Need help!

[earnhardtlvr]

Ryan started all of this talk of having chickens when we moved in with my Mother over the winter to help her take care of the house thru the cold months. My mom isn't in the best health and so we decided we r just going to stay. So the talk of converting the old smokehouse into a chicken coop really took off then. We researched and researched and think we did really nice on making cozy nesting boxes and a nice roost area. We are slowly getting an nice fenced in area for them outside now. So, I told Ryan I only wanted 5-6 egg layers cuz there is no way I could kill them for meat. So we researched some more about layers. Then I saw all the cute and pretty breeds of chicks that I was sold. So now instead of 5-6 we r expecting 20 babies! I am hoping we can handle it! So all that being said, I'm getting confused by all the different suggestions we r getting for the brooder for the babies. We have a garage underneath our house that stays warm, but I know not warm enough for the little ones.

Here is our plan...please help/correct...

We were going to start them in 2 medium sized boxes with the sides cut out to make one box and keep food and water at one end and heat source at other end of box.

Our heat lamp is red. Should we have a white bulb too for artificial lighting?

can we put a rubber mat down, then newspaper, then paper towels to help make the cleaning process easier? How often do u clean the brooder? I know I have to keep food and water clean at all times.

When can u put shavings down? They should be pine shavings cuz other shaving are bad for them, right?

someone told us to put their feed in an egg carton. Is this a good idea? We have feeders that we bought to put in the coop but I don't know if babies can eat out of those.

we plan on buying them medicated feed for the 1st couple weeks and putting electrolytes in their water for a while. Good idea?

I know this is alot of ?'s, but I'm scared to do soething to the babies. Once they get bigger I think it will be easieer, but I'm wanting to make sure my chickies get the best care I can give them!

Thanks for any help or suggestions you have!
Dianne

 

[nurseshelly]

Quote:
Hi,
I'm pretty new myself

the brooder sounds good. At some point you will need to make a mesh or wire cover so they don't fly out.
Red heat lamps are great because they don't disturb them at night, the white ones can.
You can put shavings down, and then paper towels on top to help with footing. For us, we spot cleaned a few times a day, and then dumped all of the bedding each night and started fresh. Same with feeder and waterer, we washed with warm soapy water every night and refilled with fresh food/water. I like the feeder that attaches to a Mason jar. When they are bigger you will go through two jars a day for just 5 or 6 chicks - so they eat a lot! More than you would think. Our feeder was one made for babies. For the water, we got a clay pot saucer that was bigger than the water dispenser and put the saucer down first. This really helps keep the water from getting full of shavings.
I did put mine on medicated feed, because I didn't know if I should and I was paranoid to not do it. I have heard a lot of folks that use it, a lot that don't, and a lot that are really against it unless the chick is sick.
I never put anything in their water.
Hope this helps!

 

[earnhardtlvr]

Thank you! Any ad all advice is welcome!

 

[Reyvaughn]

I feel like a bad mom when I read these posts. I went and got my chickens without having anything ready. I built my brooder out of a refrigerator box while the chicks were in their little "take-out" box.

1) My 2nd brooder is 2 - 2 x 4' cardboard boxes magnificently combined by me to make a now 33"x41" box. I have 23 chicks in it. I have the first 14 in the 4x4' fridge box.
2) I put mine straight on pine shavings without problems. I am reading that quite a few people put paper towels or puppy piddle pads down over the shavings for the first couple of days.
3) I used bought waters and feeders from the store from day one. I haven't had any issues. I did have to clean the water out up to 10 times a day because they think it's fun to scratch their shavings into the water.

4) I only used a red heat lamp. Mine all get light from the windows in the house, though.
5) I didn't add electrolytes to the water - just apple cider vinegar to help with pasty butt.
6) I didn't feed medicated feed. All of my chicks were vaccinated, so I opted to leave them build an immunity. I do have a bag of Duramycin just in case. I have 37 chicks ranging from 5 days to 4 weeks. I haven't had any issues except for one pullet needing her butt Blu-Koted because everyone was pulling her tail feathers out because she picked on some day old chicks I put in with her.
7) I clean my brooders every other day to a week. It depends on smell and dirt factor. I use 4"+ of shaving in my brooders and I keep it turned. If a spot gets to bad, I'll spot clean. So far everyone is healthy and clean.

They aren't really hard to care for. I had a rough navel scare and that's pretty much it. I haven't lost a chick yet (knock on wood) and like I said, everyone seems quite happy and healthy.

 

[donrae]

I'm glad to see your brooder set up. I think too many folks don't provide a cooler area and cook their babies

. Yours sounds great.

Does the garage have windows? My barn has some and I don't add light, just let them have what seeps through the cobwebs

I just use hay from my other critters for bedding, can't really help there.

If the egg carton is styrafoam the babies might eat it. My girls have ingested a shocking amount of styrafoam and had no ill effects, but

Babies couldn't eat from the "big girl" feeder I have, I bought a little plastic one for a few dollars. The mason jar feeders are nice, too.

I've always used medicated feed until this year. I'm more hesitant about what I'm feeding them now and am trying non medicated starter. I've not used electrolytes but many swear by them. I do keep them on hand if I order chicks in case of shipping stress. Lately I'm just buying from the feed store, they're already several days old so I figure they're hardy.

Good luck on your babies, sounds like they're gonna have a great home!

