need help

[JessicaAndHerChickens]

Greetings! I am new to having chickens and I am not doing so well...but I am trying! I have a question. I had my baby chicks in a rubbermaid type bin and they started flying out and perching on my table! I went and got a rabbit cage to put them in but I am concerned about it. It has that metal mesh thing that rabbits walk on...now they chicks are doing just fine walking around on it, but I am concerned that maybe they need the pine shavings to be filled so they can scratch. Is this true? Right now they get their fill of scratching all their food out of their feeder. I really need some suggestions. I have lost 4 chicks already....2 due to pasty butt (which I do not understand as I checked them often, but they still got it and died shortly after I cleaned them), 1 died from being trampled I believe, and 1 died for who knows what reason. I have 4 left....2 new hampshire reds (wow they are bullies!) and 2 blue andalusians (these like to fly and perch!) The NHR were hatched on 3/11 and the blues hatched on 3/23. They seem to be doing well in their new habitat but I still want to make sure I am doing everything right! I want to make sure they are happy!

 

[ChcknLady]

Congratulations on your chicks! Sorry to hear about your losses-it happens to the best though. I had the same issue with the rubbermaid tote so I went directly to a HUGE cardboard box. I'm talking it is 5 foot by foot and 4 foot high. I've heard of many people using the rabbit cages with no shavings or anything. Where are yours sleeping? They should probably have roosts or at least a box with shavings so they can lay on that (for comfort purposes, spoiled I guess). How are your temps? are you giving them any vitamins and electrolytes in their water? It's hard to troubleshoot for you with that info. Are they displaying typical chickie behavior or are they lethargic and tired?

 

[B. Saffles Farms]

My outdoor brooder has a wire floor. I put pieces of plywood down on top of the wire to keep the cold air from coming thru. I put my chicks outside at either 1 or 2 weeks old, (with a heat light) and havent lost any.

 

[gertie]

Before I got my girls, i had read somewhere that baby chicks should not walk on wire. And I had a neat old rabbit hutch i wanted to use. So I simply lined the rabbit hutch with cardboard, so that I could put on pine shavings for them to walk on. I used those cheap poster sheets, about $1.80 each, to line the hutch. And it made clean up so much easier!! And I only changed the poster sheet about once a month.

Once they knocked over their water and it made a gawdawful mess. So I wired their water bottle to the cage.

Enjoy your chickens! My girls are the best pets I've ever had!!

Gertie
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mom of 1, grannie of 1; 2 cats; 4 chickens; 5 thousand redworms.....

 

[ozark hen]

I have three brooders in my coop. One for 1-3 chicks, one for many chicks and those two are just chicken wire around wooden frames with shavings on the floor and lights if needed and one half way up the wall, it is solid wooden with hardware cloth open windows in the tops for a winter brooder, again with shavings and lights. If they are flying then they need to be in a brooder ..just my rule here.

 

[B. Saffles Farms]

Wire floors with the 1/4 inch squares, wont hurt chicks at all. We have several brooders in the barn with nothing but wire floors and we have raised alot of chicks in them. Never had any problems.