioneerchick816]

I have my pullets on FF & they do well. I'm going to try FF right off the bat with my chicks coming in April (never having given it to chicks before) so I will report on how it goes

I've been playing around with it (consistency etc) for a couple of months now. Practicing on my laying girls

 

[Wavechickens]

Sadly I just went out and found one of the meaties passed away. It was all quite sudden. And the Salmon Faverolle seems to go from her bum being targeted by one or two, to bring snuggled on and warmed up lovingly by a few meaties.

I am wondering if I should separate her with a hardware cloth "wall" until she strengthens up and stops having as many bum issues. Any advice? She doesn't run away when they pick on her, so that concerns me. We have to leave to an appointment but afterwards I will give her a drop of nutri drench and possibly separate her and give her the MHP to herself for a few days?? I can trim the hardware cloth to have a passthrough so that a corner of the feeder and waterer are accessible by her.
Or I could keep her alone under the heat lamp with a stuffed animal to make it easier to check on her even during the night??

Sorry to hear. My runt if the pack didn't get picked on but I understand that favorelles are kinda picked on a lot because of their sweet, timid, and gentle pushover nature especially as chicks. MPC warned about them in a mixed flock as chicks so we ended up passing on them even though I wanted some. I do hear they get more confident as they grow bigger and older but almost always stay at the bottom rung of the pecking order.
As far as separating I'm not sure, I would seek out some advice from a more 'matured' Chicken owner who's had lots of experience.

 

[skidoolady]

I'm debating what I should use in the brooder. Pine shavings? Sand?

 

[The Golden Egg5]

I'm debating what I should use in the brooder. Pine shavings? Sand?

I would use large pine shavings because they absorb smell and moisture. Just my opinion there are pros and cons to both

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

I'm debating what I should use in the brooder. Pine shavings? Sand?

I am going to use pine shavings, the white bag from Tractor Supply.

Sand seems like too much work, I am brooding in the coop and will be doing deep litter over a dirt floor.

Gary

 

[tjbaker70]

I'm debating what I should use in the brooder. Pine shavings? Sand?

Currently, I use paper towels and change daily. We have 26 chicks. It's a pretty easy clean up. We have them inside of a utility room off of our garage. Tomorrow I may switch over to pin shavings because they will be a week old. We are also putting in a dust bath today.

 

[tjbaker70]

Chick pics! This is a sampling of our chicks. We also have Dominiques and Delawares, but I didn't take photos of them yet.


Salmon Faverolles


Rhode Island Red


Silver Laced Wyandotte


White Crested Polish


Buff Laced Polish, Buff Orpington, Blue Andalusian

 

[Wavechickens]

I'm debating what I should use in the brooder. Pine shavings? Sand?

We've used the large flake pine shavings from TSC and they work great. If you put down a layer of newspaper under them and then stack like 3inches or more shavings on top you can even roll them up for disposal. Just make sure it's deep enough they aren't waking on the paper as slick surfaces like that will cause splayed leg.