First Time Chick Parents, Spring 2016

[afangel2005]

We became brand new chick parents as of yesterday, with 5 2-day old chicks purchased from a local farm supply store. We have been talking about doing this and planning for months and are very excited! These are their 3-day old pictures! All the breeds listed are what the farm store told us.


This is Ginger, a Rhode Island Red.


This is Chipmunk, an Ameraucana.


This is Daisy, a Buff Orpington.


This is Trixie, a Silver Laced Wyandotte.


This is Raven, a Barred Rock.

We had a scare with Daisy last night, she was a little listless, but we tried the sugar water and she is just as perky as the rest of them today. I've been constantly checking them for pasty butt as well. And I don't think I'll ever get used to the way they sleep, I hold my breath every time I see them napping to make sure I see them breathing! Good luck to everyone on their new adventures!

-Angelina

I wanted to give everyone an update on our babies! They are now a little over 5 wks old, and they are growing so fast! We are still hoping and crossing fingers they are all girls!


Here's Ginger...She's a very peaceful chicken who likes to chill...

T
Here's Chipmunk, who I now know is an Easter Egger. She's the loudest of the group, alerting everyone when there's a "scare" or treats...


Here's Daisy, the one we had a scare with during her first couple days. She is doing great and is a doll!


Here's Trixie, our sweetheart of the group.


And Raven! I'm a little worried about her....Her tail seems so much more "stumpy" than everyone else...But no sign of waddles yet. Even though she is much smaller than the other chicks, she seems to be the boss of them all....She loves to be petted...


And our honorary chicken, Jasmine. We've been training her with the chicks since they were babies, and she's been doing great with them! She "herds" them back to the house when she feels they get too far away, and will just sit and watch them for hours.

I hope everyone is doing great with their spring babies!

 

[lilcowmama]

We just got three baby chicks yesterday from Bradshaw Feed in Sacramento, California.

A sweet Rhode Island Red pullet, a Silver Laced Wyandotte pullet and the very last of the straight run Golden Sebright Bantams. (Needless to say, I sure hope it's a girl! We can't have roosters where we live.) They are so dang adorable!

Their fancy ride home in a paper bag!

They sure know how to make a mess quick! This was just a couple hours after putting them in the brooder.

 

[Jerzak]

Hey everyone,
So I'm a newbie on the whole baby chicks... A long story short my friend and I went to tractor supply for a fire pit and ended up walking out with two ducks and than ended up going back and buying chicks seeing as we go through a lot of eggs each month.... And than I bought 7 more chicks at ace hardware. I have 2 polish chicks, 2 Black Astrealooes ( I know I spelt that wrong '.' ) and 3 Americanas along with a white farm duck and a mallard.... My concerns are this.... I'm trying to figure out what to place them in during the summer seeing as I can't have 9 birds walking in the house with my very territorial cat. And what would be the best bedding and how do you tell if you have a male chick or not, see I can't have any male chicks where I live only hens. HELP!!!!!!!!

 

[mamatink7]

Hey everyone,
So I'm a newbie on the whole baby chicks... A long story short my friend and I went to tractor supply for a fire pit and ended up walking out with two ducks and than ended up going back and buying chicks seeing as we go through a lot of eggs each month.... And than I bought 7 more chicks at ace hardware. I have 2 polish chicks, 2 Black Astrealooes ( I know I spelt that wrong '.' ) and 3 Americanas along with a white farm duck and a mallard.... My concerns are this.... I'm trying to figure out what to place them in during the summer seeing as I can't have 9 birds walking in the house with my very territorial cat. And what would be the best bedding and how do you tell if you have a male chick or not, see I can't have any male chicks where I live only hens. HELP!!!!!!!!

welcome to the chick family! Female new chicks have feathers that are dominant and you can see clearly without even touching them (search sexing chicks). This isn't always true. Did you get pullet chicks? I know those farm stores mess up though too.
I suggest you read up on all things about chicks and ducks ASAP. Put electrolytes in their waterer for first 5 days to help them rehydrate from the stress. They have chick electrolytes you can use little sugar in their water (I dont do this, i have the electrolyte packets). You keep them in a heated area (plastic tote, pine shavings, heat lamp or brooder heater) until they have full feathers then you can move them to their coop-around 5-7weeks. This also gives you time to put coop together lol.
They need the protection of the feathers and the frost to be gone before no heat support. I fell in love with Black Australorps as well; they are wonderful layers, great docile personalities and are heat/cold tolerant. Good luck and have fun

 

[keesmom]

