Vaccines? Brooding area with lid?

[Rae Scott]

Thank you so much! I feel better aboutq the chick raising thing now and i will work on thqe i dise brooder. We can find a place to put one by a heatingq vent since we just got snow today. We dont use the front door amd renos are extremely slow moving since we do it all ourselves. But i think given what ypu have said we can manage it.

 

[chameleon]

You've got plenty of excellent advice already, so I won't say much. I'd just like to repeat that brooding outdoors if you can would really be much easier. As long as the coop is draught free and you set up a heating pad or something for them in one corner they will be just fine and much less work for you. Chicks are a lot less fragile than they seem on the internet

I've brooded inside and outside and personally I find the chicks are also much much happier outside.

 

[lazy gardener]

I have just heard so many things can go wrong with chicks from disease to heat to food to death in transit, and with straight run eggs you have zero clue what your getting, that we thought looking towards pullets would be better but none are available. We dont have the coop built yet. We are waiting on tax return to get the lumber and stuff to build it and the run.which it should be here in a couple weeks and we were looking at mid to late Aprilship date but ordering now.

We want 1 each of Easter egger, Black Austrolorp, Lavender Orpington, Buff Orpington, Olive egger. The LO and Oe are sold out and the EEs are rather limited.

Rae, you have a lot on your plate. If I were in your shoes, this is what I'd do: First, get your coop. Be sure you make it big enough to meet future needs. Plan on a minimum of 4 s.f./bird, with extra room to allow for integrating new chicks/birds into the flock in the future, or perhaps a caged area in the coop to allow for a broody hen. Have that coop wired for electricity. That could be as simple as having a construction grade extension cord with weather protection at each end. Have your run built also. Be sure it is secure against a dog attack. Dogs can and often do rip through chicken wire.

Now, with that in place, you can brood your chicks safely, without having the concern for dogs trying to eat them, and without the dogs forcing your chicks into a panic. I am an advocate for brooding chicks with a heating pad. The benefits of that are HUGE. I am also an advocate for fermented feed. You can view links about both topics at the bottom of my signature.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

It sounds like you have concerns about "specialized care" can you expand on that thought?



I was thinking along the same lines. If the brooder is set up where cleaning isn’t a big problem, they aren’t all that hard or time-consuming to take care of. A larger brooder can help with that. Make sure the waterer doesn’t leak and get everything wet. I don’t brood in the house, my 3’ x 6’ brooder is built into the coop, is elevated, and has a ½” hardware cloth floor so the poop drops straight through to plastic bins from Walmart which makes cleaning extremely easy. I have 22 six-week-olds in it now and plan to move the cockerels to my unheated grow-out pen later today. My lows are forecast to be below freezing for the next week. I feed and water twice a day. That’s it for taking care of them. It’s not that hard and not that time-consuming, but you can set up a brooder that requires a lot more effort.

One problem I face brooding outside is temperature swings. You may have the same issue since you are renovating but hopefully to a lesser degree. Earlier this year I had a low of 18 but two days later the high was 81. In your brooder you need one area warm enough in the coolest temperatures but another area cool enough in the warmest temperatures. Usually inside a house that isn’t much of an issue but with your renovations you may have a lot of doors opening and closing. Depending on how you plan to heat the chicks, a larger brooder can often help with that. There are a lot of different ways you can provide that warm spot and let the rest cool down.

I don’t know your schedule for finishing those renovations. You might call Meyer and see if they will work with you on a later order so you are under less stress and can get the breeds you want. I don’t know if they will work with you or not, but what does it hurt to ask?

You will read all kinds of things on the internet and this forum. You are dealing with living animals so practically anything can happen, and you have human beings handling the chicks during shipment. Disasters do happen. Most of what you read are the horror stories where things go wrong. The vast majority of times nothing goes wrong. You receive living healthy chicks. I’ve had chicks mailed three times, once each from Cackle, Meyer, and Ideal. I received a total of 70 chicks in those three orders. All of them arrived alive but I did have one from Ideal that died a few days later. Some chicks hatch with something wrong and are just not able to make it, but that’s not nearly as often as you sometimes think from posts on here. As long as you provide appropriate food, clean water, a spot for them to warm up when they need to and are able to get away from the heat if they need to, provide predator protection, and keep the brooder dry you are unlikely to have serious problems. Clean water and a dry brooder are extremely important. Chicks aren’t that hard if you can provide the basics, but some people on here can really scare you.

One thing I recommend is to time your order so they do not ship close to a postal holiday. The number of horror stories on here go up around postal holidays.

Good luck with it.

X2

As someone who spends most of their time here on BYC helping in the Emergency Forums you will see a LOT of things that may scare you. It's not to say things can't go wrong, but by doing a bit of reading on raising babies and adults and having just a few things on hand for an "emergency" I think it will help you be more comfortable when they arrive. It's a fun time, but can be a bit stressful if you've never done it before

I am in the "basic" camp. Fresh food, fresh water, heat for chicks and see how they do. I don't add any supplements, medications or vitamins to chick water or even my adults unless I deem it necessary - then I usually treat just the one that I feel needs it.

