Colorado

[Ashdoes]

I have been raising chickens a long long time, and have broodies that raise chicks without pasty butt, but always had the problem with the GQF box brooders and the heat lamps, the lights are always on. But bought a Brinsea Brooder because it uses only 20 watts in comparison to the 240 watt lamps, no pasty butt whatsoever with the Brinsea, I suspect its because when it gets dark they go under the Brinsea and sleep the whole night long and get back up with the sun, more natural I think. Any thoughts on why?

We also had zero pasty butt when we switched over to the Brinsea Brooder. I don't know why either. I think it's just more natural, like a broody. I had read that the red light keeps the temp too high, all the time, and that seems to add to pasty butt numbers.

 

[Ashdoes]

I'm lazy and just put it in a couple of lids and throw it in there with them. They do walk all over it, and the polish seem to fall into it a lot, but when they are all done, everyone is pretty clean. They eat it fast! And then eat all the little bits off of the other chicks.

Keep an eye on their toes, they'll get little built up pills of FF stuck on their nails and the balls of their feet.

 

[oshun55555]

I think all those things are contributing factors in pasty butt, I won't go back to any other kind of brooder
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[Rochelesmit]

Just had to share a pic of my silly little polish. They like to climb on top of the other big chicks and fall asleep that way. The one spreads her little wings out and 'hugs' the others.

 

[COChix]

I am so excited! I candled a day early (Day 6 for these eggs) since I was discouraged about my shipped eggs still not arriving & holy smokes! I was hoping for at least 1 of my flock's eggs being fertile. I was not expecting 4/7 to be developing into chicks! OMG I'm so nervous now! I hope they make it the rest of the 16 days.

Not sure what I'm gonna do now if/when my Phoenix bantam eggs show up. Might have to go buy a backup incubator from TSC this weekend!

e and

I'm lazy and just put it in a couple of lids and throw it in there with them. They do walk all over it, and the polish seem to fall into it a lot, but when they are all done, everyone is pretty clean. They eat it fast! And then eat all the little bits off of the other chicks.

I hit the quote button by accident on this post. I meant to comment on your fermented feed coment and how much you love it. It is great stuff, haven't been fermenting in the cold as I have no space indoors to do it. Now that it is getting nicer I will need to get back to it.

All the talk about pasty butts reminds me that we did the pasty butt check for awhile every night on 28 chicks. Glad that fermented feed helps that.

Wanted to post a couple of shots of Rocco post frostbite and the fight between he and Bruno. He is recovering nicely and has put some weight. His comb points are undoubtedly less pointy now.

Shot of him 4 days after fight with Bruno on 02/19/15 he looks very rough, skinny and not so hot.

Shot of him yesterday 03/08/15 - starting to look like the beautiful roo he was before the winter.

 

[alebuela]

I read somewhere that pasty butt can be avoided by giving only water - no feed - to newly arrived or hatched chicks for the first 24 hours. The extra hydration keeps things moving better. What some of you have said about the Brinsea and its lesser light and heat probably equates to less dehydration too. So hydration may well be the key factor in the Brinsea as well. And for those of us not hatching, just the extended water time for babies may be the easiest for not having to deal with pasty butt.

 

[alebuela]

Just had to share a pic of my silly little polish. They like to climb on top of the other big chicks and fall asleep that way. The one spreads her little wings out and 'hugs' the others.

I love this picture!

 

[21hens-incharge]

Shot of him 4 days after fight with Bruno on 02/19/15 he looks very rough, skinny and not so hot.


Shot of him yesterday 03/08/15 - starting to look like the beautiful roo he was before the winter.

WOW nice turn around for him. I would not have thought he was the same bird.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Just had to share a pic of my silly little polish. They like to climb on top of the other big chicks and fall asleep that way. The one spreads her little wings out and 'hugs' the others.

Mine just fall asleep wherever and it always looks like the poof is to heavy since they are sleeping beak down and even top down. Silly chickies.

My PR are quite the escape artists. I put a training roost in since the Brahma are trying to roost on top of the feeder, The PR used it as a launch pad to get on top of the other lid while I changed the feed.
Super cute pic by the way.

 

[uzisuzuki]

Wanted to post a couple of shots of Rocco post frostbite and the fight between he and Bruno. He is recovering nicely and has put some weight. His comb points are undoubtedly less pointy now.

Shot of him 4 days after fight with Bruno on 02/19/15 he looks very rough, skinny and not so hot.

Shot of him yesterday 03/08/15 - starting to look like the beautiful roo he was before the winter.

He's looking good! I always love seeing everyone's gigantic roosters.

It was so nice today, I tried free ranging with my flock a few hours after I got home from a bird swap. It was pretty hilarious. No one wanted to walk out of the doorway of the run until I took Penelope out & placed her down outside the run. Apparently, that made it okay for everyone else to venture out.

They didn't stay out or venture very far before they put themselves back in the run (Athena had to lay her egg, so I guess that meant everyone else needed to be there for moral support), but it was nice to let them check stuff out & expand their world a little bit. I'd like to be able to do this more often when the weather turns spring/summer. I'd like to quit my job & just watch them wander around outside with the dogs & ponies all day.