Maybe I'm not cut out for this ....

[Murs]

Good news! There was a break in the rain so I went out to check. Earline was out scratching but the new girl was inside, in the nest box and laid an egg!!! So, I guess this means they're doing just fine.

 

[PrairieChickens]

awww, happy chickens! <3

 

[Craftygirl]

Yeah!

 

[Mommy 2 Wee Ones]

Yea! Glad she laid an egg. Mine went a bit weird when we had our first ice storm in Dec. None wanted to come out of the coop, even tempted them with scratch. One flew out, hit the snow/ice and then would not move, she did not know what to do, so I threw her back into the coop. I left the door open, put food & water inside for them. Today we had Hail/ice, and they stayed under the deck. Cooked them up some butter noodles & tossed it out to them, an hour after I gave them fresh water, it froze. It is going to be worse tomorrow, so I will have to keep breaking up the icy water for them.

 

[GreenChicken07]

I'm so happy that your hens have a happy ending! I hope they remain as happy as what they are now

 

[piglett]

Last year was our first year and we started with chicks. I can't even begin to tell you the losses we had. We had a couple die quickly, probably from shipping stress that we got from our local TSC. A tiny little bantam that we thought for sure wasn't going to make it and it perked up and was doing great, just to pass without reason about 2 weeks later. Then the predators start. A dog we use to have started killing them. It was almost impossible to stop him. He started attacking our other animals and became protective aggressive and had to go. We got 2 more dogs, about 4 months old. They did pretty good with the chickens until they killed their first one, then it was game on. The had to be rehomed. We had 2 we lost at about 4 months a few days apart, we are thinking maybe a hawk tried picking them up but dropped them? They had no signs of trauma other than a little blood at the mouth. There was also an order of bantams that I suddenly realized we needed to do a head count and we had gone from 30 to 14...turns out it was a feral cat (or cats) that was picking them off. At first it must have been eating them and taking them somewhere but then it just started killing them. A couple got into the water buckets for the mini cows we use to have and drowned.

We sold a number of our chicks before we started experiencing losses and wish we wouldn't have. After everything was said and done we had 100 chicks total and we have 6 standards and 2 bantams left from last year. It was probably a 50/50 sell/loss...I felt like a chicken murderer.

This year we've lost 7 out of our fist order of 17 chicks due to extreme cold and shipping losses. Our second order did great and all 14 survived, our 3rd order did great and all 27 survived. I then bought 10 bantams and 2 ducklings at our local TSC and they are doing good. We had 2 loses yesterday, there must have been a spot in the grow out pen we missed that 2 of the chicks got out and our dog was 'playing with them' and killed them.

He is not like the other dogs we had that went after the chicks as prey and as long as we can keep the chicks away from him, he ignores them. Its a different situation than we dealt with last year but still hard. He stays away from the grown hens just fine since it's 'obvious' they don't want to play with him.

I was just patting myself on the back yesterday, before the losses, on how much better we are doing this year than last year. You learn as you go. I felt sick last year every time I thought about how we had failed and almost gave up a few times but learning from our experiences and the experiences of others on this site has helped.

.

i have found that some but not all chicks that you get through the mail are 1/2 dead when they arrive

that is why they tell you to give them medicated feed

without it the losses can be even worse.

i like going to a local breeder & picking up the chicks rite then & there

if one looks to not be 100% leave it there

medicated feed isn't needed if the birds havn't been shipped,i never use it

also if there is a problem a good breeder may be willing to replace the birds


now as far as dogs & such i don't know of anyone who was 100% set up for chickens till they got some

as a rule of thumb i never let birds younger than 8 weeks out of the coop

then at 8 weeks i allow them to come outside but only when i am around

if you train them with bread they will be glad to go back into the coop anytime you wish

just be sure to give them their bread once inside, they love it.



good luck
piglett

 

[PrairieChickens]

The medicated feed is to help them cope with the bacteria in their environment. If your chicks haven't been vaccinated for coccidiosis they should be on medicated feed to prevent infection. It's a good idea for any chicks that haven't been vaccinated, shipped or not.

Almost all chicks sold in the USA are shipped at some point--either directly to you or to the store selling them. If you don't have access to a local hatchery or breeder, shipped chicks is about all that's available to you, but that doesn't mean you should expect to receive sick or damaged chicks. Most of my experiences with shipped chicks have gone well, with no more casualties or health problems than what I might get from a batch of home-grown chicks. The important thing is to get them hydrated, fed, and warm as soon as they arrive to give them the strongest possible start.

 

[Folly's place]

Welcome! Medicated chick starter feed is meant to help control their exposure to coccidian, which is a one-celled intestinal parasite. Nothing to do with bacteria at all. If the chicks had coccidiosis vaccine, that means they were exposed to a very small dose of the parasite, and the medicated feed will kill of that tiny parasite load, so the inoculation is overcome and useless. Chicks raised under a broody hen are exposed to their environment sooner, so generally develop immunities more gracefully. Mary

 

[PrairieChickens]

Welcome! Medicated chick starter feed is meant to help control their exposure to coccidian, which is a one-celled intestinal parasite. Nothing to do with bacteria at all. If the chicks had coccidiosis vaccine, that means they were exposed to a very small dose of the parasite, and the medicated feed will kill of that tiny parasite load, so the inoculation is overcome and useless. Chicks raised under a broody hen are exposed to their environment sooner, so generally develop immunities more gracefully. Mary

I'll need to research coccidian more. The last reference I read on the subject referred to it as bacteria.

 

[3chickchicks]

i have found that some but not all chicks that you get through the mail are 1/2 dead when they arrive

that is why they tell you to give them medicated feed

without it the losses can be even worse.

i like going to a local breeder & picking up the chicks rite then & there

if one looks to not be 100% leave it there

medicated feed isn't needed if the birds havn't been shipped,i never use it

also if there is a problem a good breeder may be willing to replace the birds


now as far as dogs & such i don't know of anyone who was 100% set up for chickens till they got some

as a rule of thumb i never let birds younger than 8 weeks out of the coop

then at 8 weeks i allow them to come outside but only when i am around

if you train them with bread they will be glad to go back into the coop anytime you wish

just be sure to give them their bread once inside, they love it.



good luck
piglett

I went to someone who orders hatchery chicks and then resells them. They delt with shipping losses before I even entered the picture so my chances of getting a healthy bird were greater. I think this is the best way to go for those with small flocks who don't want to spend the money for breeder stock.