Arizona Chickens

[Mikey D]

Well...

I just got way more intimate with the posterior anatomy of a peeper than I was figuring on.

Read up on the pasty butt thing. Not sure if the vent was blocked but cleaned it off carefully with a wet paper towel - peeper stopped peeping whilst the operation was underway.

Tammy (AKA Control Tower AKA DW) said it was because of the cheese (1/4 slice divided by 8 birds once a day).

I read up on it and got some really conflicting information about causes: too hot, too cold, used sugar, transport stress etc...

So here are the questions:

Is the cheese gonna block em up?

Should I have discontinued the sugar after the first day? (discontinued it as of now - still using Tracydr's vitamins)

Any ideas on preventing this? (I know - Sprouts Apple cider vinegar w/ mother!)

Eagerly awaiting your advice!

 

[kevs-chickadees]

Seems like whatever we do they still get it while they're young. Might just be one of those things you have to get use to. Update: still no more pips.

How long can i keep these two in the bator before removing, 24 hours?

 

[Mikey D]

Cleaned out the Brooder/tote last night.

Lowered the temp to 90 ish.

Progressing well I believe.

***Edited because of special needs smiley***

 

[nurseshelly]

Quote:
Could you take him to the vet and get him de-crowed? I think Dr. Anderson does the surgery here in town, but not 100% sure. Then you could have some roos and nobody would know.

 

[nurseshelly]

Quote:
I've heard if you put sand in as the substrate it prevents the pasty butt. I used sand one time, and I didn't have any, but I don't know if it was a coincidence or because of the sand. I do usually put a handful of sand in on the shavings once they start getting greens or other food. I don't think it's the temp or food exactly, since I usually only have one chick or maybe two, that gets it in a batch, and everyone is in the same environment, eating the same food.

 

[pastrymama]

mikey,

every time i have had shipped chicks, some of them have gotten pasty butt. i think it's due to shipping stress and being cold? and they'll have it for about a week. but everything that gets hatched at home whether it's under a broody or incubator, they never seem to have pasty butt. also, you must feed those chicks some type of grit if you are giving them other foods besides crumbles. like nurse shelly said, put some sand in the box with them. they need it to digest all that cheese and other stuff you are giving them.

oh, check the feed tag, some feeds already put grit in their chick starters, like OH Kruse.

 

[pdx2phx]

Pre-teen (ish) peeper udpdated pix. These are the half Silkie/half Serama babies from Nurseshelley

I think they are more taking after the Silkie side as they are getting pretty big!

They like to hang out on my shoulder, and are actually pretty good about not pooping on "mom." (too much)

I am 95% sure that the blonde one is a roo. Look at his sweet anklets! He is such a nice, calm cuddly little guy, and has 5 toes. He has promised me that he will never crow since we can't have roos here.

The little grey one is pretty rambunctious, and peeps a lot. I'm pretty sure she's a pullet.

Anyone have different ideas on gender? I would so love it if they were both pullets, at the bare minimum not both roos.....

Happy Wednesday, y'all!

 

[Tracydr]

Quote:
If you can find a nice size, cheap wine cooler, they are easy to convert and work well. Mine is a Danby (they make great incubators, but are sucky wine coolers, so you often find them broken for cheap). With mine, the temperature gauges for the top and bottom zone work, and probably 4 or 5 of the 6 fans. It used to be 5, but we think one went out because the temps were suddenly not stable, but we can't find it without moving the cooler. So, we added a fan to the bottom, which makes the temps really super stable.
You just cut out the compressor, drill holes in the bottom back of the cooler, add a light kit or two (we did two, in case one goes out), install them, and connect the plugs to a thermostat, we used a reptile thermostat. It turns it on at 98.8 and off at 99.8. This seems to be the ideal temp range since now our seramas are hatching on day 21, instead of day 19. We got a humidity / temp gauge that is meant to go in a cigar box, it's a nice inexpensive digital gauge. We also added two egg turners after a bit. Now that I'm doing dry incubation, I barely ever have to even open it, except to take eggs out or put them in. Of course if it didn't have fans, we would probably need more fans than the one mini desk fan. On ours the temp gauge, the lights and the fans all run independent of the compressor. It looked like they all were on the same plug, but when we took it apart, the compressor was plugged into the main power.
The hardest thing was figuring out how it was wired, and how to take the compressor off without damaging the wiring to the fans and lights / temp gauge. It turned out much easier than it looked. Once we had the compressor unbolted, it was obvious how to do it. But we spent probably half an hour staring at it before we were brave enough to unbolt it.

What a great idea! I'm going to remember this for when I make one!

 

[pimachickens]

Very cute chicks everyone!

Is anyone interested in planting Indian Fig (aka: spineless prickly pear)? I will be doing some pruning of mine, so will have pads available if anyone wants. They are pretty easy to propagate. Just bury the pad about 1/3 of the way up and viola...it starts a new plant. Send me a message if you want any.

 

[Tracydr]

Quote:
I would start lowering the brooder temperature. Did you make any kefir with those kefir grains? If you did, start giving them kefir. If not, are they getting apple cider vinegar? Give them organic apple cider vinegar and a bit of store bought kefir.
I haven't had any pasty butt with mine. Last summer I had some and they didn't get kefir. They also had a more stressful shipping. I think the cheese is probably fine. I wouldn't keep using the sugar, that's just for the hump the first couple of days.