8 days of observation

[mnreeder]

Although my daughter and I are rookies, we now have 8 days of experience and I thought I would share a few observations. I thought some of these items might be helpful to someone else.

We have 7 chicks. 3 Ameraucaunas and 4 Buff Orpingtons. We got them 8 days ago.
Since we are in Utah and it is quite cold, we have them in the house for now.

• Chicks are in large plastic tote
• Pine shavings for floor
• Cheap thermometer mounted near the top (so they won't peck it)
• Small feeder and waterer to give plenty of room
• Added small perch at 4 days (short 2x4 standing on it's long side) and they love it
• Thought that we had 3 chicks with pasty butt, but I don't think they really did. They had some poops sticking to their down, but it wasn't obstructing anything. Regardless, we added some apple cider vinegar to their water and cleaned it off. This was an adventure, so I'll share. We got a small (but deep) bowl of very warm water. Had the chicks stand in the water so the poopy areas were in the water. Carefully wiped it off and back in the water if needed. Used a hair dryer to dry them some. Put a tiny bit of vaseline around their bums. The other chicks were pecking at the wet down and the vaseline for a few minutes but then left them alone
• Put the water and food on a piece of wood to raise them up and keep them stable, this worked well and we haven't had 1 instance of poop in the food or water
• However, they are constantly kicking the wood chips in the water and some in the food. These need to be cleaned regularly
• They have started eating and drinking A LOT!
• They seem to change every day with new feathers and new look
• I really worried about the temperature when we first got them, and I think this is not necessary. There is so much discussion about 90 degrees, minus 5 per week, etc. etc. For the first 3-4 days, I think we kept them around 85-90 but they never huddled under the lamp. At just 8 days, we are closer to 80 degrees and they still explore and venture without any concerns. I think the key is just to make sure they aren't hiding from the lamp or huddling under it.
• Play with them lots. We have made a real effort to play with and hold each chick regularly. We have put down a blanket and let them explore in the family room (they will poop on it, so get an old blanket.) We really want to have them be friendly and so far it has worked well.
• At exactly 1 week, their house got super stinky. We just did a complete change of wood shavings and we are back in business

Just a few thoughts and observations that might be helpful to someone else.
Mike

 

[tigger19687]

I'm wondering if just using paper towels instead of shavings would be better?

 

[mnreeder]

I'm sure that there are lots of opinions about this. I've liked the wood shavings. The chicks started digging around at day 6 (hence all of the wood in the waterer.) I don't think that would work with paper towels very well. Also, they have spilled the water numerous times as well. I only paid $6 for a very large package of wood shavings from Tractor Supply. We've filled the bin twice and have probably only used about 10% of the bag.