Hey everyone,
So I'm a newbie on the whole baby chicks... A long story short my friend and I went to tractor supply for a fire pit and ended up walking out with two ducks and than ended up going back and buying chicks seeing as we go through a lot of eggs each month.... And than I bought 7 more chicks at ace hardware. I have 2 polish chicks, 2 Black Astrealooes ( I know I spelt that wrong '.' ) and 3 Americanas along with a white farm duck and a mallard.... My concerns are this.... I'm trying to figure out what to place them in during the summer seeing as I can't have 9 birds walking in the house with my very territorial cat. And what would be the best bedding and how do you tell if you have a male chick or not, see I can't have any male chicks where I live only hens. HELP!!!!!!!!

First thing, get going on building a coop for them ASAP. They will grow very quickly, especially the ducklings, and the sooner they are outdoors the better.

Next, about the ducklings. I know many people have brooded them successfully with chicks. I have always kept them separate. They will turn their bedding into a waterlogged mess in a short time. If you want to keep them together you will probably want a waterer they can drink out of easily but not be able to empty it out all at once or play in. They do need water to eat. Or you can just brood them separately. I found a rubbermaid tub best for them. When they are older they will need a kiddie pool to wash their heads in and keep their noses clean. They will turn everything near that pool into mud.

If you got them from Tractor Supply they will be unsexed. If you haven't had ducklings before it may be harder for you to tell, but by 2-3 weeks old you can sex them by their voices. Females will quack loudly. Drakes will have a quieter, raspy voice. If both turn out to be drakes you will likely want to separate them from your chicken hens in the spring. Drakes are very sexually aggressive during breeding season. If they have no female ducks to breed they will likely try your hens. You do not want that to happen since they have reproductive parts that are incompatible with chickens. If you have one duck, one drake you can see how bad he is before separating them.

For the chicks, you will have to wait until 4-6 weeks of age to sex them. The Polish may take a little longer. Even if the Austrolorps and Easter Eggers came as sexed pullets, the EEs tend to have a higher rate of accidental cockerels. You can post pictures here or in the What Breed or Gender Forum.

 

[AmandaMBG]

I personally would plan on housing the ducks and chickens separately as well as brooding them seperately. If you end up with a drake if it has been raised with chickens it will try to mate them. The general rule of thumb is 4 sq ft per bird in the coop and 10 sq ft in the run for chickens and ducks can live in a little smaller area with basically a big dog kennel that has been modified to be locked up at night. They do not have to have a pool or be able to swim all the time. They just need acces to water deep enough to wet their entire bills and so they do not choke on their food. You can bring them out of their enclosure for swim time if you want less mess or have a pool in with them. What we did is we built the chicken coop and run first. We will be moving the baby chicks into the coop at around 2-3 weeks and from there our ducks will be in the run for a few weeks by themselves (they have access to the coop right now). By the time the chickens are old enough (5 weeks) to be in the run we plan on having our duck enclosure and house made. Ducks are super hardy. My 5 week olds didn't even want to go in the coop last night. I tried to put them in twice and they ran out before I could get the door closed.

Voice Sexing for the ducks can take up to 6-7 weeks. Some females quack sooner. Ik I have a 5 week old that is still only cheeping and another that started quacking at 2 weeks. I'd also try to make sure you have a mallard and not rouen. They can look identical as young chicks so they are from what I've seen sold as mallards a lot. Don't worry if they are. Rouens won't fly away, are more docile, better layers and just as pretty. I will also add you need to have your ducks on different feed from you chicks by 2 weeks. They need a 16% protein after they hit that point or it can deform their wings (called angel wing). They also need supplements for Niacin if they are not on duck feed. You can do this by giving them peas and Brewers yeast (a nutritional supplement).

Also, you will most likely get a rooster. I'd check out the "no crow collar". If we get one we plan on doing that as there are a lot of benefits for your flock having a rooster. If you get more than one with as few birds as you have you will have to rehome them or cull them in some other way. There is no quick way to sex a straight run of most breeds past the first few days. And vent sexing can be dangerous and unreliable without experience. You may just have to wait and see. If they were sexed pullets you may still get a Roo. Vent sexing is only 90% accurate usually. I wouldn't stress too much about it.

There is honestly to much info to post in one post. Ducks and chickens are very different from one another in care requirements. Especially when they are little imo. There are people that go both ways. You will just have to decide for yourself what you want to do. And have fun!!

