Getting chicks in TEN days!!!!!!

[Jazzymond573]

i'm sooo EXCITED!

i'm going to go out and get some pics of their brooder(s) and post them up as soon as i can!
i have a couple of questions for now....

i have seen a couple of pictures with the water being in a bowl with rocks.... is this ok?

what kind of bedding should i use the first day... the second day?

what things should i put in the brooder? toys?

thank you guys SO much!

 

[ravenfeathers]

i'm counting down to 10 days, too! wheee!! words can not express my excitement!

you should definitely use small pebbles or large glass marbles in the waterer. it serves two purposes:

1) keeps your babies from taking a header into the water and drowning
2) entices them in with shininess.

a lot of people use pine shavings with paper towels over or newspapers with paper towels over. the paper towels provide traction. i'm planning to use a peat moss substrate in my brooder with paper towels over for the first few days.

what should you put in the brooder? well, feed and water, obviously, and a thermometer is a handy option, just so you can keep track of your temps. some folks like to put a small roost in right away although i suspect you can hold off on that for a week or two. other than that? chicks!

 

[Sylvie]

I used paper towels over the small size pine shavings and noticed that I needed to tape them to the sides of the brooder so the chicks didn't eat shavings instead of starter food.
I also put lots of paper towels down over the poop because I had a few that thought poop was food and ignored the feed tray. It now makes sense why we do this for 2-3 days!

 

[pdsavage]

I have a 2 week wait for mine.What did you order?

 

[Jazzymond573]

i ordered 6 white leghorns and 6 brown sex-links


I CAN'T WAIT!!!

 

[sandymart]

Hi--I'm new to raising chicks too.

Mine are coming from IDEAL after they hatch on 8/13. I ordered 5 Astrolops and 5 RIR.

I've been searching for the right home made brooder....I've got a kiddie pool, pack n play, cardboard box, rubbermaid container. Before I decide, I want to know how long they stay there before they get transferred outside.

Does anyone have suggestions as to what the perfect DIY brooder looks like????

 

[amyquilt]

I use Rubbermaid plastic tubs for my chicks. I have them in the small size pine shavings and they do fine. I also have the glass rocks in their water bowl.

I started with Silkie chicks, but they were already 5 weeks old when we got them.

Saturday I picked up 10 Buff Orpington chicks from BYC member, Cara. I have them in the tubs with shavings and they are doing fine. They were 3 days-2 weeks old when I got them.

 

[SterlingAcres]

I think everyone else has got you covered... but I should add a...

 

[Heather J]

I just used an old rubbermaid tub for the first couple of weeks with really old towels in the bottome. I clipped one of those shop lamps to a chair and leaned it over the side, then got a feeder and waterer hooked up. At two weeks old I moved them to the coop (it was empty at the time, though this year I bought two-week chicks and moved them straight out there in a make-shift nursery). I strung two looong extension cords from the house so I could move my shop lamp out, and used a large cardboard box to cut drafts since it was still April last year. This year I didn't worry so much about drafts because it was already July and I used hardware cloth to block off space below the hens' nests. They seemed to do great out there and required far less cleaning up after.

If you have an empty coop, you might want to set them up out there to start with, if you can secure it against predators. Way less smelly that way. lol

 

[pdsavage]

Got this from Ideal today...
Your order will ship from the hatchery on 08/06/08

This is the first available date for your entire order.
I use a baby pool newspaper and paper/linen towls.I have a red heat lamp i either clip onto the back of a chair or hang it over something depends which place i have them either barn or house.
Well nothing to do but get ready and wait...