Good morning. I'm new here.

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Marthar848

Marthar848

Hatching
5 Years
Jul 11, 2014
3
0
7
Braxton, MS
In April I got some chicks at TSC and it's been fun. Last week a friend gave me 13 one month old chicks. These last make 19. These 13 had been thrown away when one day old
along with lots more. They are still very
skiddish and run to the other side of the
brooder when I'm near. I'm spending time
holding them as much as possible. Hope it helps. Any other ideas would be appreciated. Have a great day.
 
Good morning and welcome to BYC! Spending time with your chicks is a good place to start and offering them food out of your hand will help them get familiar with you. Check out the Learning Center tab for lots of good information. Have fun with your little ones!
 
Welcome to BYC, and x2 on handing out food. The way to a chicken's heart is through its stomach. Congratulations on your new chicks. Do you have any idea what kind they are?
 
Welcome to BYC
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There are some articles on raising chicks here that I think you'll enjoy: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-and-raising-chicks
 
Hello there and welcome to BYC!
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Chicks are naturally nervous of the hand that comes into the brooder. A built in safety mechanism for survival. The best thing you can do is use food as a bonding agent. With chicks, you don't want to go over board with treats, but a tiny treat in your hand once a day will go a long way to get them less afraid of the "HAND". LOL A tiny corner of a saltine cracker is great for them. Doesn't require any grit in the diet and will not cause any trouble. Crush it up in the palm of your hand and see how interested they become of your hand! For ever more, when the HAND comes in, they will come running.

As for being picked up, chicks can be skiddish until they grow up. My birds never seem to enjoy being picked up and only start to tolerate being picked up after they start laying. A good bonding session is get them out on the living room floor, and you might want to lay down an old sheet to catch the poop, and let them run around on the floor. They will instantly cling to you as being that they are afraid, you are the only known source of security right now. They will be all over your lap. Sit with them for 10 mins a day like this. Before you know it, they will be lap sitters, beg for your attention and not be at all afraid of you. But again, as for picking them up, they may not calm down till after they start laying.

Good luck with your new babies and welcome to our flock!
 
Welcome to BYC! Please make yourself at home and we are here to help.

Bonding with them daily will help. But, they are always skittish to start off with.
 
Michael OShay said:
Welcome to BYC, and x2 on handing out food.  The way to a chicken's heart is through its stomach.  Congratulations on your new chicks.  Do you have any idea what kind they are?
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Hi Michael. I'm not sure what they are. Maybe leghorns. All the new ones are white. I have 5 Roos thatI know of. Really nice red big combs. The rest have pale yellowish/pink combs and they're really small.
 
Marthar848 said:
Hi Michael. I'm not sure what they are. Maybe leghorns. All the new ones are white. I have 5 Roos thatI know of. Really nice red big combs. The rest have pale yellowish/pink combs and they're really small.
Click to expand...

If you want to post some pics (full body profiles including legs and tails) we can probably ID them for you.
 

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