Crash course needed ASAP

[cariboujaguar]

We were given a momma hen and 4 baby chicks, she looks to be an Ameracauna(SP) and the daddy was a HUGE black Orphington. The lady said to let them free range so we made her a wonderful little nest in the barn in a safe warm cubby area under a storage cabinet and she seemed to like it quite allot. We just assumed our Great Pyrs would keep predators away even if they weren't in with her... Well she's gone, nothing left but feathers

Now we have 4 baby mutt chicks and don't know how to take care of them! They are in the livingroom in a HUGE dog kennel with hay and a heat lamp... How do we assure they don't get too warm under the heat lamp? They are at least a week old, the woman didn't know for sure as the mom was hiding for awhile ... Is there anything we should feed them besides chick starter (we are going to get some soon) is there anything else they need? When can they get kitchen scraps? Would a small dish of water suffice to keep them hydrated? (I know we'll hav to clean it constantly but that's OK) pics of them are below, maybe you can guess their age and sex?

 

[pigcoon]

I'm not the one to give you the crash course since I'm a newbie myself, but just wanted to say sorry about the hen. The babies are beautiful!

 

[sonarjay]

id say around 2 weeks old. a small bowl of water will do but not to big or they will drown themselves and starter is all you need. put the light on one end of the kennel and then they will have room to move closer or farther to regulate their on temp.
if she went missing during the day look for hawks they love chickens.

 

[love4mychick]

a week or 2 old they are adorable

they are two young for me to tell there sex unless i could see them in person do what sonarjay said about the cage and feed when they get another week old take them outside in temp pen to play around i wish i had one of those

 

[cariboujaguar]

okay thanks! Looks like we have all we need... thanks for all the compliments, I think they're cute too! Should be good layers, if any are pullets, with the orphington and ameracauna behind them, I wonder if they will lay bluish eggs? Does the blue egg gene carry over to cross bred chicks? She was great last night at midnight when I checked on her and her feathers are int he barn, so we're assuming it was early morning indoors... we'll have to coop up all our hens from now on, just to be safe. I was looking forward to free ranging my flock

 

[Peaguy]

I'm no expert by any means but the way I understand things You will probably get a more green tint to your rggs than blue, The blue egg gene of the Am. Will be overlayed by the brown egg gene from the Orp and you will have a greenish egg. Perhaps some even to the point of an olive color. Good luck have fun watching them grow and WELCOME to the madness!

 

[cariboujaguar]

Quote:
You got that right, I am hooked! Not another addiction!

 

[cariboujaguar]

can we feed them chicken scratch? thats all the feed store has (have hubs on the cell here) and they're closing like NOW... can he get that? We don't have much of a choice at this point

thanks

 

[Ridgerunner]

You can give them corn meal to get them through the night. The scratch is probably in big chunks so they cannot eat it.

editted to add: damp corn meal. you can dampen it with water, but plain yogurt or milk to dampen it will also work.

 

[cariboujaguar]

The scratch my husband got is almost the consistency of cornmeal, it's very fine/powdery with some small granuels as well... could we grind it up?