Help with chicks

[bbdal]

Hi!
I have cut and pasted my posts from the Alabama tread where I originally posted to see if it was too cold in our area to put our 5 week old chicks in an enclosed hen house. Anyhow, we may have discovered some health issues. Any advice is greatly appreciated! (I have only cut and pasted my comments and I reference in one of them where a couple of people suggested parasites.)
Thanks!

Advice needed please...so we got our chicks a little over 4 weeks ago. Some were 1 week old and some were 3 days old. At first we had them together. The older ones were too rough for the younger ones so we separated them. They are now outgrowing their brooders. We have 8 smaller ones (5 RIR and 3 cochin frizzles which are still tiny). The 7 older ones are all RIR. So the older ones are growing like crazy and the younger are not growing nearly as fast. They seem to be much further than 4 days behind. Their brooder is smaller (about 3 ft x 16 in x 16 in high) than the older ones' brooder. The older ones can actually perch, etc. They are now a little over 5 weeks old and the others will be 5 weeks on Thursday. We have the fully enclosed 10x10 hen house ready. Would it be too early to put the older ones in there with a brooder lamp after this cold spell through the weekend? They have most of their feathers already. We have also divided the hen house into a section for them and put a tarp over part of it to help keep some heat in their area. So, we need advice on why the younger ones aren't growing as fast and how soon we can put at least the older ones in the hen house. We are in Shelby Co. Thanks!

Thanks Wisher and Tomtomom
I assume you are meaning internal parasites? They all get the same feed and water and shavings. How would I begin treating parasites? DE? Sorry to ask questions on this, but we haven't read up on parasites yet.
Thanks

Also, we started with 18 and lost 3 of the younger RIR. They would just appear lethargic and by morning, we would find them dead. 2 died in with the older ones which is why we separated them. We just assumed that they were being bullied away from food and water and being younger they just weren't strong enough to defend themselves. The 3rd one was found underneath the younger ones still alive but then died as soon as my husband picked it up. The last one died about a week and a half ago. Could this all be related?

I just read that cocci is a parasite - they are on medicated feed and I have seen some diarrhea but it is not like every bird has diarrhea. Should we treat them for cocci and see if it helps? Any natural treatments? Will treatment affect the meat and/or eggs when that time comes?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

If they are on medicated feed I wouldn't treat them for cocci. That would be double dosing them.
That brooder sounds too small, they may be too hot.

I would put them all in the coop now if you can get electric out there and hang a couple heat lamps. The longer you wait the worse integration will be. They won't pick on the others so much with lots of space.
RIRs tend to be the bullies of a mixed flock.
I brood out in an unheated building year round.

This is for chicks a couple weeks old


This is for babies.

 

[bbdal]

Thanks! I think we will try moving them today. Some of the big ones are really big and some of the small ones are really small, especially the frizzles. I guess it is better to combine them now vs later like you said. Should I be too worried about the dominant big ones hurting the small ones or will they pick on them at any age anyhow?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

If your space is large enough the little ones can get away. Make sure you have more than 1 feeder and waterer.
You could move the little ones out there first and then every day add a RIR. Then at least for a while the big ones will be the new kids.

 

[bbdal]

Thanks! We moved the little ones last night and a few of the larger ones that we think are hens. We are going to move the ones we think are roosters tomight or tomorrow. So far they are doing fine.