Arizona Chickens

[Bobby Basham]

@Bobby Basham the hand fed treats will win them over. You're doing great! I'm so happy your babies are getting used to you. Pretty soon they're going to mob you the second they see you.

Mine seem to have learned to tell time. If I'm late with their snack in the afternoon they're all standing outside the back door waiting. Usually I get scolded for my lack of punctuality.

I just fed them some wild bird seed the first time. They weren't overly excited, but at least they acknowledged me and came over to see what was going on. They really go crazy over the smashed boiled eggs.

 

[igorsMistress]

@Bobby Basham do you have some chick grit? I think you need it if you're giving seeds. Or dirt with tiny rocks in it, also good for their immune system to be exposed to germs.

Mine loved dill when they were litlle or anything else green. Live mealworms drove them nuts!

 

[Bobby Basham]

@Bobby Basham do you have some chick grit? I think you need it if you're giving seeds. Or dirt with tiny rocks in it, also good for their immune system to be exposed to germs.

Mine loved dill when they were litlle or anything else green. Live mealworms drove them nuts!

Somebody mentioned that the chick grit wasn't necessary because it's already in their starter feed. The seed was an experiment, taking a break from their regular feed.

 

[K Has]

Hello,
I am writing to provide the status of my son's school project. We built a home made incubator and obtained a dozen Australorp eggs from BlueBaby (thank you) and a second dozen of Easter eggs from igorsMistress (thank you too). We first tried the eggs they sell at Trader Joe's that are labeled as fertile eggs but none of them was actually fertile.
Our challenge was maintaining the temperature at around 100F throughout the hatching period but that required constant monitoring. I think that turned out to be fatal for the Australorp (poor babies). We had four fertile eggs but the chicks died before they could hatch.
We had better luck with the Easter eggs. So far, six hatched and we are waiting to see if any more chicks will come out. I had to assist one of the chicks out of the egg today. He pipped the egg and was there for 20 hours with no progress, so I peeled the shell and removed most of the sack. Hopefully he survives the surgery. We are all excited by the new addition to our house hold
I am getting an incubator from ebay since the manual incubation proved to be too much work.
Here is a picture of the hatching

 

[cactusrota]

Somebody mentioned that the chick grit wasn't necessary because it's already in their starter feed. The seed was an experiment, taking a break from their regular feed.

Hmmm.. I've never heard that. I have heard of a number of people giving them dirt from the pen they are going to be released into later as it helps build an immunity to whatever they will be living in...

 

[MagicChicken]

Well, 2:00AM this morning I was cleaning two chicken butts. The RIR was a repeat from two days ago and the other was a BA/BR?

The RIR chirped a few times before I turned it on its back. I used a Q-tip and a small trickle of warm running water. When I was almost done it started chirping loudly because I think the last piece of poo was really stuck on, but I proceeded gently until that last piece softened and fell off. Its vent was protruding a bit, so I had to shoo the others away to keep from picking at it. The BA/BR was not quite as cooperative, but I stuck to my guns. It had a HUGE mass over its vent and took a little more effort, but it sorta just melted off completely. The RIR seems to be a loner sometimes, sleeping and eating by itself, then becomes social again.

Someone in another forum mentioned that if you want your chicks to bond, start making some soft chicken noises. I got down low and went to the brooder and laid my hand on the floor with some food. When I started to cluck, they all got excited (in a good way) and got busy pecking all around the brooder. About five of them rushed my hands then skid on their brakes and backed off. Two of them came up and started to eat out of my hand, then one took off, not in a frantic way. The other stepped up on my fingers and continued to eat out of my hand, then left. The little soft pecks were so cute. Some of them are inquisitive to begin with, always running toward my hand even before I tried this. Since I live alone, I can do the cluck I want...LOL!

I let them have a field day and removed all the paper towels and added more bedding since they were scratching through the towels and kept them blocked off while I checked the temperature with a cheap thermometer. The temperature directly below the lamp, over the feed trough, was over 100 degrees. The last time I checked it was 95 degrees. The sales rep at ACE told me those bulbs would get warmer and let it run for a while to let it reache peak temperature.

