Need Tips

[johnnyberner]

So i am 13 years old and i just recently moved to wyoming. My friend had chickens and i thought they were really cool, So i asked my parents can i get a couple chickens. The answer was no. But i went along and ordered them. They came. 6 dead. I was really devistated. we only wanted nine, so i told the company (ideal poultry) could you send us 5 more (they garentee live chicks) they said sure, We will also send a few males to keep them warm. So that came and the 5 females and 15 males! my dad freaked out and so did i! Of course roosters dont produce eggs so it is very hard to find people who want them. So we are giving them away. keeping 10 hens. any tips for me as i have no experence with chickens and i want to be able to tell if they have diseases because if one does than it will spread. Right now their conditions are not good as we only thought we would have 5. I want a duck too Please give me tips

-johnny

 

[ChickenLegs13]

Best tip I can give you is you better start obeying your parents or you'll end up in prison by the time your 19!

 

[realsis]

Hi keep an eye out for any one that's not eating because that can be a first sign of illness. Also puffing up and acting sleepy or lethergic can be a sign. Most things can be treated if caught on time. How are you keeping the babies? They need a brooder with a heat lamp when they are their the first week they need a warm area about 95 degrees and a cool area they can get to if they are hot. Put marbles into their water so they don't drown.at the baby age the biggest thing to watch for is coccidosis. They will appear puffed up and very sleepy.bloody poo may or may not be present.reduce the heat 5 degrees each week until they no longer need the heat light. Look up online raising baby chicks. I URGE you to read read read!! If they happen to get cocci you can treat with corid or amprollium. Are they on medicated feed? What shots if any did you get for them from the hatcery?? If they had the coccidosis shot you wouldn't want to feed medicated feed it would cancel out the shots. If no shots are given medicated feed can help reduce the incendence of coccidosis. Please tell us what your set up for the chicks is like?? I keep mine INSIDE the house until they are fully feathered out. I hope this information helps and the BEST thing you can do for the chicks is to READ about how to raise them. Amazon has lots of great books on raising chickens that you can download to your phone for a few dollars with the kindle app. Just download the kindle app for your phone its free then you can download lots of great books on raising chicks for only a couple dollars per book!!! If you have any more questions id be happy to try to help. Just private message me and I'll try and help the best I can. Good luck with your babies. Do read read read! It will really help. When I first got chickens I read and learned so much from simply reading. take care and I'm here to help if you need me.