2018 Newbie Chat!

[Cbarr00]

DH and I made a feed run to our local TSC last night. The baby was sleeping so he went in solo and came back and said they had chicks and ducks already. I can't wait to find an excuse to go and check them out myself. If I had more room I would get a couple more too! Cricket is trying to go broody again. Perfect timing lol!

 

[llombardo]

I completely feel like this is my first time with chicks--I can't stop checking on them. I love watching them do big chicken things like scratch around and clean themselves. They are so tiny doing grown up things.

First day a success. They are all eating, drinking and I see some poop. Butts are clean and they seem content.

The cinnamon queen is defintely a girl--they can be sexed by color. I might name her Cinnamon, but Queenie is in the running..she has completely take over the food bowl--even fell asleep in it. I put my hand in there and they ate out of my hand,climbed on my hand and are not skittish(I'm sure that phase will come)

 

[No More Empty Nest]

My son is going to kill me, good thing he is in Texas. I'm not saying a word. When he does notice I fully intend on telling him I have no clue what he is talking about.

Hahahaha!!

All the chicks are just tooo cute! I'm jealous. No room for any more, and rules say no more.

 

[llombardo]

Hahahaha!!

All the chicks are just tooo cute! I'm jealous. No room for any more, and rules say no more.

I completely was not thinking clearly. I've come up with a game plan and a plan b and c until I can build the coop out there. I'm not even attempting integration until the babies are close to laying and I'm hoping that integrating 8 will be easier then 4. You know the power of safety in numbers. Now all I have to do is get the ideas out of my head and outside..lol

 

[llombardo]

I found 3 of them roosting. They are only a couple days old and roosting. I know one is the cinnamon and I think the other two are the Easter eggers.

Sadly I can't remember who is who yet, except for the two polish and the cinnamon. The jersey giant and sapphire gem look a lot alike too right now.

The cinnamon is the boldest and the silver lace polish is the friendliest.

 

[PNW_Peepers]

Such cute new babies! Manchineel my Blue Ameraucana Cockerel flogged me this morning. I had to kick him pretty hard to get him off of me. Looks like he’ll be heading to freezer camp soon.

 

[CannedMonster]

So I had to avert a crisis this morning!!
I have the 7 chicks in the garage in a rabbit hutch.
I have food, water and a heat plate for them.
There’s a bit of a learning curve for store chicks to learn that they need to go underneath to warm themselves.
They seemed to catch on quickly yesterday but I wasn’t sure if they knew where the food and water was.
I dipped their beaks, etc.
I checked them last night before going to bed and all was well.

This morning it was absolute chaos!
I heard loud distressed cheeping and looked in the hutch to see them piled up between the wall and the lid of the heat plate.
My tiniest chick, a porcelain D’Uccle, was in a different area on its back with its head buried underneath the shavings and it was shaking and trembling all over!!!
I quickly grabbed that chick and felt how cold it was.
Omg omg omg!!!
I held it next to my body and heard very faint peeping.
I picked up the others and put them underneath the heat plate and they all seemed to be okay.
I’m still holding the tiny chick next to my skin.
But I still hear extremely loud distress calls...
I lift the heat plate and count...
Six
Only six chicks
Where’s the seventh? The biggest Orpington chick is missing.
I started looking around everywhere and I finally find her underneath the hutch on the concrete garage floor!!
So I picked up that one and her feet were so cold!
I held her too.
She warmed up and I put her back with the others but the D’Uccle was in bad shape.
I took it into the house and mixed some Nutri Drench up and continued to hold it next to me.
It was so weak!
It slowly began to warm but I wanted to help it revive faster.
I got a syringe and pulled some Nutri Drench into it and squirted some in the babies mouth.
It acted like it was swallowing but then it seemed like it was choking
Omg I made it worse!
I tipped the chick upside down trying to make sure it wasn’t aspirating.
It started peeping weakly again so I figured I better stop and just keep it warm.
I had no idea they’d fall through the little rabbit hutch bars!
I feel so bad and stupid.
I had Pippin in the hutch with Cleo for over a month and Cleo never fell through but I guess that’s because she kept close to her mama.

I moved all the chicks to a very large plastic tote with their heat plate, etc.
The tiny D’Uccle has recovered and even was eating and drinking like a champ and they’re all able to find the food and water on their own.

 

[PNW_Peepers]

@ChooksNQuilts, my goodness that sounds terrifying. So glad you found the 7th chick. I’ve been there, missing chicks is the most horrifying thing. Home hatched chicks vs. store bought is a huge difference. I woke up a couple weeks ago to find distress calls from my jersey giants. 4 of the 5 slipped through the bars on my dog kennel. Luckily I put a fitted sheet around all my brooders now so they didn’t get very far, but they sure were scared when I found them. & poor Lazarus we found dead and stiff. DH gave it mouth to mouth and we wrapped her in a heated blanket and by that evening she was acting normalish.

 

[No More Empty Nest]

So I had to avert a crisis this morning!!
I have the 7 chicks in the garage in a rabbit hutch.
I have food, water and a heat plate for them.
There’s a bit of a learning curve for store chicks to learn that they need to go underneath to warm themselves.
They seemed to catch on quickly yesterday but I wasn’t sure if they knew where the food and water was.
I dipped their beaks, etc.
I checked them last night before going to bed and all was well.

This morning it was absolute chaos!
I heard loud distressed cheeping and looked in the hutch to see them piled up between the wall and the lid of the heat plate.
My tiniest chick, a porcelain D’Uccle, was in a different area on its back with its head buried underneath the shavings and it was shaking and trembling all over!!!
I quickly grabbed that chick and felt how cold it was.
Omg omg omg!!!
I held it next to my body and heard very faint peeping.
I picked up the others and put them underneath the heat plate and they all seemed to be okay.
I’m still holding the tiny chick next to my skin.
But I still hear extremely loud distress calls...
I lift the heat plate and count...
Six
Only six chicks
Where’s the seventh? The biggest Orpington chick is missing.
I started looking around everywhere and I finally find her underneath the hutch on the concrete garage floor!!
So I picked up that one and her feet were so cold!
I held her too.
She warmed up and I put her back with the others but the D’Uccle was in bad shape.
I took it into the house and mixed some Nutri Drench up and continued to hold it next to me.
It was so weak!
It slowly began to warm but I wanted to help it revive faster.
I got a syringe and pulled some Nutri Drench into it and squirted some in the babies mouth.
It acted like it was swallowing but then it seemed like it was choking
Omg I made it worse!
I tipped the chick upside down trying to make sure it wasn’t aspirating.
It started peeping weakly again so I figured I better stop and just keep it warm.
I had no idea they’d fall through the little rabbit hutch bars!
I feel so bad and stupid.
I had Pippin in the hutch with Cleo for over a month and Cleo never fell through but I guess that’s because she kept close to her mama.

I moved all the chicks to a very large plastic tote with their heat plate, etc.
The tiny D’Uccle has recovered and even was eating and drinking like a champ and they’re all able to find the food and water on their own.

How scary! I'm so glad they all pulled through. We all make mistakes, sometimes with worse results. Don't be too hard on yourself.

 

[Newblet]

Got my little ladies outside they loved it, they are 2 weeks old. They both ate an earth worm, and some flowers. I got them in there coop outside now with a heating lamp inside of it. I live in the desert it is 80 degrees out.

They are struggling with the horizontal water nipples, to be fair i just go them yesterday. My son cant stop staring at them and holding them