I just checked in on them any they are all mingling, scratching like crazy, but found another black one with a skinny "turd" hanging out. It wasn't there when I went to bed at 3:30.

One last observation...the Austra Whites have HUGE wings like a leghorn. We had them on our farm back in the 60's and they were quite the flyers.

Sorry for being so verbose today. The two places that I check every few minutes are the bathroom and this Board. --BB

Bobby, it sounds like those chicks are probably way too hot. It should only be 95 degrees in one small area where they can go warm up when they need to be warm. And that 95 degrees should be reduced every few days as the chicks get bigger. The chicks need to be able to cool off so they can develop proper insulating feathering. Remember, momma hens will take their baby chicks out in the SNOW (in places that actually get snow.) The chicks run around in the snow and are fine. When they get cold they run under momma. Most of the time the healthy chicks are NOT under a heat source. But they need the heat source available.

If you keep the food and water at the opposite end of the brooder from the heat source, the chicks will stay cooler and will also get much-needed exercise going back and forth.

Sorry for the late response. I've been without internet access for a couple of days.

Good luck with your birds!

 

[Bobby Basham]

Bobby, it sounds like those chicks are probably way too hot. It should only be 95 degrees in one small area where they can go warm up when they need to be warm. And that 95 degrees should be reduced every few days as the chicks get bigger. The chicks need to be able to cool off so they can develop proper insulating feathering. Remember, momma hens will take their baby chicks out in the SNOW (in places that actually get snow.) The chicks run around in the snow and are fine. When they get cold they run under momma. Most of the time the healthy chicks are NOT under a heat source. But they need the heat source available.

If you keep the food and water at the opposite end of the brooder from the heat source, the chicks will stay cooler and will also get much-needed exercise going back and forth.

Sorry for the late response. I've been without internet access for a couple of days.

Good luck with your birds!

I immediately raised the lamp a couple of days ago. Their behavior gave me no indication that they were hot since they were rambling all over the place. The two water containers are at the opposite end, but the long trough runs down the middle since it is too long to turn sideways. The lamp is more toward the waterers, not dead center.

The box is 4 feet long and about 20 inches wide/high, and they prefer to sleep and mostly poop at the opposite end on the pad from their shipping container. They do hang out in the center to eat and run around and try to dust bathe, and several of them spend time perched on the feeder.

 

[igorsMistress]

Hello,
I am writing to provide the status of my son's school project. We built a home made incubator and obtained a dozen Australorp eggs from BlueBaby (thank you) and a second dozen of Easter eggs from igorsMistress (thank you too). We first tried the eggs they sell at Trader Joe's that are labeled as fertile eggs but none of them was actually fertile.
Our challenge was maintaining the temperature at around 100F throughout the hatching period but that required constant monitoring. I think that turned out to be fatal for the Australorp (poor babies). We had four fertile eggs but the chicks died before they could hatch.
We had better luck with the Easter eggs. So far, six hatched and we are waiting to see if any more chicks will come out. I had to assist one of the chicks out of the egg today. He pipped the egg and was there for 20 hours with no progress, so I peeled the shell and removed most of the sack. Hopefully he survives the surgery. We are all excited by the new addition to our house hold
I am getting an incubator from ebay since the manual incubation proved to be too much work.
Here is a picture of the hatchingView attachment 1193005

Thank you so much for the update and pic! Congratulations too! More pics when you can please!! I just want to see what your chicks look like. They're the first I've seen hatched from my flock

 

[igorsMistress]

@BlueBaby here's both boys

the light blue pullet

The darker pullet and Kazoo.

The black cockerel

 

[K Has]

Thank you so much for the update and pic! Congratulations too! More pics when you can please!! I just want to see what your chicks look like. They're the first I've seen hatched from my flock

Here is a picture of the six that hatched so far. Number seven is in the process of hatching right now.
My wife is telling me it is another black one