Newborns! Advice?

[sarahsark]

Hello everyone,

I'm not a new chick owner but I've never owned chicks this young before. I got my first flock of chickens at 1 week old and this current flock of chickens I got at 1 week, 10 days old.

Anyway, I'm currently awaiting the arrival of my newborn Silkies. They are due to hatch on or around June 12. (Me -

)

The breeder has them all in an incubator and has done this several times before. She was unconcerned about how little they will be and told me that she'll call me as soon as they have all finished hatching, and I can come pick up mine as soon as they're dry, that very day.

I'm terribly excited about it - these will be my first ever Silkies - but I'm just as nervous and frightened... I've never in my life even personally seen an hours old newborn chick in real life, let alone held one, certainly never raised one!

I need any and all tips and advice concerning newborns. I have their heater, I have a warm and draft free place to put them indoors for the first couple of months, I have all the supplies I need. Is there anything extra I need to do for the first week or two?

Oh, and guys, please, please, please wish me lots of luck!

 

[Mahonri]

Sounds like you are ready to go.

GOOD LUCK! You'll do fine and the younger they are, the cuter they are.

 

[m2wandc]

my silkies were 3 days old when I got them and they were literally the size of a golf ball! Teeny...

I mostly worried about them drowning in the water...so I added rocks / pebbles (some people use marbles) to the water so there was areas inbetween for them to get water, but not any gaps where they could fall asleep in the water head down and drown.

 

[m2wandc]

also some people think having them on paper towels for the first week is better then shavings...I put mine on shavings right away because I never read that until it was too late...and my chicks did just fine...

...I also offer grit right from the get go, because I found with all of my chicks their crops get really too full with just starter mash...I thought they might be eating the shavings, but then read that many baby chicks just eat too much and their crop is engorged...so grit can't hurt...they'll eat it and it's fine if they do...if they were with their mother outside they'd peck at the dirt which is a natural grit.

 

[sealsandwich]

I laughed reading your post. I love it when people are excited about their new babies!! You're gonna do just fine.

Good luck and love it!

 

[firedove]

If you use starter crumbles they will probably have to be ground up smaller for the Silkie chicks. Little tiny bantam chicks like that often can't handle the crumbles at first. If your starter is more of a powdery look then you should be fine just providing them with that. Make sure your chicks can easily reach the food and water and as mentioned by m2wandc you will probably want to put something in the waterer to make it shallow enough that the chicks won't drown themselves or each other in that first week or two. I do usually use paper towels on the bottom of the brooder for the first few days. It allows your chicks to learn where proper food is (instead of trying to eat the shavings) and it allows you to keep an eye on their pooping. Poop gets lost in the shavings and I like to be sure my newborns are pooping normally in those first few days.

The most important thing to remember is to love your chickies! They will bring you lots of joy!

 

[sarahsark]

Thank you, everyone!

 

[sarahsark]

Quote:
A golf ball?!

Holy Jeebus!!

 

[sarahsark]

Quote:
Oh, I will! I'm loving it already and driving everyone crazy about it and they're not yet born!

 

[m2wandc]

Quote:
A golf ball?!

Holy Jeebus!!

Yup...we called them golf balls (and the kids still do) because we haven't named them yet...

Our big girls were "Betty Lou & Besty Sue" or something like that, but it never stuck, so "ogre and buffy" appear to be what names are sticking??? guessing the silkies might be stuck with 'golf ball' for both of them???

I'm guessing once they are all fully feathered we'll come up with 'real names' LOL