Ohhhhhhhhh dear, what have I done!?

[sparkles2307]

I just ordered 100 roo chicks from Cackle yesterday... and realized at 3:00 this morning that we dont have a brooder set up, feed, ANYTHING! I havent had baby chicks in so long, I cant remember what I need! We have an old water tank to use for the brooder, and a heat lamp. But whats the best bedding, how many waterers do 100 chicks need (we both work full time so they will be home alone 7-5 and need the water to last) oh dear I feel a bit like a first time mother all over again.... HELP!

 

[aidenbaby]

I don't know if a water tank is really going to be big enough for 100 chicks. Maybe, initially, it will work but not for long. You may want a second heat lamp.

Bedding - I use pine shavings. The first day or two you may want to put paper towels over the shavings until they figure out that they eat from the feeders and not to eat the shavings.

I'd get some of those strip feeders for that volume. As for the water, I'd get more than you think you need and keep the receipt to take extra back later.

 

[farmgirljen]

Oooohhhh, what did you order? i am expecting an orer from Cackle this week !

 

[sparkles2307]

I ordered the Frying Pan Special, which is, in essence, Cackle's way of sparing the lives of all their unwanted roo chicks by selling them in bulk for $0.31 each. Its a mixed breed package of large breed egg layers, mostly brown. Could be Aussies, Dottes, RIR, PR, BO, you name it. DH wanted butchering roos, I told him I would order these if he let me have my pick of the ones I like for my hens. DH works at a sunflower processing plant. We have access to birdseed/black oils, hulls, as well as the GINORMOUS triple thick cardboard boxes that are like, 6 ft by 6 ft so I may use some of those for brooders and just round out the corners to avoid squashing. I may see if we can get hulls for bedding after the boys learn to eat, hulls have traces of the oil from the black sunflowers and dont stick to the animals that bed down in them. Gold N Plump chicken is the biggest customer for Dahlgren's for these hulls to use as bedding. When I ran the scale there I weighed out 2-4 semis loads per day of hulls for Gold N Plump! Good to know that we have acess to several of the ingredients for home made feed too!

 

[m2wandc]

Purely Curious...how does one kill a rooster to eat? Still the old fashion way of ax and tree stump? Do they really run about without their heads? Sorry, I'm such a newbie and want to learn it all.

 

[sparkles2307]

Tee hee you know, I think I was planning to do it the old fashioned way... as a kid my brother and I loved chasing them around the field after dad gave them the axe. But DH knows of a place an hour from us that charges like, $3 per bird to butcher, dress, vaccum pack, and flash freeze. We might just go there. The old wives tale is that roos are tough and taste bad, but we never noticed a lick of difference.

 

[Judy]

Since you're going to be gone all day, you might think about some of those rabbit waterers. At least the water stays clean. (You know, they hang upside down, steel ball in tube they push out of the way.) My chicks prefer the old fashioned kind but will use them.

 

[sparkles2307]

Good idea, yes I used to raise rabbits, am very familiar with those