Pasting up in newborn chicks

[ChickensAreSweet]

Also here is a chick care guide by one hatchery- I think a lot of the hatcheries have this information and more as a service:

It might be helpful for you or you might already know it all:
http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/chickcare.html

 

[Chickens in the Grove]

I don't know the exact temp of my brooder. I know, I know, bad! The one thing my boyfriend was supposed to do was pick up a thermometer and he didn't do it! So we've been trying to adjust the best we can until we actually get one (which we're SUPPOSED to do today). The lamp we have is too cold. My best guess would be around 10 degrees. So, that's why we put the space heater in. We're trying to find another lamp to put next to the first one and have to combined temperature be somewhere between 90 and 100, but so far no luck. I didn't realize how few lamps we had in the house! (two, to be exact, one of which is already hovering over the brooder).

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

If they are super, super fuzzie, you can also trim around the vent area with tiny scissors. My silkies always have to be trimmed about down to the skin or they paste up everyday. Once I get all that fuzz away from their vent we have less of a problem. Thier real feathers are not affected by the fuzz trimming.

Good luck!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote:
Home Depot has clamp-on lamps for $5-10 each. I brood with two 100 watt bulbs (although many on this board say that you should have a red lamp to discourage picking). Make sure you secure the lamps with two methods so they don't fall on the shavings and start a fire. I put the bulbs about 18 inches to 2 feet high off the shavings and move them up or down.

I am afraid of the heat lamp bulbs because they get so hot.

The chicks should be in a circle around the lamp or moving happily around, not huddled under the lamp and not the farthest away possible.

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

I got my brooder light at the pet store. It was designed to be a heat lamp for reptiles. It has a dimmer built into the cord. Instead of rearranging and reclamping the lights everytime I need to make a temp adjustment, I just turn the knob. It is super easy and wasn't all that expensive if I recall. It looks just like the brooder lights I originally got. Those came from the co-op. They were way too hot and weren't very stable. The reptile light is stable. I twist tie the cord to the brooder kennel in several places and it's not going anywhere!

 

[Chickens in the Grove]

I just washed them, though! I decided I'd start with the standards because they didn't have it as bad as my bantam. So, I got the Wyandotte first because I thought she'd be the easiest. The Belgian d'Anvers are the easiest to handle, but my Wyandotte will fall asleep in my hands if I pick her up. But she was the worst to wash, though! She pooped on me when I turned the water on and then again on the towel when I was trying to dry her off. Next was the Sussex and she wasn't so bad. The Polish I did next. I thought she was the worst, but she turned out to be the easiest! She doesn't like change. She guards the other chicks whenever I check in on them and tries to steal the newspaper from me when I change out their litter. She was actually the best, though! She fell asleep in the water. It was so cute! My poor little d'Anver didn't like it, though. She's the best about being held up-side-down, so she was the easiest to hold, but the worst to blow dry. None of them liked the blow dryer...

But now they're all clean!

I'm so excited. I should have done that sooner. I shouldn't be so worried about them. I helped deliver and raise a litter of kittens last year (the mom was a stray and too young to do much herself). But chickens are so much more self-sufficient than cats! I'm so impressed with them!

I will try pecking at their food for them. I do that with my cats when I feed them something new and it works really well. I'd tried it a little with the chicks, but I didn't think they were catching on. I'll definitely try to do it more, though!

 

[Chickens in the Grove]

Quote:
Home Depot has clamp-on lamps for $5-10 each. I brood with two 100 watt bulbs (although many on this board say that you should have a red lamp to discourage picking). Make sure you secure the lamps with two methods so they don't fall on the shavings and start a fire. I put the bulbs about 18 inches to 2 feet high off the shavings and move them up or down.

I am afraid of the heat lamp bulbs because they get so hot.

The chicks should be in a circle around the lamp or moving happily around, not huddled under the lamp and not the farthest away possible.

I have one 100-watt light bulb, which is probably why it's not hot enough. It's not specifically for animals, but it has s metal rim around it. They really do seem fine with the heat right now, though. We spent a lot of time carefully adjusting it. They're not panting, they don't huddle together all the time, they don't try to escape the light. They seem really content. At first it was too cold and they were all huddled under the lamp, then they were too hot and all on the other side of the brooder, but several adjustments later I'm pretty sure we have a happy medium. I'm just worried about the humidity levels.

 

[swordgeek]

I picked up a couple of these when I first got chicks. http://www.agway.com/catalog/home_a...mps/12100093_infrared_heat_lamp_red_250w.html. After reading about cannibalism from too much white light, I decided better red than dead.

The first bulb would have lasted the entire time I had the chicks under heat restrictions, and then some, except my kid whacked into it and shattered it early on. (I never did get a straight answer out of her how she managed that, considering it was HANGING.) We used the clip-on shield thingie that goes with it, and never had a problem. It was nice to be able to clip the lamp onto things at different heights as the birds needed less heat. At about 10 bucks per bulb, at first I balked at the price (bokked?

) but it was well worth the investment.

I still keep one in the coop to turn on for a few hours when it's super cold outside. I clipped it high up in one corner, and it gives off enough heat to keep the coop from freezing over, without it getting actually warm (so there's no shock to their system when they go outside). In 2.5 years, I'm on my third bulb. Well, fourth if you count the kid-shattered one.

 

[Chickens in the Grove]

Alright, there are now THREE lamps over the brooder. Two standing (one with a lamp shade made out of tin foil) and one hanging from the ceiling. We got a thermometer and it is 90 degrees in the middle of the lights! It looks rather strange, but they don't seem to mind

 

[ParadiseFoundFarm]

Been There - Done That - Learned This:

1) Check Butts Every Day as often as you can,
2) Run But area Under WARM water ( as previously instructed on this thread) to soften.
3) Remove Poop.
If all the feathers come off with it so be it - that one will no longer Paste UP.
You are not harming them.
They hardly make a chirp.
4) Dry , Then Hold it until it is perfectly warm and comfy.
5) Put the darling in with the rest and start at the top with the next one.

Did this 5+ times day & night on 27 chicks.
They stopped Pasting up in a couple of weeks but I still checked them every day for 4 weeks.
Lost none and they still come to me for comfort and protection. I WAS worried that I'd hurt them when the fluff came off but I was advised by some one with more experience to do it this way AND before I stopped worrying about pulling off the fluff, their little behinds were getting raw.