Paper or no paper?

[KatM]

We decided to raise chickens, did our research first and ordered a hardy breed (Light Braham). Sounded like a fun project. Then reality set in. We'll be getting 25 female chickens in about 3 weeks. Yikes! The more I read, the more difficult this whole endeavour sounds. One hatchery recommends paper on top of the shavings for the first three days (which makes perfect sense to me b/c they won't be tempted to eat the shavings), another hatchery strongly discourages any kind of paper because their legs could be deformed. Again, that point makes also sense to me.
Any preference here on this forum? Any words of encouragment for a newbie who feels she's in over her head? Also, should the dogs be introduced to the chickens at any given point?

 

[MayberrySaint]

Congrats on your new order...Light Brahmas are a wonderful breed. I have 7 in my coop right now.
I didn't use paper but instead used some old towels and laid them over the shavings. Removed them after 3 days and the chicks seemed to do real well. Others on the forum recommend using paper towels instead of newspaper. The newspaper gets slick and can lead to leg problems.

Andy

 

[Saltiena]

use paper, but not newspaper (it screws up the toes and feet, thell slip) but just use some paper towels, i hope this helps, im going through the same thing you are, exept were getting 30!

 

[equine chick]

Take a deep breath and relax. I like to use paper towels over shavings the first few days, the ones with grippers on them, like those blue shop paper towels. Once they get used to eating/drinking out of the chick trough i then just use fine/mod pine shavings. Congrats and good luck.

 

[KatM]

Thank you so much, now I can take a deep breath and go back to being giddy about those chickens coming in.

Although I'll probably have a bunch of questions down the road.

 

[therealshari]

Our babies were in such great shape, we went straight to pine shavings in the coop. We made a large brooder that can be size adjusted one more time before they take over the entire coop.

Pics are in our blog.

Tomorrow they'll be one week old and I'll be fluffing and adding more chips. I'm also going to adjust the brooder size and add a couple of "roosts".

I we can, we're going to see if we can get the ladder in and actually suspend the 3# feeder. I saw one little guy trying to roost on it tonight and it's already sitting on a 2x4.

Today we removed the seals from around the window "shutters". It's as hot outside as it is inside the coop. We even turned the light off for a while. Would you believe? They started to go to sleep!

Shari

 

[cgjsmith]

There now that wasn't so bad was it LOL. Welcome to the obsess...umm hobby. I was alot like that a few months ago and now I can't stop (so says my hubby and I guess he is right considering we started with 12 and now have over 60

counting eggs as well

) Crystal

 

[samara]

Great blog, cute chicks!!
Samara

 

[therealshari]

Thanks Samara,

Also, I really enjoyed the chat last night... will have to do that again in a couple of weeks.

This weekend is a "horse" one... Clinton Anderson is coming to our area, so four of us gals are headed that way on both Saturday and Sunday.

I'm off to get pics and get the blog updated again.

Shari

 

[CoyoteMagic]

I've given up on the shavings. Bought 3 RI Red & 3 Black sex-links on Saturday at the farm supply. The sex-links for some reason like to borrow down in the wood shavings. I mean borrow down until all that is left above the shavings is their little head. I lost 2 of them over night because of this. Everyone else just laid on top of them.

I've got one more that looks like she's going to be a "special needs". She was doing the borrowing too and now looks like she has a crick in her neck. She even has to stand sideways to get food out of the feeder!

Hubby bought me 4 more at the farm supply to replace the 2 I lost.

Papertowels for now on!