Out here most people don't buy chicks. We buy our hens @ POL. Easier to sex so fewer unwanted roosters, cheaper in the long run because the birds start earning their keep sooner & we aren't paying for the electricity or losses & it's much easier to see the quality of the bird you are purchasing. Plus you don't have to know that much when you start out ~ which I didn't.
IMHO 16 week old chickens in the USA are expensive. Costs 3 times the price of the bird for shipping. I bought 2 SLW for $10 a piece. Lady buys chicks and raises them to sell in the fall. One thing I will say about that is these birds were almost wild. She just fed them no contact. I think maybe she didn't want to get attached.
So here are some of my questions since we are going on a week of them being here.
-We did a DIY brooder with a storage bin..... it seriously looks like they are already growing out of it. Does anyone have any other ideas for brooders that are diy? I was going to go get a bigger storage bin so they have more space to move.
- They keep getting some of the bedding in their water. Does anyone have an ideas on how to stop this? Should I do a hanging water?
- They are pooping.. but, a little bit diarrhea still. This week I was going to add some grit... (do you recommend this) and on the 3rd week mash potatoes (do I use butter and milk? or just the potato) and smashed bananas).
How big is the bin vs the number of chicks (+ age of chicks)? My preference is 2 sq ft per chick by about 4 weeks old but they'll take more space if you let them have it.
Bedding in the waterer is normal, you just have to keep cleaning it out. You could try a nipple waterer but if you're going that route keep an eye on it to make sure the chicks are able to get water from it, if they're very young or small they might have a hard time operating it.
Grit yes. But what are the mashed potatoes for? Stick with chick food. IMO butter and milk have no place in a chicken's diet anyhow. It's most important when they're young that they get the most nutritious diet possible while growing. Treats throw off the nutritional balance of the feed.
This time around I’m using a dog crate (one of those black collapsible metal kind) with cardboard up the sides. Once they are older and need more space, I’ll open one door at the end and attach my black metal play yard (which has a cover.)
You could always use some large cardboard boxes and connect them together with duct tape to make a longer box.
Neat chix, I love both Easter Eggers (large & bantam varieties) and the "real" ones - Ameracauna (we curently have blue/black/splash & Lavender varieties). Our eggs have varied from very lite just barely tinted blue eggs to deep, recognizable sky blue to a light-ish green color. Ameraucana breeders have a goal of color shade of eggs to strive for - you can get the card demonstrating those colors (w/ numbers - like in a paint store) when you become a member of either of the Amerarcana breeder orgs.
So - I would stick with a complete, already balanced chick feed. If you want to truly make your own or go completely organic making your own, there are many recipes out there. For me/us to source the grains/supplements and get to me in large enough amounts (& then to mix) is EXPENSIVE, but not impossible. To the best of my knowledge, potato and banana are not part of any recipe for chicken feed and will not work for making feces more solid/regular, like in other species.
That said, when your chicks are older - you could certainly introduce fruits and veggies to their diets. Keep in mind that they should always have access to their regular feed first and may need to be limited in the veggie/fruit department - so that they get the nutrients they need to grow, make their feathers and then start producing eggs for you. You can also give them many, if not all, of your kitchen scraps! But again, I'd wait until they are older.
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How many chicks did you get? Are they sexed (ie - known to be pullets or straight run - meaning that you probably have some cockerel chicks too)?
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Size of the brooder varies. Depends on how many chicks you have, whether the brooder is indoors or outdoors and if it has an open bottom to move it around.
The waterer can be raised with a block of wood, upside down bowls/saucers or bricks. It can hang. You can make a variety of types of waterers - google or search pinterest images and DIY.
The feeder you appear to have in your coop will need to also have brick(s?) leading up to it for chicks to reach down and get their feed.
What is the orange tube with holes in it, hanging at the front of the run on the chicken tractor you have?
