Hi folks,
I currently have 26 2-week-old chicks. Yesterday, I noticed that one of the Polish chicks was getting her head feathers plucked out and it was starting to get a bit bloody. I took this as a sign that it was time for them to graduate them from the indoor brooder to my outdoor grow-out cage. Yes they are young, but I am in Florida (highs in the 90s lows in high 60s - low 70s) and they have a ceramic heat bulb and a huddle box at night. The first night outdoors went well.
Yesterday they stopped feather picking since they were all distracted with the new digs (sand! sticks! big chickens on the other side of the mesh!), but today she started getting picked on again, so I grabbed the balding Polish along with a 2nd Polish to keep her company and put them in a cat carrier inside of the cage with food and water. See photos below. I'm hoping this helps until she can grow some feathers back. I'll be selling most of the chicks around 6 weeks (I plan on keeping around 4), so I don't think they will need more space beyond the ~25 sq. ft. grow-out cage for several weeks.
Is there anything else I should be doing? I haven't used blu-kote before and I'm a bit leery of using it on a chick so young, but perhaps that would help?
I currently have 26 2-week-old chicks. Yesterday, I noticed that one of the Polish chicks was getting her head feathers plucked out and it was starting to get a bit bloody. I took this as a sign that it was time for them to graduate them from the indoor brooder to my outdoor grow-out cage. Yes they are young, but I am in Florida (highs in the 90s lows in high 60s - low 70s) and they have a ceramic heat bulb and a huddle box at night. The first night outdoors went well.
Yesterday they stopped feather picking since they were all distracted with the new digs (sand! sticks! big chickens on the other side of the mesh!), but today she started getting picked on again, so I grabbed the balding Polish along with a 2nd Polish to keep her company and put them in a cat carrier inside of the cage with food and water. See photos below. I'm hoping this helps until she can grow some feathers back. I'll be selling most of the chicks around 6 weeks (I plan on keeping around 4), so I don't think they will need more space beyond the ~25 sq. ft. grow-out cage for several weeks.
Is there anything else I should be doing? I haven't used blu-kote before and I'm a bit leery of using it on a chick so young, but perhaps that would help?
