Hi everyone! Just got 4 baby golden comets chicks today! My husband and I decided we wanted chickens after taking care of out neighbors chickens For a week lol my neighbor said we can keep the eggs and it felt so rewarding to feed them and receive eggs! My kids liked them too! So here we are! I know a little about them but need more advice! I put them in a dog crate with puppy pads for now lol we have a heating lamp foe them too, we are going to build them a coop this weekend but I want to keep them in the cage for a while until they are bigger to be outside, is this a good idea or is it okay to keep them in a dog cage with puppy pads or should we do something else? Thank you in advance for you advice!
Welcome to BYC. Here's a link for you to post your chick questions: https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/11/raising-baby-chicks
Glad you joined us! I would post your chick questions in the forums dawg53 provided a link to. Good luck with your chicks!
I would use a rubbermaid tote or a cardboard box with pine shavings instead. x3 on reading thru that forum. Good luck to you.
Hello there and welcome to BYC! Congrats on your new chicks! Stop by this article in our learning center on raising your chicks for the first 60 days. This article has all the info on properly raising your babies...https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/...ks-the-first-60-days-of-raising-baby-chickens Enjoy your new babies! If you have any other questions along the way, feel free to ask. Welcome to our flock!
So glad you joined us. You have already been given the advice to ck out the raising baby chickens forum. You can post the question there as well. Make sure you review info on how to monitor for the heating lamp and raising it weekly. Watch for pasty butts, they are more common than I would have thought. Re: puppy crate: make sure the openings are small enough the chicks cannot get out. And they don't get drafts. Make sure you use a chick safe waterer and not just a bowl. For first week I think puppy pad is ok, but second week need to change to something else. Most use pine shavings? I raised my on sand, starting second week. Don't know how large the puppy crate is, but the chicks will grow much faster than you imagine..you can use a large plastic tote, with wire on top or a large cardboard box if they outgrow the puppy crate. But you will need a second box or something to move them to to clean out the crate. With the sand and an open covered top, I was able to sift the sand with the chicks in my brooder. Make sure you look at the specifics recommended on coop size, all us newbies don't realize how big they get…but since you tended some already, you're a step ahead of where I was when I got my girls. Check out the learning center on brooding baby chickens…lots of good info there.
Welcome to BYC. Glad you decided to join our flock. The other members have given some good responses to your question regarding your Golden Comet chicks. Golden Comets are wonderful hens. Golden Comet is actually just one of a number of labels under which some hatcheries market their Red Sex Links, which are produced by crossing a red gene rooster with a silver gene hen. The resulting offspring can be sexed by color at hatching (male chicks are whitish, females are reddish). But no matter which label they are marketed under, Red Sex Links are egg laying machines, outlaying either parent breed. It's one of the interesting quirks of hybridization. I've raised Red Sex Links for years, and along with my Black Sex Links, they have been my best layers, regularly churning out over 300 eggs per hen per year. You will get loads of eggs from those girls. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Good luck with your chicks.