Help! Brand new Rhode island red chick trying to eat everyone else

[Sanderguy777]

The intention is to get a microdose of coccidiosis from it. They will build immunity before being challenged by a much larger dose when they go out.

See this for more information and explanations
https://www.nadis.org.uk/disease-a-...rmyard-poultry/part-3-control-of-coccidiosis/

Ok, that makes sense.

 

[Sanderguy777]

Chicks absorb the egg yolk just before they hatch, and that provides enough food & water for their first few days of life.

Chicks that hatch under a hen will spend those days mostly underneath her, but they will keep popping out to eat little bits of food and try drinking. By the time they use up the yolk, they already know how to eat, they have already eaten some food, and they know that they won't eat at night so they need to fill up before bed.

For chicks that are shipped through the mail, those first days are spent in a box with no food and no proper day/night cycle. By the time the chicks arrive, they badly need to eat and drink, but they don't yet know how. They are also tired from being jostled around in the mail, and need to sleep. And of course they are cold as well.

Keeping a light on during the first night or two, as well as during the day, will let chicks alternate eating & napping all night as well as all day, which can be important for helping them recover from the stress of being shipped. (Some chicks will be fine anyway, but for some others that is very important-- and of course you can't really tell which ones need it until after it's too late.)

Other reasons for using a heat lamp with shipped chicks (light & heat from the same source) is that they can be getting warm while they are eating and drinking (not possible with a brooder plate, where they must choose warmth vs. food). Also, the light attracts the chicks toward it. They have to learn to go to a heat source that does not make light and does not cluck to them (a mother hen clucks rather than producing light.)

Once the chicks have had a few days to get over being shipped, and they have learned to eat and drink, and they have gotten several good meals inside them: darkness at night is not a problem. As you have read, it can even have benefits from that point on.


Red lamps are better than white lamps, as regards chicks pecking each other. That is why they are so popular.

White lamps in the daytime are good for helping the chicks tell day from night. So regardless of whether you are providing the heat from a red bulb, or a heat emitter, or a brooder plate, it is still good to provide normal white light in the daytime (but that light does not need to provide any heat.) The daytime light can be sunshine, or any kind of lighting that works for letting people see too.

Do I need to do the light at night for chicks I picked up at the hatchery myself? I dipped their beaks in the waterer as instructed on so many videos, and they were eating and sleeping all yesterday evening. I didn't see any drink again, but that's not to say they aren't.

 

[Sanderguy777]

separate the one being picked on, and separate the Rhode Island. in my experience, Rhode Island Red chickens are much more aggressive compared to Australorps and Plymouth Rocks.

I wish I'd heard that in my research. Only remember hearing about that with their roosters, and I didnt think about that probably starting at hatching...

 

[Chicken_tiger_catt]

I wish I'd heard that in my research. Only remember hearing about that with their roosters, and I didnt think about that probably starting at hatching...

well, I had a flock of them a few years ago, and they wanted to eat me. one even jumped up and pecked me in the eye! but that may have something to do with the fact that she had a rough childhood, half her hatch mates were eaten by a raccoon one night.

 

[Sanderguy777]

well, I had a flock of them a few years ago, and they wanted to eat me. one even jumped up and pecked me in the eye! but that may have something to do with the fact that she had a rough childhood, half her hatch mates were eaten by a raccoon one night.

Que the requisite Nicholas Cage wicker man:
"NOT THE EYES!"

 

[NatJ]

Do I need to do the light at night for chicks I picked up at the hatchery myself? I dipped their beaks in the waterer as instructed on so many videos, and they were eating and sleeping all yesterday evening. I didn't see any drink again, but that's not to say they aren't.

If you picked them up on hatch day, probably not. They would be pretty close to hen-hatched chicks, or ones hatched in an incubator at your house: plenty of time to start eating & drinking before they run out of yolk, so no real need for special recover-from-shipping treatment.

 

[Sanderguy777]

If you picked them up on hatch day, probably not. They would be pretty close to hen-hatched chicks, or ones hatched in an incubator at your house: plenty of time to start eating & drinking before they run out of yolk, so no real need for special recover-from-shipping treatment.

Ok, good. How old dp they have to be to go outside? 3 weeks woth monitoring and above 70, right?

 

[NatJ]

Ok, good. How old dp they have to be to go outside? 3 weeks woth monitoring and above 70, right?

With a heat source, chicks can go outside from the very first day. They just need to have shelter from wind & rain, plus a place to warm up (like a heat lamp or brooder plate, since you don't have a broody hen. Of course a broody hen is a great mobile heat source.)

Without a heat source, it depends on how fast they grow their feathers, and what the temperatures are. They also need to acclimate to the outdoor temperatures. If chicks are 3 weeks old, and have been running outside every day and back to the heat source to warm up, they may not need a heat source for 70 degrees temperatures. They are pretty well acclimated by having spent large amounts of time at that temperature. But if chicks are 3 weeks old and have been living in a brooder with consistent 90 degree temperatures and no cool area, they will not be ready to move to 70 degrees with no heat source. They need exposure to lower temperatures a bit more gradually.

 

[Sanderguy777]

With a heat source, chicks can go outside from the very first day. They just need to have shelter from wind & rain, plus a place to warm up (like a heat lamp or brooder plate, since you don't have a broody hen. Of course a broody hen is a great mobile heat source.)

Without a heat source, it depends on how fast they grow their feathers, and what the temperatures are. They also need to acclimate to the outdoor temperatures. If chicks are 3 weeks old, and have been running outside every day and back to the heat source to warm up, they may not need a heat source for 70 degrees temperatures. They are pretty well acclimated by having spent large amounts of time at that temperature. But if chicks are 3 weeks old and have been living in a brooder with consistent 90 degree temperatures and no cool area, they will not be ready to move to 70 degrees with no heat source. They need exposure to lower temperatures a bit more gradually.

Ok, good to know. I'll start them out there then. I don't have a heater outside, but I can run cord and a lamp easily.

 

[NatJ]

Ok, good to know. I'll start them out there then. I don't have a heater outside, but I can run cord and a lamp easily.

That should work very well

They just need one spot that is nice and warm, big enough for all of them to sleep at once (substituting for a broody hen). No need to heat the rest of their area.