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- #21
Carwile Chicks
Songster
- Dec 16, 2020
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Awesome...thx!WELCOME!!!! I've got deep south ladies so the weather for me could very well be different from your locale, but step one is always the same: to keep them warm but not too warm (I know, I know.... duuuuhhhhh).
I use a heat lamp for my little guys because I have about 10 of them and they still work, but I do intend on upgrading to a heat plate. I'm also the crazy chicken lady type that raises the babies in the house for the first 4 - 6 weeks. I get so much happiness from hearing the constant chirping.
Added benefit to having them close is acclimating them to your presence. We hold them, clean pasty butts if they appear, and talk to them any time we're close by.
As for housing once they're big girls..... everybody else is already pointing you to the best options that I know of. Modify or build out your own house for them. Our current coops are built tractor style so that they can fertilize our pasture land while they roost. They'll free range all day and put themselves to bed so it works very well for us.
We've got several different style feeders and each have their use cases. The babies get the good ol' tractor supply favorite rectangular one with multiple holes and the adults get a long trough style. For waterers we start them with the most shallow reservoir we can find, and to be extra cautious we never put it anywhere but in the center of their brood box. We lost a couple to crush drownings in one of our early groups. The shallowest ones we've found in our area are the little quart screw on waterers from TSC. They're Little Giant brand and clean out very easily.
There are a lot of newbie help topics to break everything down even further for you here; and some threads will give you serious inspiration as far as coops go. My crew believes in the "magic water" (ACV, garlic, and honey mixed in for intestinal health) and your greatest initial challenge will be drafts at this time of year.
SO WELCOME TO THE FLOCK AGAIN, AND BEST OF LUCK WITH YOUR NEW BABIES!!!!! Share some pictures every now and then too, please!!!