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How big is your coop and how big is the actual tractor portion? The one you pictured looks to be one that some one purchased and put on larger/maybe treated skid boards with wheels to make it easier to move. But it looks very small and has a very steep ladder from floor of run to the coop. Small/young chicks may have a hard time negotiating that ladder for a while.
You may have too many chicks for the tractored coop you have. I have used a variety of tractors - usually made by myself and some have just been cobbled together from other animal cages/pens and made to work (& DO! until they get bigger & outgrow them). I've learned the hard way that to have too many chickens in too small of an area is hard on the chickens, you and their environment. Good thing is that you can improvise and build bigger/permanent solution or a larger tractored coop or you can split them up.
The main thing is to have fun and enjoy your chicks as they grow.
was going to edit prev post; but doing new one instead.
To expand on brooders - there are a lot of different choices. You can certainly get a larger tub...
I've brooded in hamster/gerbil cages of different sizes (have 3 sizes, depending on # of chicks), a card board box (LARGE one - gotten from produce section of store), different sizes of dog/cat crates - both the completely enclosed plastic kind w/ a wire door & the metal barred ones of several different sizes - & 100 gallon Rubbermaid water tanks that no longer hold water for the ponies... None of these will hold many chicks for very long. The longest I've had chicks in them was approximately 8 weeks of age (feathered in) and then they went into various coops/pens/tractors that I've had out doors for them. Several times, even once they've gone out into other pens, if the weather changed drastically or they got wet from weird rain/snow/ice patterns - I've brought them in and have even blow dried them to warm them up and kept them in crates/cages in my living room until they were warm and dry and the weather cleared up, LOL.
We were into our 3rd year of having chicks/chickens before I got any actual pictures (before phone cameras). This barnyard bantam X hen sat on & hatched out a group of eggs that weren't hers (AT ALL). They hatched in a manure filled 32 gallon trash can (when we realized she was setting, we left it) in our barn - sitting next to one of our grooming areas for the ponies. We then left her in it and just added a waterer & feeder. Don't remember if we used an intermediate pen before moving her to a puppy Xpen outside.
The puppy Xpen came from a local pet store and was originally used for actual puppies years earlier. As you can see, the chicks were able to get right out, so we "wrapped" it in chicken wire (didn't know any better at that time), added a protective "cover" of chicken wire, and used a simple wood nest box as their shelter. This was moved outside and stayed under a tree until they were much older. I no longer remember exactly when they were allowed to start free ranging with the rest of the flock. We had also added 8 blue Ameraucana chicks to this batch and Henny Penny raised them, along with the yellow barnyard Xs. The July pic is after they were moved into our 1st 8x8' hooped CP tractor.
Years later - some of our other brooder pics -
Remember the original Xpen - here it's inside our 8x8 tractor coop (now permanent in one spot) - there is a light for them that doesnt show in the picture Then a rabbit cage I made, up under our carport, has the barnyard Bantam hen w/ her own chicks this time. For a cover, they have the bottom of a medium sized plastic dog crate. It's about 2-1/2' x 3' (I think, would have to measure). I still use it for chicks, not the rabbits, LOL.
Here are rabbit cages that are partially covered w/ loomed hay string mats that I then tucked folded feed bags under for shade & weather protection. Then for the tractor runs I added new puppy Xpens. Started out just covering them with old sheets, then went to 2x4" wire.
And we also have a larger pvc tractor. The chix put in it were free ranging, bantam X chicks. They were hatched under a shelving unit in our carport and when MamaHen lost interest in caring for them, we caught them & put them in this pen (13 chicks). We moved it around the yard and for a while it did have a brooder light hooked up. I still currently have 4 cockerels in it that haven't been processed yet... 2 of the 3 hens are free ranging in our pasture with a cockerel from the year before. They roost on top of one of our 8x8' coops at night. I can't find any pics that I know I took of the pvc pen w/ the light hooked up.
Many options out there.
You could even move your coop/tractor up by your home or next to a shed/shop/garage with electricity so that you can use your warming system.
