Michigan

[ladyfeather]

I can't really find an answer to this question:

How loud and often should my chicks peep? Sometimes I can hear them upstairs and sometimes I can't. If I go down there is always one or two of them making little peep peep noises.

Despite all of my book reading, forum surfing, and self confidence now I am really anxious about them.

 

[sarah92480]

From my own (albeit limited) experience, my chicks were/are always cheeping unless asleep. They cheep at different volumes depending on if they are scared/nervous or content.

 

[chicken grandma]

Lady feather, can you put a thermometer in the brooder? It should be about 95 degrees under the heat lamp if your chicks are a week old or less. There should be enough space in your confined area for them that they can move away from the heat lamp if they need to, like a foot away....because the might need to get away from the heat.

My basement is cold and damp this time of year. How is yours? Maybe you could put them upstairs for the first couple weeks, they are not that messy. You can put paper towel under them to keep the dust down.

Do they have food and water and are they eating and drinking? Sometimes a washcloth over the top of them feels like a mother hen sitting on them and comforts them. I have laid a washcloth over mine, just make sure the heat lamp is secure, not too close to them and that the temperature under the light is 95 degrees with space to get away from that much heat.

Also, it is recommended that you use a heat lamp that is for animals because some that you get at the hardware store may be coated in teflon which causes lung hemorrage in birds. So I got my warming lamp at the pet store and have gotten some at the feed store.

 

[ladyfeather]

Lady feather, can you put a thermometer in the brooder? It should be about 95 degrees under the heat lamp if your chicks are a week old or less. There should be enough space in your confined area for them that they can move away from the heat lamp if they need to, like a foot away....because the might need to get away from the heat.

My basement is cold and damp this time of year. How is yours?

Do they have food and water and are they eating and drinking? Sometimes a washcloth over the top of them feels like a mother hen sitting on them and comforts them. I have laid a washcloth over mine, just make sure the heat lamp is secure, not too close to them and that the temperature under the light is 95 degrees with space to get away from that much heat.

Also, it is recommended that you use a heat lamp that is for animals because some that you get at the hardware store may be coated in teflon which causes lung hemorrage in birds. So I got my light at the pet store and have gotten some at the feed store.

Thanks for the information! I don't have a thermometer that will read the air very well but I will take my most sensitive one down now to check. To my hand it feels awfully warm (I wouldn't want to sit under it for very long). My basement is dry and I wouldn't consider it cold. They are tucked between a filing cabinet and a stack of plastic bins and I am keeping their bin off the floor with some cardboard boxes because I was afraid of it leeching the heat out from the bottom.

I'll go and put a towel down there so they can go underneath it if they want. So far no one is huddled together under the lamp and no one's hiding from it in the other side. I put the lamp at one end of the bin so they have a choice.

As soon as we could I filled their water dispenser with filtered water and their food dish with the same stuff they were using at the Tractor Supply out here. The light is the same one they were using in the brooding bins at TS, red bulb and everything. They should be a week old at least because that's what the associate told us; they have little wing feathers all ready.

I agonized over the lamp placement and I've been adjusting it all afternoon; I hooked it with the clamps on a bit of metal and a few good tugs didn't bring it down.

Is there anything I am missing? The pasty butt is all better as far as I can tell. The chick is drinking, eating, moving around well. The bedding is all stirred up from their kicking it around (going to make it deeper tomorrow).

Agenda for the morning:
-Add more food, rinse and refresh water dispenser
-Clean bedding, make deeper
-Pick up sticky thermometer for brooder
-Disinfect and scrub larger bin so there is more room for the chicks
-Give them an intact, old towel to snuggle with

Anything else I am missing? I'm going to re-read a few books tomorrow.

ETA:

So I took my thermometer down there, it's a no go since it's electronic. Near the light it was climbing over 95 so I'll get a thermometer from the pet store as soon as I can tomorrow.

They were all asleep until I started poking around to check the temp. No one was sprawled out or panting and they weren't huddled together for warmth. There were a few pairs snuggled together but two that were a bit further apart from each other. I was concerned the air around them was under 90 degrees so I moved the lamp down a few inches. My husband will check on them at 5am. They have plenty of water and food still.

 

[sarah92480]

I thought this was funny so I thought I'd share.

 

[RaZ]

Blue Spruce..

Of course I know..I would think something was wrong with you if you didnt get your jabs in when you could..

I only tease the people I happen to like. Consider yourself privileged.

So here's 6 wk pics of my chickens...tell me what you guys think, do they look about right for their age? Healthy and everything? They look it to me but I'm new to this.

This is by no means scientific or based on years of chicken rearing, but looking at the tails might be a clue. The BSL and ISA'a are pullets for sure. Right? The Wyandottes don't have that up turn in their tails And if you subscribe to the wing feather length in females being longer, those Wyandottes seem shorter.

My Wyandottes are the same age and their tails have that up turn and long wing feathers, so I think they are pullets. The one that had a droopy butt was the one that the hawk got and I was pretty sure that he was a roo, based on his agression in the brooder.

Of course I'll know for sure when they either crow or lay an egg.

 

[Juise]

Quote:

I meant to add a "

" here....

You may have scarred me for life...though you have come closer to actually eating your young than I have...however
I have threatened it before...

I ate both my placentas

It's not eating your young, hahahaha. It's an organ. And I did make them myself.

And I did take the wimpy route, I mean, come on, I hadn't eaten any form of meat in man years and.. uh.. placentas are not very appealing! BUT they are packed with goodness, iron, oxytocin to help with postpartum depression and to help stop bleeding, prolactin to help your milk supply, and other hormone to help you destress and get energy back. So we dehydrated, ground, and encapsulated mine. Way less gross than the options in the placenta recipe book my midwife loaned me!

Placenta pâté? No thanks!

 

[ladyfeather]

I wanted to have my placenta dried and encapsulated but we had trouble getting out of the hospital as it was.

I hear it tastes good but I don't think I have the stomach for it yet.

 

[Juise]

Well, see, I didn't have to taste it. I can say that I did not like the smell of it dehydrating, but I have heard many others say it smells really good. I have heard of hospitals flat out not letting people taking them, but I didn't have any issues because I didn't go, hehe.

 

[ladyfeather]

I did a birthing center and it was awesome.

I didn't want to fight anyone. I've hard of placenta wearing (I think that's the term) where they dry it in a bag they wear for awhile with salt and herbs. That was a bit far for me.