 

[spiritdance]

Sounds like you did your research! My only suggestions are that you get a feeder for them rather than the egg tray, do use a white light during the day if the garage doesn't get much natural light, and buy a good thermometer for the brooder. The egg tray - they will perch on top of it, scratch the feed out, and poop in it. You can find a number of different types of feeders at the feed store, but I like the long tray type with the lid that has holes in the sides for the chicks to eat. With 20 chicks, they could all eat at the same time if they wanted to (and they will when you refill even if they just ate

) and this style, for me at least, seems to keep the feed cleanest and most accessible. Others may have different experiences. The white light - like most animals, chicks derive healthful benefits from natural light. If your garage is too dark during the day, use a white, daylight spectrum bulb during the day (for about 12 hours) and switch to red at night. I have mine on temp control timers - not really necessary, but it makes things a bit easier on crazy days. The thermometer - the best way to tell if your chicks are comfortable is to watch their behavior (they'll cluster if they're cold, hug the perimeter away from the heat if they're hot), but I still like to keep a good thermometer in there. If a single chick or maybe a couple are acting "off," I can rule out (or in) temperature as a cause, since some chicks may be a bit more susceptible to chills or overheating (the latter is actually a bigger threat than the former, as chicks can huddle for warmth, but there's little they can do to escape an overheated brooder).

As for some of your other questions, the rubber mat could help keep things clean, or it could trap spills underneath. You'll probably have to play that one by ear. As for the newspaper, I don't like it just because the paper towels slip around on it and expose it to the chicks, who then have trouble getting their footing on it (can cause spraddle leg). I usually just layer the paper towels so that I can remove one double folded layer for cleaning every day and change the layers underneath as needed. (BTW, you will find cleaning is much easier if you put the waterer on a shallow baking sheet with paper towels on it for footing. It keeps spills in an easy to clean area.) I switch from paper towels to coarse pine bedding at about 4 or 5 days. By that point they know what food is and won't eat the bedding. Once you switch, put the feeder and waterer on a low platform of some kind, even if you need to put a small ramp in for banties, so they won't kick bedding into them. They can clog things up pretty quickly and deprive themselves of food and water until their "trained hoomin" comes to check on them again. Hope this helps, and best of luck with your little fuzzy butts. BTW, has anyone warned you of the highly addictive nature of the little beasts? Soon, you will be helpless to resist ...

 

[earnhardtlvr]

15 of the babies I am getting r thru the mail from mypetchicken.com and 5 r coming a week later from a local co-op. The babies coming in the mail will have the marek's vaccine but the ones from the co-op will not. Should I buy the vaccine for the 5?I hope they get along! The garage/basement they are in only has two small windows and they won't get very much natural light until I get them out in their pen. So should I keep a normal white bulb light on them during the day and then turn that off at night and they would have their red light heat on all the time?

 

[earnhardtlvr]

Wow keep all the advice suggestions coming!! I'm loving this...and yes, I have a feeling this chickie thing is going to become a very serious habit! We are already talking about maybe some goats next year...I love the fainting ones...too funny!

 

[Titania]

Congratulations! How exciting to get your first chicks! You will love it! I'm new to all of this too and have also used BYC to get so much help.

I got my first 10 chicks from a hatchery 8 months ago. But since then, I think I've hatched between 75-90 chicks and kept them in a brooder (part of my search for the perfect breed I guess). I will have to warn you, though, that sometimes they just die. Alot of their health depends on the mother's nutrition when she formed/laid the egg. I have had chicks from the same hatch but two different sources in the same brooder before. Sometimes all of the chicks from one seller just started dying one by one while the other chicks thrived. In cases like that, it had nothing to do with me. And, sometimes things just happen and you never really understand why. Really watch that temp in the brooder, though. My first time around, the house got too warm while I was cooking & the temp in the brooder spiked and I lost a few chicks.

We all have to learn through our mistakes, though. And, go ahead and handle your new baby chicks. Let them learn to eat from your hand and get them as used to you as possible. You'll be glad you did!
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[spiritdance]

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I haven't vaccinated for Marek's because I don't show my birds and am very choosy what sources I get my birds from. I hate to buy the 1000 dose vial, which is the only way I've found it. However, I plan to start showing and I will vaccinate the whole flock before then. Once a farm is contaminated with Marek's, it is for all intents and purposes infected forever, so make your decision from there.

I would definitely supplement your natural light source. Red light doesn't stimulate the production of vitamin D like daylight does. A plain white light is fine, but a full spectrum "daylight" bulb isn't very expensive and it's better healthwise. It depends on the wattage you find you need to keep temp. The higher watt daylight bulbs can be harder to find. I use non-light heat sources in my brooder (ceramic heat emitter) in addition to the lights, so even in my big brooder (32" X 48" X 24" high) I only need 100 watts to keep temp. As for leaving the red one on with the white, that might overheat the brooder if the red is a 250 watt light. You could of course turn off the red during the day and use two white bulbs. Heck, I have even put a heating pad on medium under one end of the brooder to supplement the bulb heat. Just make sure if you use heat from below that you monitor it very closely, as they have to either be on it or off of it. In other words, it doesn't offer the variable levels of heat they can get from moving to and away from an overhead or side mounted source. NEVER turn a heating pad above medium, and usually low is sufficient if other heat sources are available as well.