new poults!

[birdbrain5]

we hatched our first 5 poults between yesterday and this morning! i waited until they were dry to move them out in the garage in the brooder. i have a brooder with a wire bottom that i divided and have chicks on one side and the poults and two chicks on the other. i put the two chicks in with the poults because i have read they will teach the poults how to eat and drink. i dipped thier beaks in the water and they seemed to have drank a bit when i did that. i will repeat that a few times today. the chicks i have seen eating but the poults dont seem to know to. is there anything else i need to do to ensure they stay healthy and whatnot? i am feeding a 24% game bird feed at the moment because tractor supply didnt have anything higher than that. i will try to find a 28% feed monday. am i missing anything or does this sound alright?! dont want anything to go wrong!
thanks!

ETA: i have a red heat lamp pointed to one corner also, it reading almost 100 degrees but they have room to go to the other end where its cooler.

 

[GJ_Kate]

Sounds good to me. I don't think my poults ate much the first day or so.
Good luck!

 

[MissTurkey4]

I like to spinkle food all over the floor of the brooder to encourage eating. Put some paper towels down over your wire bottom, then the food. Anything colorful in the water helps drinking. Foil, marbels colored plastic, orange gatoraid.

 

[kuntrygirl]

I had a single poult that hatched and didn't eat much at all. This is what I did. See the link below.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=466253

 

[seabreeze]

We put our chicks in with the new poults and the chicks are the best teachers EVER!!

 

[A.T. Hagan]

I'll usually hatch a few chicks with each batch of poults and they teach the turkeys where the feed and water is. This last batch however was only turkeys. With those poults I dipped each one of their beaks three or four times over the course of the day then set them down into their feed every time. By the end of the day every one of them were drinking properly. That first day none of them will eat much, but by the second day they were all eating regularly.