Our new chicks... Pics!

[jamiebartlett]

Well, Here they are.. a few weeks later. Feathering in and growing up! Ahh, So cute !

They are just about 4 weeks old now...

Golden Sexlink Pullet


Silver Lakenvelder Pullet 1


Silver Lakenvelder Pullet 2


Salmon Favorelle Pullet (she's been seperated - she got picked on today and has a bloody neck. Hope to reunite them in a couple days. Poor girl all alone!


Salmon Favorelle Cockarel


Rhode Island Red Pullet 1


Rhode Island Red Pullet 2


Barred Rock PUllet 1


Barred Rock Pullet 2


Amercauna Pullet


Their new division in the big coop! Safe from the 4 full grown hens...



If anyone thinks I have a cockarel instead of a pullet on any of my chicks above please let me know!! I only want one cockarel/rooster and that's the salmon favorelle! Happy Viewing! All images are clickable to be bigger.

 

[iopele]

Pretty chickies!

My chickens started pecking each other really bad a few months ago, and I read that if you hang a head of cabbage in their coop, they'll peck that instead. For some reason it's important to hang it rather than putting it on the ground or mounting it on the door (like with a nail) or something. Anyway, it really worked for my hens, and cabbage is cheap--you might try it!

Good luck with your chickens!

 

[jamiebartlett]

really? I may do that! How did you hang your cabbage? I hear string is a no-no in the coop.

Also, are they old enough for cabbage - 3-4 week old mixture in this group..

 

[iopele]

Yes, string is bad bad bad. Chickens will peck it up in an instant and then it binds their intestines and kills them by internal strangulation--a really bad way to go, too. *shudder*

To hang the cabbages, I took a screwdriver and jammed it through the base of the cabbage to make a hole, then put a piece of wire through it and wired the other end to the top of my pen. I'd imagine you could do pretty much the same thing with a wire coathanger hanger--make a hole somehow, hook it through, and attach it so it hangs fairly freely. I noticed my hens lost interest in the heads after a couple days when it started getting soft, so I replaced it every other day. They pecked the heck out of those cabbages, too!

Good luck!

 

[iopele]

Hmm, 3-4 weeks old might be too young. Another reason chicks will peck is overcrowding. At 4 weeks old, they should be kept in a run that provides 1 square foot of space per chick. This ensures that runts and less dominant chicks have space to get away from those higher in the pecking order. At that age they also want to roost, and they should have... oh, I can't find my book, but I'm pretty sure it's 3" of roosting space per chick... grah, maybe it was 4". I'll look for the book, it's Storey's Guide To Raising Chickens and it's EXCELLENT.

Another thing that sometimes causes pecking is bad feed--either a bag that's got low protein content (we've gotten some of those this year, which is why our hens were pecking) or has gotten moldy. I'd recommend getting a brand new bag of food with a different lot number than the one you're using now--while the cabbage definitely helped keep them from killing each other, getting rid of all our food and getting new bags of different lot numbers was the only thing that made my hens FINALLY stop the pecking obsession.

Oh, and overcrowding at feeders and waterers can really cause pecking, too. To make sure you've got enough feeder and waterer space, make sure there's 1" of space per chick. (if you've got 25 chicks, you need a waterer that's at least 25" long or 25" around, and same for food. if the chicks can get on either side of it, like with one of those long metal feeders with open holes to peck through on each side, you measure both sides--so for 25 chicks, 12.5" long feeder. Make sense?)

Some pecking is normal, but if they're making one chick bleed, it's definitely worth looking into. And you're right to keep that chick out until it's healed and feathered over, because if the others see/smell blood, they'll keep at that one until they kill it. Good luck!

 

[jamiebartlett]

Tomorrow I will go to the co-op and get new feeders and waterers that are bigger than that, that I also can hang.

I did just open this bag of food 2 days ago. HMM....

This is very stressful! I must have had beginners luck last year because it was sooo easy!

Sigh.. Thanks!

 

[jamiebartlett]

Is there any "instant" proteiN I can give them tonight??

 

[iopele]

Egg yolks! Hard boil some eggs, then take out the yolks and crumble them up. (And you could also take this opportunity to hand-feed them because they love it, and they'll remember that "the good stuff comes from that great big featherless funny-looking chicken!") Egg yolk is high in protein and really really good for the babies--well, I guess it would be, since it's what they "ate" in the egg, lol! Another "just for now" measure you can do with food is to get a saucer or a shallow dish and put feed in it. They'll make a mess and waste a lot of the feed, but it gives them that extra space until you can put in more feeders. If you've got a heavy but somewhat shallow bowl, you can do the same with water--you'll want it to be very heavy, though, so they don't knock it over. Pottery or terra cotta works fairly well.

About beginners' luck... you know, my family's had chickens since I was a little bitty kid *mumbledysomething* years ago, and we've never had a bad batch of feed until this year. Makes me wonder if that stuff that's been in the dog and cat food might've made it into chicken feed, too. The tainted gluten in the dog/cat food was laced with a type of plastic that artificially raised the protein content of the gluten in tests. Might explain why we got 20% protein feed, yet had hens literally eating each other because they were starving for protein. Just a guess on my part.

Oh, and while you're at the feed store, check and see if they've got a copy of the Storey's Guide you can buy. It is THE best book on raising chickens, in my opinion. TONS of info and easy to understand. I would be lost without it. If the feed store doesn't have it, you can order it from Amazon.com (now let's see if I can make a link work lol) http://www.amazon.com/Storeys-Guide-Raising-Chickens-Facilities/dp/158017325X

 

[jamiebartlett]

Thank you so much! Im boiling eggs now and will make some adjustments in there tonight which includes adding another waterer I have on standby.

I borrowed the storreys guide to chicken and read it all, returned it to the library. Seriously thinking about buying one now!

Thank You!
Jamie

 

[iopele]

You're very welcome! Make sure and keep updating because I want to know how your babies are doing, especially the one with the boo-boo!