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Chyatt24

Chyatt24

In the Brooder
5 Years
Aug 4, 2014
47
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Hi, my name is Christina, and I'm new on this forum (and new to chickens!) I'm currently waiting for my order of chicks from Chickensforbackyards.com. I've ordered three different chicks that I think will be good starter chickens and egg layers: 1 Buff Orpington, 1 Silver Laced Wyandotte, and 1 Light Brahma, all females. I think they should be arriving August 8-9th, so I'm very excited :) Since I'm completely new to this, I've got a lot of questions despite all my research, so if anyone is able to answer them, it would be much appreciated!
We've got a large plastic bin set up for the chicks, with pine shavings for bedding and a heat lamp and water dispenser. As far as chick starter goes, should we get medicated chick starter or just regular? I also read that mixing a small amount of plain yogurt and a little warm water with the chick starter helps to prevent pasty butt. Does anyone know if this is true? We're still looking for a good coop as well. We're located in Maine, so we have very cold winters, so we need a coop that will hold up against Maine weather and will keep our chickens warm once they're living outside. Any ideas for insulating the coop once it gets cold?
Any other tips/advice would be wonderful!
Thanks!
~Christina
 
Welcome from the Ocean State!

I start mine out on medicated starter feed for the first few weeks. As far as pasty butt, I find some ACV in their water does the trick.

Check out the Learning Center and keep posting any questions you have.
 
Welcome to BYC! Please make yourself at home and we are here to help.

Good luck with your flock!

If your chicks were vaccinated then you defiantly don't have to feed them medicated feed. Chicks don't need medicated feed necessarily. But that's up to you. Just remember that they only need it for their first month.

I've never heard about that yogurt thing. But as long as they have water and are warm, they shouldn't get pasty butt. (Just watch out for it.) ACV also is wonderful!

I'm no good with coop tips but you could ask about insulation here
https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/9/coop-run-design-construction-maintenance

Glad you joined and best of luck!
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Last edited:
Thank you all! My chicks are going to be vaccinated, so I'm not sure if we'll do the medicated chick starter or not. I'm not sure if I'm missing something very obvious here or if this will sound stupid, but..what is ACV? :p
 
Hello there and welcome to BYC!
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Congrats on the soon to arrive chicks! If they are vaccinated for Coccidiosis, do not feed medicated feed or you will cancel out the vaccine. So you would want to go with non medicated feed.

The first thing you want to do is dip their beaks in the water in the brooder when you get them. Pasty butt is generally caused from dehydration. So you might hold off on the feed for 30 mins so you know everybody has water in them. Probiotics are an excellent thing to help with pasty butt and the immune systems. It really gets them off to a good start in life. I start all chicks on probiotics for the first 6 weeks of life. You can use pet probiotics or human probiotics. If you go with the human kind, just empty a capsule into a plastic quart waterer, disard the capsule and fill the waterer full. Make a new batch daily.

Apple Cider Vinegar will help as well if you don't have probiotics. 3/4 teaspoon per quart of water, plastic only, change and make new daily.

Here is a nice article on raising your new babies for the first 2 months...https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/...ks-the-first-60-days-of-raising-baby-chickens

Enjoy your new babies and welcome to our flock!
 
Welcome to BYC! Glad you decided to join our flock. You have been given some good advice and links by the other BYC members. Please feel free to ask any other questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Good luck with your flock.
 

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