My first chicks

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divediva

divediva

Songster
Feb 23, 2016
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Bermuda
Hello

I just got my first 2 chicks at 10 days and have had them 5 days. I'm a super proud Momma and trying to do the best to socialise them and give them a happy home. My girls were flown in as one day olds layers and they are already growing up fast. I just moved them to a bigger pen and can't wait to have them on their first outing in the yard. I'm lucky to be close to the beach and heard sand is great grit. I brought some home and boiled and dried it, and they went crazy in there like it was the best treat ever. i also let them have a couple of little spiders I caught and a little boiled egg.
Any advice on making my chicks super happy would be appreciated. I heard at point of lay you should put a golf ball or similar in the pen to encourage laying. is this true?
Many thanks
Marie
 
Welcome to BYC!!
Happy Chick Keeping!

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Sand is not grit.
http://www.jupefeeds-sa.com/documents/GraniteGrit.pdf.

Not sure blue light is warm enough.......check with thermometer.

Here's my notes on chick heat, hope something in there might help:

They need to be pretty warm(~85-90F on the brooder floor right under the lamp and 10-20 degrees cooler at the other end of brooder) for the first day or two, especially if they have been shipped, until they get to eating, drinking and moving around well. But after that it's best to keep them as cool as possible for optimal feather growth and quicker acclimation to outside temps. A lot of chick illnesses are attributed to too warm of a brooder. I do think it's a good idea to use a thermometer on the floor of the brooder to check the temps, especially when new at brooding, later I still use it but more out of curiosity than need.

The best indicator of heat levels is to watch their behavior:
-If they are huddled/piled up right under the lamp and cheeping very loudly, they are too cold.
-If they are spread out on the absolute edges of the brooder as far from the lamp as possible, panting and/or cheeping very loudly, they are too hot.
-If they sleep around the edge of the lamp calmly just next to each other and spend time running all around the brooder they are juuuust right!

The lamp is best at one end of the brooder with food/water at the other cooler end of the brooder, so they can get away from the heat or be under it as needed. Wattage of 'heat' bulb depends on size of brooder and ambient temperature of room brooder is in. Regular incandescent bulbs can be used, you might not need a 'heat bulb'. If you do use a heat bulb make sure it's specifically for poultry, some heat bulbs for food have teflon coatings that can kill birds. You can get red colored incandescent bulbs at a reptile supply source. A dimmer extension cord is an excellent way to adjust the output of the bulb to change the heat without changing the height of the lamp.

Or you could go with a heat plate, commercially made or DIY: http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/pseudo-brooder-heater-plate
 
hello
my chicks are in the house with me so I'd say around 24oC. they have a light but they are not always under it so I'm happy they are warm enough. I'm feeding them starter crumb I got from the farmer
 

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