My Chicks! With a few Questions?

[thudson]

Easter Egger Chick!
Buff Orpington Chick!
Their brooder!
My chicks are about 5 weeks old. All are doing really well, all 8 that I bought are alive. Now the Buff Orpington Chick in the picture is a little smaller than the rest because she almost died at Day 5. She I thought was dead when I found her but I rubbed her and blew in her beak and she started moving again. Now here she is at 5 weeks old. My question is, She looks about a week behind the rest as far as growing, is this something to be concerned about? Also has far as the heat lamp I have raised it up, when do I remove the heat? Week 10? By the way the Buff Orpington Chick that nearly died I am naming "Angel" because I think it is a gift from God that she is still here and alive!

 

[ButtonquailGirl14]

Love your chicks!!! great brooder!

 

[FamilyFarm12]

Yes! Your chicks are adorable and really nice brooder!

 

[thudson]

Love your chicks!!! great brooder!

Thank you! I decided if I am going to raise chick regularly to give them the best I can. I really like this brooder.

 

[PirateGirl]

I had a chicken that nearly died about 8 weeks of age. She was always tiny. She was clearly behind the rest developmentally for months and months but she had recovered from her incident and ate and drank and did normal healthy chicken things so I tried not to worry too much. Eventually the other chickens were pretty much full grown and slowing down and she slowly was closing the size gap between them. Eventually, around almost 11 months of age, she laid an egg. She is still on the small side, but I no longer worry about her. She may still have some growing to do, or maybe she will always be small. As long as your little one acts healthy and isn't getting picked on by the others, she will do just fine! I actually was thrilled to see that one of my other chickens, one of the biggest, would sort of look out for the little one. She let her snuggle under her wing at night. I'd often go to lock up the coop and find my special little chicken tucked in between the big ones on the perch. No one picked on her. She actually is not at the bottom of the pecking order despite her size. So while your chick may be a bit behind now, she will catch up!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Depending on your temperatures you're getting close to not needing heat at all, so you can probably stand to raise the heat lamp a bit more. In another week or two they'll have a pretty good coat of feathers along with residual down. I kicked mine outside at the end of 5 weeks, no reason to keep them inside 10 weeks unless it's that noticeably cold.

 

[treslilbirds]

Beautiful babies! You’re Easter Egger looks kind of like one of mine, Miss Igor.

How are your incubated eggs doing?? And yes, little Angel sounds like quite the miracle