Do You Feed Your Baby Chicks Eggs?

[quackers and me]

I just heard about the boiled eggs a little while ago and am curious also whether it is both the white and the yolk or just the yolk. We are getting new chicks the first part of August and I will need to get prepared.

 

[featherhead007]

Here is the chicken champion meal of the century, if anyone is interested...
recipe:
1 package ramen noodles, no salt or flavor packet added
2 eggs from any hen available
1 cup chick starter
bring ingredients to a boil until eggs are cooked, then
cool, and add any leftover vegetables from dinner.
serve, and stand back!!! Your birds will thank you!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I was just wondering: do you feed your baby chicks... scrambled or smashed up boiled eggs? ... If you do, do you feed them chick sized grit with that?... How young can they eat cooked eggs?

Answering the last question first. Mine get grit before anything else is offered to them. Chicks have a pecking instinct that forces them to try and eat the punctuation marks off of a news paper. Therefor biddies will tear into Granit Chick Grit like there is no tomorrow. Next is a helping of smashed up hard boiled eggs white and all, followed by a little DRY old fashioned (rolled) oatmeal. Low fat buttermilk to drink completes their first days menu. By the time they are 7 days old the little rascals are trying to eat whole grain (shelled) corn. Between the first meal and about 14 days they get medicated chick starter, maybe some bird seed, (canary food) whole oats, a small amount of scratch feed and more dry old fashion oatmeal and hard boiled eggs. After the first day or two substitute simple syrup (sugar water) for the buttermilk. PS: Do try to keep the chick food in such a fashion that any grown chicken including the chicks' birth mother can't get her nose or feet in the food bowl. She will waste 90% of your chicks' food if you let her have her way.

 

[featherhead007]

Absolutely be sure the chicks get some kind of grit! They may be small but they need to build a healthy crop too!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

..... I added probiotics. I have yet to smell any oder ever.... Not sure if the probiotics made a difference, but I have a pretty good nose as does my husband and really, no odor. Strange Hugh?

The fowl or foul odor from chicken manure is the result of feeding excess protein which is expelled in their feces and is then converted into ammonia.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Absolutely be sure the chicks get some kind of grit! They may be small but they need to build a healthy crop too!

The organ that processes grit is the gizzard. Try this experiment some quite night.

Gently pickup an adult bird from its perch and hold your ear right next to where its gizzard is. You can actually hear the muscular gizzard grinding away.

 

[Panhandle chick]

I gave my 2 1/2 week old chicks half of a boiled egg tonight (with grit on the side) and they went crazy- so funny. Now they are completely crashed out.. do you think it’s related? Belly full of protein?

 

[Luanne Hott]

I always start my chicks with mashed up hard boiled egg several times a day. I put chick food in on their second day, but continue with the egg for at least 2 weeks. Also give vitamin/electrolyte water from the start.

 

[Panhandle chick]

Should I always have electrolytes out for them? I started with it and stopped a week ago..they are 3 weeks old now and should I also do probiotics since I am feeding eggs?
Thanks everyone!

 

[CSAchook]

Should I always have electrolytes out for them? I started with it and stopped a week ago..they are 3 weeks old now and should I also do probiotics since I am feeding eggs?
Thanks everyone!

Electrolytes are a good, short-term option for shipped or heat stressed chicks. You do not need to give electrolyte water everyday. And when you do provide electrolyte water you should also always provide plain fresh waterer at the same time (in a different waterer of course).