Advice needed

[anisa]

I posted this in another area but i think maybe it is better here as it was in another thread ...advice needed please



My husband brought home some baby chicks about 4 weeks ago some seem bigger than others i asked what kind of chicks they are he just said arab chicks ... we live in algeria and the weather now is around 16 degrees from everything i have read that they are maybe ready within the next 2 weeks to go out side ...Is this true ... he had brought home 7 and 2 died and from what i have read it could have been the wood shavings we had them on so we change the box their in and also took away the wood shavings and so far the remaining 5 are good ... just this last week he brought another 5 chick they look different to the others and bigger i'm not sure how old they are but looking at them they seem they too are ready to go out .... i dont worry about the hen as she too passed on over a week and a half ago i do have 2 roosters one is larger than the other and the smaller of them is lazy and doesnt even crow only this week he started to make some noises but clucking noises ..anyway my question is how do the rooster react to baby chick ..this is all new to me as i'm not from algeria ...i born and raised in Ireland but never dealt with chickens ...thank you for your help

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I've had adult cock bird kill young cockerel. The dominant male will be protective of the chicks but may or may not want a young male growing up with him. Something to watch out for. Temperment of cock bird and if chicks were brooded with flock are factors but nothing is ever certain. Monitor closely when introduced is all.

As for time to put the chicks outside, that's feather dependent and dependent on how hot your keeping them currently. My chicks are outside in 45-50F highs and 32F lows in spring at 4 weeks of age. To convert that means 10C high and 0C lows. How I manage this is to stage down the heat in brooder. It promotes feather growth and by 4 weeks have been with no heat at all inside a garage space that is 50F (10C) for 3 days. Acclimate them to the lower temps is what I'm saying. Fairly certain at this age all your chicks have enough feather for the weather they just need to be weened from the brooder heat prior to tossed outside.

 

[DRaeMc]

My top rooster now helps raise babies, but as time goes on all of the babies want to claim that spot. My top roo is not the issue it's the non dominant roosters. It really depends on your roosters. I'd just watch them closely. As with all the chickens. Since they aren't mature yet there may not be any issues at all, but as roosters grow some get really dominant and it may be the babies that are dangerous to your older ones. I honestly wouldn't keep that many roosters with just a few girls. It will be hard on the girls being mated so frequently.

I move my birds depending on how many I have. Regardless of the temperature. If they seem OK after a week and I have 50 birds they really don't need heat because they are able to produce it on their own, if it's just a few I keep them inside longer. Since you only have a few I'd wait until they are mostly feathered out before moving them.

 

[anisa]

thank you so much for answering

i keep reading about brooders and had to check about them i dont have this ... at the moment my chicks are in 2 separate card broad boxes at night we place a smaller box upside down and place some cloth in their to help keep them warm they have been like this now for about 2 weeks (well the first batch are) they have gotten used to it that at night they go in by themselves the second lot arent use to it as it has only been a few days since they came but i'm sure they will get use to it ... my husband built a coup for the rooster and the hen when she was alive and actually did a great job with it and our hen even manage to lay up to 7 eggs before she passed

as for the roosters the smaller one seems to follow the older one and what ever the older one does the smaller one will do too ... it was the older rooster that mated with the hen but we found the smaller rooster use to sit on the hen eggs which i found so strange the smaller one will stand beside the bigger one and even looks like he is sleeping and when the bigger one moves the smaller one will move too

the big rooster seems to have taken a shine to my youngest daughter and watches for her when she is out in the garden he comes along side her and will allow her to pick him up as i said i dont really know much about chicken so to me this is so strange

 

[Spartan22]

Just something to watch if you have young kids w/ rooster. Some roosters could harm young kids w/ their spur.

 

[anisa]

oh ok thank will keep an eyes out...not sure if it will happen to her as my daughter is 6 years old