New chicken owner

[lauriegil11]

I am about to be the mother of 4-5 new silkie chickens. I have never owned chickens and don't know much about them. I orderred them and they will arrive April 18th and be 1-3 days old. I understand you have to keep them with a light on and food at all times for the first 6 weeks. I am reading now the chickens I'm getting aren't big egg layers. I am thinking of incorporating one more chicken into my new family and want a brown egg layer. Any ideas for a smaller chicken that's a brown egg layer. I am terified of the mess and smell so want to keep the birds small and low numbers. Any other advice?

 

[Keltara]

Hi Laurie

Welcome to BYC. I want to put your fears to rest. You don't have to worry about smell. If you keep your chickens quarter clean, you will be smell free. And a very easy way to keep the clean up easy, is by using sand instead of pine shavings. Go to my blog and read my post about "coop management". It tells ALL the joys and benefits of sand. It's VERY easy and not smelly AT ALL.

As far as your new babies, it's not that you need "light" on them, but instead you need "heat" on them. I used a heat lamp from Tractor Supply Company with a red bulb (it's not as glaring when the babies need to sleep). I also got a thermometer from them which indicated at what temperature the chicks needed to be depending on how many weeks old they were (which allowed me to adjust the heat source accordingly). Keep your heat lamp to one side of your brooder (opposite the food and water) and the chicks will go under it if they're feeling cold, and away from it if they're too hot. I used a storage bin for my brooder. It was very clean and cheap. Click here and you'll see pictures of my brooder set up. If they start getting smelly, then change their bedding. Mine never got smelly and I changed their bedding once per week. While they were in the brooder, I used pine shavings. Once they graduated to their outside home, it was sand. Wonderful, beautiful, odor free sand.

Take lots of pictures of the chicks when they are babies because the grow FAST!! Congratulations on your coming babies. You are going to love the world of chicken keeping! I have 3 new babies coming on or around April 11th. My kids and I are VERY excited!

Sincerely,
Kelly
✿Our Country Chronicles✿​

 

[theoldchick]

 

[Smoosh]

You will find that you will love them! Chicken math will happen at some point.