Hey everyone,
So I'm a newbie on the whole baby chicks... A long story short my friend and I went to tractor supply for a fire pit and ended up walking out with two ducks and than ended up going back and buying chicks seeing as we go through a lot of eggs each month.... And than I bought 7 more chicks at ace hardware. I have 2 polish chicks, 2 Black Astrealooes ( I know I spelt that wrong '.' ) and 3 Americanas along with a white farm duck and a mallard.... My concerns are this.... I'm trying to figure out what to place them in during the summer seeing as I can't have 9 birds walking in the house with my very territorial cat. And what would be the best bedding and how do you tell if you have a male chick or not, see I can't have any male chicks where I live only hens. HELP!!!!!!!!

 

[lilcowmama]

I wanted to give everyone an update on our babies! They are now a little over 5 wks old, and they are growing so fast! We are still hoping and crossing fingers they are all girls! Here's Ginger...She's a very peaceful chicken who likes to chill... T Here's Chipmunk, who I now know is an Easter Egger. She's the loudest of the group, alerting everyone when there's a "scare" or treats... Here's Daisy, the one we had a scare with during her first couple days. She is doing great and is a doll! Here's Trixie, our sweetheart of the group. And Raven! I'm a little worried about her....Her tail seems so much more "stumpy" than everyone else...But no sign of waddles yet. Even though she is much smaller than the other chicks, she seems to be the boss of them all....She loves to be petted... And our honorary chicken, Jasmine. We've been training her with the chicks since they were babies, and she's been doing great with them! She "herds" them back to the house when she feels they get too far away, and will just sit and watch them for hours. I hope everyone is doing great with their spring babies!

Great pictures of your sweet chickies! And Jasmine is adorable too.

What kinds of things did you do with her to train her? I'm pretty sure my Cavalier King Charles Spaniel would like to eat my chicks! They are safe and secure in their brooder but I would like to do whatever I can to get my Little Cow (yep, that's his name!) used to them. Any tips? Thank you!!

 

[famerzellman]

One of my chicks in limping with a swollen bump on her foot. She's breathing heavily and laying down a lot. Can someone please help identify on what it is so I can help her.

 

[mamatink7]

I wanted to give everyone an update on our babies! They are now a little over 5 wks old, and they are growing so fast! We are still hoping and crossing fingers they are all girls! Here's Ginger...She's a very peaceful chicken who likes to chill... T Here's Chipmunk, who I now know is an Easter Egger. She's the loudest of the group, alerting everyone when there's a "scare" or treats... Here's Daisy, the one we had a scare with during her first couple days. She is doing great and is a doll! Here's Trixie, our sweetheart of the group. And Raven! I'm a little worried about her....Her tail seems so much more "stumpy" than everyone else...But no sign of waddles yet. Even though she is much smaller than the other chicks, she seems to be the boss of them all....She loves to be petted... And our honorary chicken, Jasmine. We've been training her with the chicks since they were babies, and she's been doing great with them! She "herds" them back to the house when she feels they get too far away, and will just sit and watch them for hours. I hope everyone is doing great with their spring babies!

I just love seeing the updated pics wonderful pic of the 'honorary chick'. How'd that happen? Lmbo. Our youngest pup wants to eat them now just watches, stares at then thru brooder tote. Older one was curious, now freaked as our BA pecked at his nose.

 

[athomas718]

I wanted to give everyone an update on our babies! They are now a little over 5 wks old, and they are growing so fast! We are still hoping and crossing fingers they are all girls!


Here's Ginger...She's a very peaceful chicken who likes to chill...

T
Here's Chipmunk, who I now know is an Easter Egger. She's the loudest of the group, alerting everyone when there's a "scare" or treats...


Here's Daisy, the one we had a scare with during her first couple days. She is doing great and is a doll!


Here's Trixie, our sweetheart of the group.


And Raven! I'm a little worried about her....Her tail seems so much more "stumpy" than everyone else...But no sign of waddles yet. Even though she is much smaller than the other chicks, she seems to be the boss of them all....She loves to be petted...


And our honorary chicken, Jasmine. We've been training her with the chicks since they were babies, and she's been doing great with them! She "herds" them back to the house when she feels they get too far away, and will just sit and watch them for hours.

I hope everyone is doing great with their spring babies!

Thank you for the update!! I love seeing them grow up! I am still soooooo excited for our chicks at the end of the month! Only 27 more days now! Our chicks will be about 2 weeks old by the time we get them.

Does anyone have any pictures of 2 week old chicks? I just want to see what I can expect. We are working on our coop too. We are starting with insulating the shed (soon to be coop) and then we will put down a vinyl floor and get the nesting boxes up.