New chicks and a few questions!

[Lady Chickadee]

This is our first time having chicks and we have 9 new girls!We got them from TSC and 6 are from the assorted pullets bin and 3 are from the red pullets bin.They are older than what we expected and some have feathers coming out on their wings. When we got home we got the brooder together(small old dog cage surrounded by card board, heat lamp, food,and water of course.)At first we had the heat lamp inside the cage but then they started going to the edge of the cage and panting. We then built something and put the heat lamp outside of the cage, they started getting up and moving around. My 3 red ones are the most active of them all by the way. Also when we were on our way home one of the chicks was being a lot louder than the others. When I picked her up to put in the brooder she chirped loudly but staid pretty calm, could "she" be a he??Oh, and when you first get chicks do you have to put vitamins in there water??I'm also trying to guess what breeds the fuzzy butts are.Anybody have any guesses?One of the red ones has a chipmunk pattern on her back, could she be a easter egger? Also one of the bins had a sign over it that said amber links, I got 3 from that bin, anybody have any info about Amber links if they do turn out to be those?Were also guessing that there a week and a half old, anybody know how old they might be?

Pictures

( I'll try to get better ones someday so you can possibly try to tell what breeds they are.Also these pictures are when the heat lamp was inside the cage but now there not all huddled together at the edge.)

 

[kizanne]

most start the save-a-chick vitamin in their water as soon as they get them. Did you get the medicated feed? The amber links are probably amber sexlinks if you search there are lots of info on sexlinks. They look pretty young to me but I am not in any way qualified to guess.

Nice chicks though. Keep watch of the temp too cold is better than too hot. Make sure they can get out of the hot part of the light if they want too. Did you get a thermometer?

95 1st week, then down 5 each week from there but 95 should be the hottest part of the brooder not all of the brooder.

 

[gryeyes]

Chicks get feathers on their wingtips very fast, by as little as 3 days old.


Amber Links are "sex linked" hybrids, good layers.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Be careful not to over heat them. It's easy to do with a small box. Hopefully, you'll have a much larger box soon where they have the ability to move into the light to warm, and away from the light to cool off. Some use vitamins in the water for the first week, but I never have bothered.

You have some sex links there, which will be great egg layers. The white ones concern me a bit, but if they are amber-link which is white with a few black dots that appear sooner or later, you should be fine. They look to be about a week old.

In any case, in the remote possibility that the chicks were moved about in the bins or mis-labled, you can deal with that, if and when it comes up. I assume you do not want roosters or cannot have them.

 

[DancingHen]

Welcome to the forum

, and welcome to the wonderful world of chickens!

First, I wanted to say that your chicks are really cute, and your set up for a brooder should work fine. As to your questions I can answer a few.

An Amber Link is a hybrid sex-link chicken (sex-link allows sexing by feather color). I believe Amber Links are made by crossing a Rhode Island Red rooster with White Plymouth Rock hen. Or at least a red rooster to a white hen. Sex-link hybrids are usually hardier and better layers than their parents. Great chicks for beginners, and for layers! Your red chick with the chipmunk stripes looks to me like she may also be a red sex-link of some type. I have one in my brooder with color/marks like her. But it is hard to tell from your photos.

The loud chick was probably just being loud. Chicks will peep loudly if they get cold, think they are alone or seperated from the other chicks, or are scared. And sometimes just to hear their own voices I think!

As for vitamins in the water, I just give my chicks plain clean water. You can use medicated feed to help prevent cocci. I have used poly-vi-sol vitamin drops in the water of a batch of chicks when one of them developed wry neck (she recovered completely). If you do choose to add vitamins I would recommend doing so sparingly, so as not to overdose them on any vitamins, and make sure your vitamins are IRON FREE, and iron overdose can kill your chicks.

Hope that helps.

Enjoy your babies!

 

[Lady Chickadee]

Thanks everyone for the awesome replies

When we moved the heat lamp they seemed a lot better and they were running around eating and drinking. Right now there resting and they seem fine. We did make a huge mistake and totally forgot to buy a thermometer and didn't get vitamins. We will get those as soon as we can. Oh and a lot of the white ones do have some black spots on their wings. Also I don't mind if one turns out to be a rooster I wouldn't mind having a rooster but I'm hoping that theirs no more than one or theres not one at all.