Hi! New member with new chicks!

[Amore Galline]

Hi everyone. My name is CeCe, my family and I (hubby, son 14, daughter 10, 4 dogs, 2 horses, cat and now 5 chicks) live in So California.

Our chicks arrived last Friday - 1 Barred Rock, 1 Speckled Sussex, 1 Welsummer and 3 Easter Eggers. We were so relieved to see them all arrive alive, we thought we were safe. Unfortunately, one of our Easter Eggers died Monday morning. Which led to complete paranoia regarding the rest of the chicks, and prompted us to search for a source of information ---> this forum. We are completely new to chicks, and I can see there is enough information to read here to keep us busy until our little ones start laying eggs!

Of course, any intro thread is useless without pics, so I will give this a try...

Bummer, I just saw the notice that as a new member, I'm not allowed to post pictures. Can anyone tell me how long it will be before I can?

And as long as I'm at it, I might as well ask a few more questions!
My kids are having a ball tossing earwigs in with the chicks and watching the enthusiasm that ensues! Is there any reason week old chicks shouldn't eat earwigs? (or earthworms - they threw a couple small ones of those in too) The chicks LOVE them!

I was looking at the treat list on the site, are those treats only for adults, or are they safe for chicks as well? (of course in moderation)

I'm excited that this weekend is supposed to be warm enough to give our little chicks a field trip out doors for a little bit!

This forum looks like a wealth of information!

 

[flstout]

Welcome! I'm new too and would like a few of these questions answered myself. I know there is a wealth of information on this site and I've been reading a lot. I hope the rest of your chicks do well for you. Try searching some of the topics you might have questions about. I'll bet you find a few good answers.

 

[Amore Galline]

Thanks, welcome to you, too!
I already found out about the pics and avatars by reading the FAQs.
I can see this forum has huge potential for monopolizing waaaay too much of my time!

 

[Blue_Myst]

You came to the right place!

I can answer a few of your questions, many of which were the same I had when I first started!

I don't see anything wrong with earwigs, though I've never fed them to my chicks before. Earthworms, however, are a pretty big no. They can harbor parasites within them that can harm your chicks. (Apparently gapeworm can be transferred to chickens through earthworms, who knew? My hen was struggling with this recently and I'm pretty sure that's how she got gapeworm).

As far as treats, just be sure to offer the chicks some grit before feeding them anything more complex than yogurt or scrambled egg. It may not be the best to offer them many treats until they are around two weeks old--you want them to eat as much of their starter feed as possible. When you start feeding them greens, offer them grit, and they should be fine

If they're on medicated feed, it would be a very good idea to let them outside for a little bit! It'll help them grow accustomed to the coccidiosis organisms in the soil.

Have fun with them! And welcome!

 

[Bi0s]

 

[chickensinwasillaAK]

from Alaska.

Now to increase your count so you can post pictures, stop by the new members thread and the where am I where are you thread. Post replies to the other new folks in the forum, you cound will increase rapidly and you'll be allowed to post pics.
The reason for this is folks were getting a user ID and posting spam crap, this pretty much solved the problem.

Be sure to use BYC with moderation, you can get so hooked on this site you forget to tend to the chicks.

 

[bkwurth]

from Ky!

 

[3chimama]

Welcome from Oregon...If you are going to feed them anything besides their chick food, you will need to offer grit as well...have fun!

 

[pixiedouglas]

Welcome! You've got your questions answered for the most part it seems. You probably want some fairly fine grained sand or dirt from your yard for your 'grit' if you can't find chick grit, they're too little for regular chicken grit. Scrambled eggs mushed with their chick starter is a really good treat if you want to give them a treat while they're this little, the eggs are easy for them to digest and full of all the stuff they need.

I'm sorry you lost one of your chicks, but let me introduce you to something called chicken math. We lost one of our Barred Rock in the first two days with our new chicks. We replaced her with two. One of my chicks is turning out to be a rooster, so now I'm going to get three more chicks... see a trend yet?

 

[Yay Chicks!]

I'm sorry you lost one of your chicks as well.

Sometimes it just happens. Hopefully you will find all the answers here to help you continue to raise healthy chicks.
Treats are fun to give chicks but should be only a very tiny percentage of what they eat.

Welcome, good luck and have fun