Babies Moving Up?

[kherokee]

My baby seramas all turned 4 weeks yesterday and finally and I can relieve a sigh for now!

I was looking for tips and advice for your babies at this stage! Did you take out the heater, switch feed, etc?

Right now my babies are still in their box with their brinsea ecoglow, quail waterer, medicated chick feed, and some sticks to perch and play with. They're very rowdy and love visits outside but my main outdoor coop fencing is wide enough these tiny nuggets can squeeze through so I have to sit with them while they sunbathe and practice jumping/gliding off my legs to the ground.

The weather here is perfect since its reaching autumn on the East Coast so its a breezy 80ish outside!

Any advice is much appreciated!

Tiny nuggets enjoying the weather!

(ps: they look like all pullets to me, I can ppst more pictures)

 

[nchls school]

I raised serama chicks the spring, but I had three broody hens looking after them (eleven chicks). I fed them growers mash and lot of veggies, fruits,and table scraps. When they showed signs of maturity I switched them over to laying mash. Tomorrow, they will be four months old. All eleven thrived but I lost one to a mink a couple of weeks ago.

One pullet will be hatching her first clutch Sept. 9th. The eggs are fertile despite the fact that hen and rooster were just over three months old when laying started. My other five pullets have not started to lay so I assume that the one is a very early bloomer. You may not be able to sex them at one month, but you will soon. Look at the combs. Every chick I had that showed early comb development was a rooster.
I was lucky. Of the eleven seven are hens. Below is my young rooster that will be a papa when he is 4 months 9 days.

 

[kherokee]

I raised serama chicks the spring, but I had three broody hens looking after them (eleven chicks). I fed them growers mash and lot of veggies, fruits,and table scraps. When they showed signs of maturity I switched them over to laying mash. Tomorrow, they will be four months old. All eleven thrived but I lost one to a mink a couple of weeks ago.

One pullet will be hatching her first clutch Sept. 9th. The eggs are fertile despite the fact that hen and rooster were just over three months old when laying started. My other five pullets have not started to lay so I assume that the one is a very early bloomer. You may not be able to sex them at one month, but you will soon. Look at the combs. Every chick I had that showed early comb development was a rooster.
I was lucky. Of the eleven seven are hens. Below is my young rooster that will be a papa when he is 4 months 9 days.

What a beautiful roo! Thanks for the advice! Hopefully by the end of this week I can start introducing the babies to the coop they'll be sleeping in (all of my coops are inside. Basically my chickens have a large fenced and topped pen with an opening to the four acres so they free range all day, then come inside at night). I'm sorry about your chick you lost to a mink.

Best wishes to all your new babies coming!

 

[azygous]

I love those strutting little Serama boys! They always look like they're on an important mission!

My chicks just turned four weeks old today, and as is my practice, I moved them into the coop with the older chickens last night. The complete transition usually takes my four-week olds less than a week, and by that time, I have them using a roosting perch.

Here's how I do it.

I happen to brood my chicks out in my covered run under a heating pad cave system, but this integration plan can work for indoor brooder raised chicks, too. If your chicks haven't yet been introduced to your older chickens, now is the time to begin doing that. I use a "panic room" system with a safe pen and small chick-size openings so the chicks can always find a safe haven. Food and water are kept inside and I keep it operational until they are around three months old and no longer fit through the openings to the safe pen.

When the chicks are mingling with the adult chickens with a high degree of self confidence, it's time to move them into the coop. With my setup, I move their heating pad cave into the coop and thus transition them in that fashion. It helps to use something from their brooder to make the move to the coop less starkly alien to them.

I wait until near dark and after all the adults have settled in. It helps greatly to choose an area for the chicks that's out of the main traffic area. I set up their cave near an unused entrance to the coop, and waited until they chicks were searching for a place to settle in to sleep, making their soft trilling bedtime noises. This first time I needed to gather them up and put them inside the coop, carefully inserting them into their cave. I closed the pop door to keep them from running back outside, then opened it back up fifteen minutes later so it would be open for them in the morning to run right out. They already know where their safe pen is, and they run right into it to get breakfast.