You may want to make a "chicken care box" of a few things to keep on hand in case of an "emergency" - having some poultry vitamins and/or electrolytes on hand never hurts. There are many on the market, but you can usually pick up Poultry Nutri-Drench and/or Sav-A-Chick vitamins/electrolytes at your local feed store or tractor supply. In a pinch - you can use sugar water to rouse a droopy chick. For chicks that are less than a couple of weeks old - if you can't get them to rally with hydration and vitamin/electrolytes, then most of the time they won't make it. This I keep that can be used for chicks and adults is hemorrhoid cream - this can be used to soothe irritated bums if they had pasty butt (vaseline or coconut oil will work too), for adults it would be an emergency like prolapse. That's about it. Unless there is an injury or cut there's not much else to do.

Here's some common sense tips that may help you:
https://hencam.com/faq/chick-care/
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/03/baby-chick-basics-what-you-need-to-know.html

 

[casportpony]

Didnt want to get into the raising chicks thing but it seems we dont have a choice. Here is my dilemma, i have 7 house dogs and nowhere BUT inside the house to put the chicks... is there a brooding thing i can put some kind of lid or cover on to keep the dogs out?

Also we are looking at ordering from Meyers, do they vaccinate their chicks? What about worming? Do i need to deworm them and vaccinate them myself?

If you choose tho have them vaccinated, have the hatchery do it. No need to worry about worming because newly hatched chicks don't have worms.

If you're going to brood inside with dogs it sounds like you'll have to get creative with making an indoor, dog proof brooder.

 

[3riverschick]

Hi Rae, lots of great advice from our top chick advisors here on NYC. Here's another idea. Forgo the chicks and start with partially grown birds this late summer. It's a good way to get started right now you have a lot on your plate. I understand you want eggs from your birds. Why not let someone else do the raising. Hear me out . In the last part of summer, breeders start to downsize their flocks for overwintering. They have lovely birds which may fail a bit in the show points. Raised carefully as show birds but maybe the color or comb structure is a bit off. So they sell them to the public. You would get birds carefully raised and checked several times for health and quality. I have had great success starting out with started birds. You pay a bit more but usually less than it would have cost you to raise them yourself. Plus they would have been spring hatched so good winter layers and you will still be on track to hatch chicks with everyone else next spring. It's a win win win for you. Time to get house done, the coop built and not worrying Bout tiny chicks and dogs. Plus your birds will be in their adult feathers so you can see what you are getting. I am a huge fan of getting started this way. Best,. Karen

 

[Ridgerunner]

Hi Rae, lots of great advice from our top chick advisors here on NYC. Here's another idea. Forgo the chicks and start with partially grown birds this late summer. It's a good way to get started right now you have a lot on your plate. I understand you want eggs from your birds. Why not let someone else do the raising. Hear me out . In the last part of summer, breeders start to downsize their flocks for overwintering. They have lovely birds which may fail a bit in the show points. Raised carefully as show birds but maybe the color or comb structure is a bit off. So they sell them to the public. You would get birds carefully raised and checked several times for health and quality. I have had great success starting out with started birds. You pay a bit more but usually less than it would have cost you to raise them yourself. Plus they would have been spring hatched so good winter layers and you will still be on track to hatch chicks with everyone else next spring. It's a win win win for you. Time to get house done, the coop built and not worrying Bout tiny chicks and dogs. Plus your birds will be in their adult feathers so you can see what you are getting. I am a huge fan of getting started this way. Best,. Karen

Certainly an option. You might chat with your neighbors on this thread and see what is or will be available near you.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/12049/ohio-come-on-buckeyes-let-me-know-your-out-there/11690

 

[3riverschick]

By the time my Chanteclers arrive this Aug. I will have been waiting a year for them
Worth the wait. The breeder is raising them special for me and they will be started birds. Do yourself a favor and skip the chicks, spend your time searching breeds and contacting breeders to get on their down sizing list for late summer. Have fun building your coop instead of rushing. Best, Karen

 

[lazy gardener]

One other bit of advice: get all of your birds at the same time from the same place. If you really do want to start with chicks, you can order now, and pre-pay, locking in your varieties for a future ship date. An other thought: the birds you get this year will most likely be replaced in 2 - 3 years, unless you intend to run a geriatric home for aged hens. So, while it's a nice idea to want and plan to have certain breeds, you may not have the option of having all of those breeds in your starter flock. This time around, I've been raising chicks every year for the last 4 years. (I had flocks as a kid and in my early adult years) This year, pre-ordered, and hoping for my first Black Australorpe, which was on my MUST HAVE list 4 years ago.

 

[casportpony]

Some peafowl breeders have used this sort of thing as a brooder:


Jespet 45" & 61" Foldable Portable Dog/Cat/Rabbit/Puppy Pet Playpen Exercise Pen Kennel 600D Oxford Cloth with Carry Bag



https://www.amazon.com/Jespet-MAROON-Rabbit-Playpen-Exercise/dp/B017NJBBG2?th=1