Hen raised vs brooder question

[SJS66]

I am reading some stuff this morning on chick and bird diseases and it got me thinking... if the chicks cant be put on natural ground for 3 months, how in the world do the chicks raised by the hens naturally survive? I mean, they have evolved like all birds for the hen to do the work, hatch em, then lead em around to show them what to eat ect ect. How do naturally raised peachicks survive at all if they are so at risk of dying from... 1001 things on "natural ground" before they are 3 months old?

I just finished building the 5-6 week old peepers here a new coop, a nice big 8x24 (half roofed) coop, but its all dry dirt floor. In a few weeks putting them out there is kinda unavoidable, when they outgrow the brooder and need acclimated for SW PA winter.

How do naturally raised peas survive?

 

[peafowl_Lover]

I think they have better chances of being healthy in the wild as they always would be moving onto new ground. But in captivity they would be kept in an enclosure and be on the same ground.

 

[KsKingBee]

As Pealover stated it is about the free ranging ground being cleaner than pen ground that had been defecated on for years. Still, we put our chicks on the ground at 12 weeks but medicate monthly to control the worms and cocci since they are on 'used' ground. Our free ranging hens and chicks need to be watched for the first signs of infection and treated when needed. Not all need to be medicated but some do because of the care of the hen. Some hens are not as good of mothers as others and will cause stress in the chicks that leads to coming down with cocci. I recommend that you plant grass in that new pen to cushion the birds from the ground and all that it contains.

 

[SJS66]

Some of it is grassed, most of it is under roof so no grass will grow there, and no birds have ever been on that ground to poop it up. it was piled up with firewood and other stuff for years. Its virgin ground.

w could line the bare floor with rubber stall mats, we have a lot of those. Those can be scrubbed and sterilized..... is that a good idea?

 

[SJS66]

It didnt occur to me but, we have cows and sheds and barns, when we clean them out we use tons of hydrated lime to dry and disinfect the floors... I did some reading and it looks like this is a standard practice for sterilizing chicken coops to control worm and cocci cysts et al. Youd think as much as we use that woulda been an obvious solution...

If I lay a good layer f=down and scratch it into the dry dirt, and wet it down, it'll sit for a month or more before this coop is used, I can clean and neutralize the floor before we dump pine shavings in there and introduce the baby birds. Thatsll also have a good residual effect in the dirt once it seeps in deep.

we do this in the cow sheds to kill the smell and control parasites (gut worms) with the cows..... some things are right in front of your face lol/

 

[KsKingBee]

Some of it is grassed, most of it is under roof so no grass will grow there, and no birds have ever been on that ground to poop it up. it was piled up with firewood and other stuff for years. Its virgin ground.

w could line the bare floor with rubber stall mats, we have a lot of those. Those can be scrubbed and sterilized..... is that a good idea?

Sounds like a lot of extra work but if it raises them above the ponding rainwater, it would be really nice.