Lots of good info, grazie! I'm ashamed to say that the pong emanating from my 1st attempt at FF with the mold scared me and I dumped/buried it in the yard! I won't be such a chicken liver this time around haha. I can get oats/grains from a farm about an hour away but their prices make it worth the drive! I think I'm going to do a basic chick feed starter batch and then do a separate bucket with all the goodies in it for my big birds. Good idea with the scratch, btw.. I hadn't even thought of it!
Awesome!! That was a big bird! I'm glad you posted the shrink bags link. I've been curious about them, and I know I've got a lot of time until I'll need them, but it doesn't hurt to start prepping now methinks.
Oooh! Excited for you and your chicken acquiring. Hope you made out!
So, I've been at work these past two days (which is why I haven't been on this site... its more addicting than facebook ever was back when I did have it). I wrote down DETAILED instructions for DH to follow in taking care of my CX chicks. I also got up early to feed them, change their water, add more bedding as needed with the deep litter method. I leave the house at 5am. Get home at 7pm. My birds yesterday didn't eat from the am (445/5am) when I fed them, until I got home. Water dispenser (x2 of them) were bone dry. No food. I explained the importance of checking on them. Today. Same thing. I'm irritated. I honestly feel alone with this endeavor. My sister will help next year. But I'm in it completely alone this year (with the exception of this thread) until butchering time when DH will help me. Sorry. I had to vent, but I'm really stewed about this.
Here is a question, with the pine shavings, do your chicks sneeze? I've got the kind TS carries, and they are kiln dried and screened for dust. SO according to the package, they should be resistant to mold and dust free. My chicks have started sneezing since I put them in the new brooder/pen two days ago. Now a lot of them are sneezing. Not all the time, but enough for me to be concerned. I put more bedding in this morning and then I started sneezing and my nose ran for two hours after. I thought maybe it was a bad bag of bedding---so I got rid of it, and opened a new one. I didn't scoop out their pen and replace the bedding, but I added bedding from the new bag on top, and they scratch it all up together. If this is not typical (this is their third day with shavings, since I'd abandoned it upon their 1st day and used paper towel), I'll change it all out for stuff from the new bag. My guess is it's just a baby critter thing, a new thing being introduced into their environment. They're still eating like crazy and drinking and growing and showing NO signs of distress other than some sneezing.
Okay, and I feel the need to redeem myself a little, but it'll probably just make me feel more silly----it wasn't poop on their bellies!!! I thought it was (upon picking up the chicks a few days ago to handle them), that had matted their little belly fluff together (not brown part of the poo, but the wetness from the poo). Ready for this? It was their pin feathers growing in. I HONESTLY thought it was dirty baby chicks (like I said, it looked like they had hair gel in), but it was just natural feather growth. Now they DO poop on each other when they are laying in the sleep pile, but it doesn't stay on them, it just falls off. I've never handled/seen baby chicks before so I had no clue that it was supposed to do that on their bellies/bodies. I can see the same pattern happening all over them as their feathers change, and I feel really silly but a whooooooole lot less of a bad chick mama. It was totally time for them to get out of the pool, it wasn't healthy, and I should've seen that sooner, but I am just very glad to find that I hadn't somehow neglected them to get crusted poo bellies.
Lastly (see? This is what happens when I go for more than one day off this site lol): I'm building a small hoop coop for them outside! I'm so excited. It'll be my meatie hoop coop and I'll be able to use it again for the next batch, in the spring. It'll pave the way for me making a large scale hoop-coop house for my to-be-expanded flock of layers in the spring too. I've got the construction green light from DH. I'm going to TS tomorrow to buy the largest waterer and feeder to put in the pen with them now. Then I don't have to rely on DH to replace water/food. Id've gone today but I got out of work late and I will have to make the trip in the morning. En route home, I will be going to the hardware to scope out and score some supplies.
Yea, hoop coop. I'm starting to get a list of all supplies to buy. I'd like to do a longer one 9 x 16 if I can swing it. I might have to buy the supplies one month and pay somebody to do it the next. Or trade my 13 POL setters. Three have already started. 6 Golden comets, 3 Delaware and 4 White Plymouth Rocks. I've got to get them out of here. I need space for the 1 doz white rocks in the 'bator and 1 doz SG Dorkings coming shortly.. Super good chicks.
Edited: I just saw that you lost you little chick. They say to put a dish towel or something in the corner to make it curved. I did that and it helps. Sorry, we all lose some. Four of mine died the first week. No other losses.
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the girls to new homes that want good egg layers. 
SO, I spent the day yesterday putting up a new storage system in the house in a crash-course prepping for fall ( Improved storage=less places for those nasty arachnids to hide in my old farm house, as this is the time of year they start to migrate back inside 
