12 Days Old!!! Wow! .... But question?

[LaneyAngel]

So my first hatchling darling has made it through the first 11 days of its life.

I be very happy.
Already baby has little wing feathers and I can tell from those wing feathers, baby is definitely a Frizzle! Already the wing tips are curling, and oh my is baby turning out pretty!

I have two others I purchased as companions for this chick... but this ones special

ANYWAY, my question is this....
I go away on March 5th for I am not sure how long, and the chicks will be over 4 weeks old... close to 5 weeks. I'm in Australia, and so, our autumn weather will just be starting (maybe, summer might continue on for awhile, who knows, our weather has been rather twisted of late).
But I wanted to know, will the babes be old enough to be outside? Or will they still need to be in the brooder at almost 5 weeks?


I've only ever done this, chicks in a brooder thing once, and I had no idea, so I had the babies under the brooder for like, 2.5 months, the poor things when they finally grew up had stunted growth... they were already bantams, but these guys were so small I had people ask me if I was raising miniature bantams!

So, yeah, just want to know what the information is on this.
Chicks, when its sunny, get taken outside everyday (under close supervision as I have an older hen in the yard with her 2 month old child) to play in the sun on the ground in the dirt, they peck everything and dig and explore... and they have plenty of food and water, and they get a lot of sunlight, as their brooder is by a window so they get plenty of sun. When its warm, the window is open, when its cool (it has been a couple of days now), the window is closed to prevent chills...

But yeah... will almost 5 week old chicks be okay to live outside? Coz if they can, I'd rather let them, than have someone else trying to look after them while I'm away!

 

[debilorrah]

As a rule, they should be fully feathered before they are without a heat lamp. Maybe we can holler MISS PRISSY! and she will come help..... She knows everything.

 

[LaneyAngel]

LOL


I'm also scared that my precious little one will turn out to be a "Frazzle", as both mum and dad ARE Frizzles...

I'm worried for baby after reading that they can have all sorts of problems...

 

[debilorrah]

Is someone going to be coming daily to care for your other birds/animals? If so, then it should be ok leaving them in house....

 

[Guitartists]

Yes, Frizzle to Frizzle can result in weak feathers or feathering isses. But, if you breed it to a straight feathered bird, you will get 100% frizzled.

 

[cmom]

I agree with the other posts. I let mine out but I had them in a chicken tractor. I ran a electric cord and put a brooder lamp with a 60 watt bulb in the lamp in the tractor, so they could go in to warm up, but I live in Florida. The rule of thumb is 95 degrees temperature their first week with a 5 degree decrease each week. If you follow that recipe the temp for them would be 85. At 2 weeks 75 degrees at 4 weeks. I went away for about 6 weeks but mine were grown. I had some different friends look after my birds and come up to collect the eggs. I told them they could keep the eggs and use them, give them away or sell the eggs. My care givers took turns so no one had to come up every day. I left extra feed and water out for the birds so the people didn't have to worry about the feed and water just to check every few days and make sure all was ok. I left the pop door open into a fenced in yard so they could go in and out of the coop whenever. I put the coop (it's moveable) under my yard light with their run which is covered in hopes that the light being on at night would deture any preditore.

 

[LaneyAngel]

Quote:
I live with my dad, so thats not an issue, its just, my dad is the kind of person who thinks they shouldn't be inside to begin with, regardless of their age. To him, a chicken is a chicken, and they should be outside.
And he's also more than likely to forget to feed the babies unless I stuff their cage in a place he can't miss it, like, on his bed. >.<


Quote:
Yes I know this, but it wasn't exactly planned for the rooster to get to my female. I have only one rooster... he's a Frizzle. He has his own pen, which he shares with 2 hens, a Silky Crossbreed, and a Pekin Bantam. My Frizzle hen is actually in a seperate yard as she has a two month old child underwing, and has thus far been refusing to go anywhere near the other chicken pen. I put her and her young one in there last week. They started squawking, hid in the grass and as soon as I left, went tearing over the fence and back up into the backyard. How the rooster got to my Frizzled female I don't know, but when she started laying again, I honestly didn't think about it, I collected her eggs, and one of them turned out to be viable. I incubated it, and only very recently (like yesterday) remembered about the whole issue of not breeding Frizzle to Frizzle because of that problem...

I know the other chicks should have no issues, they're Isa Browns bought from a hatchery.

But I am now worried about baby. So far it seems to be developing normally, and for being the smallest of the bunch (both parents are a smaller size overall than your average chicken, as Dad is a Pekin Frizzle, and mum is.... just ugly and weird. LOL) its by far the boss of the little trio and is turning out right pretty.
The little wing feathers seem as normal as they should be, and are actually less ratty than those on the two Isa Browns >.<


ETA: But the 100% isn't entirely accurate, isn't it sposed to be 50% .... I had my Frizzle rooster breed to my NON Frizzle hen and they produced a normal baby that looks unlike either of them breed wise!!

 

[Guitartists]

It may be just fine..... just overly curly feathers

I think my Frizzled roo might be a Frazzle

I'll know when I breed him depending on what % of Frizzles he throws. His feathers break easily in certain places, but otherwise he is a healthy happy fella and quite popular with the ladies

LOL

 

[Guitartists]

Quote:
You need one copy of the gene to get a Frizzle... so it's close to 50/50 if you breed a Frizzle to a straight feathered bird.... but if you breed a 'Frazzle' (who has TWO copies of the gene) then every offspring gets one copy and will therefore be Frizzled. at least, that is how I understand it. Possibly you had someone else sneak into a pen

LOL Or possibly there is a rouge roo roaming around your property.

And that being said... I would imagine that it is entirely possible to get a regular Frizzle from a Frizzle to Frizzle pairing IF it got at least one non-frizzled gene from one of the parents. You just highly increase your chances of them having 2 copies of the gene.

 

[Guitartists]

Did my Punnett Squares for the frizzle gene...... if what I understand is correct then......

Let's use FF for Frazzle, Ff for Frizzle and ff for smooth.....

Ff x Ff will result in 25% FF (Frazzled), 25% ff (Smooth) and 50% Ff (Frizzled) So your odds are pretty good that your little Nugget might just be Frizzled

FF x ff will result in 100% Ff (Frizzled)

Ff x ff will result in 50% Ff (Frizzled) and 50% ff (smooth)