If you wait until nearly dark to move them into the coop, there's a minimum of fuss since they are driven by instinct to be settled in at this time. On the second night, again waiting until near dark, I get myself into the coop and coax them to come in through the pop hole with treats. Again, it helps to wait until the adult flock is settled in or they would mob you when you whip out treats.

If it's darker inside the coop, it helps to use a light so the chicks can see the space and be reassured there's nothing to scare them. You may need to lure them inside the next night, too, but after about three nights, mine are usually going in on their own. By this time next week, my chicks should be remaining on the perch when I place them there. I'll begin perch training in other few days, which amounts to placing them there, holding my hand lightly on their backs while "shh-ing" them to quiet them down.

If you have no adults to contend with, it's a breeze to move them into the coop since they won't need to have adult chickens to be afraid of. Just remember you're capitalizing on instincts that are normal and that makes the chicks want to go inside at night, and there's no need to stress everyone out by chasing them down and grabbing them to stuff them inside. Just wait until you hear those sweet little trilling noises when it starts to get dark and you're already most of the way to your goal.

 

[nchls school]

What a beautiful roo! Thanks for the advice! Hopefully by the end of this week I can start introducing the babies to the coop they'll be sleeping in (all of my coops are inside. Basically my chickens have a large fenced and topped pen with an opening to the four acres so they free range all day, then come inside at night). I'm sorry about your chick you lost to a mink.

Best wishes to all your new babies coming!

The rooster in the picture wasn't quite three months old when this was taken. Serama grow very fast and mature quickly. Babies-just so frustrating-the young pullet laid six eggs before going broody. Because she is so young I took four of her eggs and gave them to an older, experienced hen; all went fine-three eggs were developing. Then a couple young roosters got into the nest and ruined everything. Meanwhile the serama has been brooding faithfully in an outdoor run all alone. Hindsight-I wish I had left well enough alone. I guess two is better than none. SIGH. But, as I told another member when things went bad; maybe next time.

 

[chickrunfun]

Roost training! I was wondering about that...
We got 4 girls and they just gone into their 5th week and they still "cuddle sleep" in one big feathery bunch. See, they sleep in this cat littler box (new) we put in their hen house for them when they moved out of the brooder. For the visual, at this age it's wall to wall young chickens with their heads resting on the ledges, cute, but I been wondering when they'd get to picking a box or spot on the bar to themselves or SOMETHING. Now, when we moved them, we'd moved the whole brooder into the hen house and left the door open, see. That way they come and go as they pleased while they got used to their new digs. No access to the yard yet, just free to check the house out. Once they did go out a week later, they right off investigated the yard and got jumping up on this roosting area I made out of PVC and rest up on that and even nap up on it through the day which been making me wonder why they don't roost in the hen house or at least, sleep with a little more "elbow room" anywhere in there. It's a sizable hen house for 4 girls and here they are in one itty bitty box in a mass of cute. Think I'll give this a go starting tonight when they go in. Thanks for the possible answer to what's been making my scratch my head.

 

[azygous]

Actually, with these three chicks of mine, they surprised me and needed no perch training at all. Zero. Zip. They've only just turned four weeks, too.

They were sleeping in their heating pad cave, and I removed the cave after their first night in the coop. So the second night, all they had was a choice of three different low perches or the floor, and they happened to choose to roost on a perch that second night. Tonight, the fourth night, they went in to the coop on their own, navigating the plastic door flaps, and roosted.

If you remove the litter box and provide perches of various heights, I'm sure they will eventually discover them. You can also place them there to give them the idea.

Remember, chickens, no matter the age, are creatures of habit. If you want to change their habits, figure out what their natural instinct is, and utilize that in teaching them the new habit.

 

[chickrunfun]

They got it on the first night!! I put in a 2 rung ladder roost in there and when they went in for the night I got hold of Jean (one of the twins) and put her on it and whispered to her while I held her there. I WANTED to do this to all of them but just as Jean got comfortable, live called and I had to go. I gave a look see from our bedroom window and from their peepin window facing us I saw heads popping up like daises! They figured it all on their own...little girls are growing up so fast. Thanks for the advise azygous