Hi everyone! Like a lot of people here I'm new to raising chickens. I work at a broiler hatchery so I'll never be posting who I actually am because my company has strict bio security rules and I'm currently breaking them by having chicks at my home. A relative has a backyard flock with no chick experience so I'm brooding these chicks until they're big enough to be integrated into her flock. We only hatch certain days of the week and if healthy chicks accidentally get left behind when going out to the farms, I've been rescuing them from being culled. I'm supposed to cull them because I've been told that once they've left the hot hatchers, they won't do well if I were to place them back inside with the next hatching set because it would be about 2-3 days before they'd be taken out and sent to the farms to grow. I assume this to be true because 2 day old chicks of this broiler breed as so much bigger already than day old chicks. If anyone can prove this rule wrong please tell me. I've got two 3 week old female chicks and two 2 week old chicks right now. I think one of the 2 week old chicks is a female and the other is a male. So far everything has been going great. Before these 4 chicks I tried brooding 3 others and they all died. The first one died because I didn't have proper heating at the time and couldn't keep it warm enough. The other two came home with me the next week and they stopped growing in size at 2 weeks and then died at 3 weeks old. I woke up on morning to both of them dead. I think something was internally wrong with them, like maybe they couldn't metabolize the chick starter properly or something. Does anyone has an ideas as to why them died? Their poops looked normal and their wings were half feathered but they never grew tail pins. The two 3 week old chicks that I currently have grew their tail pins and have feathers breaking through already. I already like these chicks a lot and have named them all. They stay inside my home 24/7 and love the mirror that I put in their brooder. I actually have to move them to a bigger container today because as of yesterday the older chicks are finally big enough to jump out. I came home to poop everywhere lol. Does anyone have any suggestions for cleaning cecal poop out of carpet?
Probably best to burn the carpeting and start over! Just kidding, I'm guessing it is not indoor/outdoor carpeting that can be hosed off.
We're glad you joined us! So I know you are new to chickens and you work at a hatchery, I'm glad you are trying to save the ones that are going to be culled for no reason, that's just cruel what some people do because they missed packing them. As you can see in my signature post down below I'm an animal lover! I have about 21 chickens right now, including babies and roosters. Have you tried a wet towel with some cleaner for cleaning the carpet? All you really need to do with that is scrub it good with a good cleaner and it should come right up. I'm not sure why your baby's died. Did you notice them sneezing a lot? They could have had a cold, or the bird flu. There are a lot of reasons why babies die, and adults. The temperature that should be kept for them is 96 degrees for week old and 2 week old chicks, then 90 degrees for 3-4 week old chicks, and so on until it reaches your current tempeture. They should be around 6-7 weeks old when they no longer need a source of heat. Also don't ever use I think it's pine needle shavings, those are poisonous to babies and will kill them. If you have any questions or things you would like to know about raising chickens, please ask me. I'd be happy to help. I have had to deal with a lot of chicken problems, and have done a lot of research. I think to much. Again CherriesBrood~
Hello! Welcome to BYC and the coop! There's a lot of great peeps here! Feel free to ask lots of questions. But most of all, make yourself at home. I'm so glad you decided to joined the BYC family. I look forward to seeing you around BYC.
Lol I wish I could do that. Unfortunately I live in an apartment so that would definitely mean no return on my security deposit.
