- Mar 19, 2013
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Hi guys. I'm completely new to looking after chicks/chickens. My daughter nursery has hatched some and after chatting to her nursery worker about our plans to get some chickens for a back garden they offered us some of the chicks to adopt....so now we are due to collect 3 little female chicks who will be just over a week old in a few days. What do I do with them?? How much can they be handled?
I was planning to get a large plastic storage box (the kind with a lid that clips shut because we have cats) and drill air holes in the sides. We don't have a suitable outdoors space to keep them in so we were going to keep them in our spare room...which is small and warm so will I need a heat lamp? I'm quite concerned about having one in the house as its a fire hazard. Are there any alternative heat sources? Ideally non-electical ones...Can I use something like a not water bottle along with having the radiator on?
And what should I put inside their little home? Would straw be ok? Or a towel? or shredded paper?
We are in the process of setting up a coop outside. At what point should the chicks go out there? And when they will they be able to live with other fully grown chickens because we were originally going to get some rescue chickens (ex battery farm chickens) but we aren't sure if we can combine the two sets of chickens?
And lastly, How likely is it that one or more of the chicks will die? I don't know how common it is for them to pass away once they've reached this age? I just want to prepare for how to deal with it if my children discover a dead chick.
Sorry about the super long post..hopefully someone much more experience can help a newbie with the best intentions to take care of some little chicks!
I was planning to get a large plastic storage box (the kind with a lid that clips shut because we have cats) and drill air holes in the sides. We don't have a suitable outdoors space to keep them in so we were going to keep them in our spare room...which is small and warm so will I need a heat lamp? I'm quite concerned about having one in the house as its a fire hazard. Are there any alternative heat sources? Ideally non-electical ones...Can I use something like a not water bottle along with having the radiator on?
And what should I put inside their little home? Would straw be ok? Or a towel? or shredded paper?
We are in the process of setting up a coop outside. At what point should the chicks go out there? And when they will they be able to live with other fully grown chickens because we were originally going to get some rescue chickens (ex battery farm chickens) but we aren't sure if we can combine the two sets of chickens?
And lastly, How likely is it that one or more of the chicks will die? I don't know how common it is for them to pass away once they've reached this age? I just want to prepare for how to deal with it if my children discover a dead chick.
Sorry about the super long post..hopefully someone much more experience can help a newbie with the best intentions to take care of some little chicks!
