people with house chickens

[drumstick diva]

Ducky'sgran you can post photos at " what breed or gender is this."

 

[Sylvester017]

This one has no pink at all and barely has a comb. I have nothing to really compare feathers with so I'm going with Hen until it crows!

Keep an eye on the tail feathers at around 2 months old and see if the video was any help that way. And whatever comb grows in will stay pale until point of lay for pullets and will be red by 2 months on the cockerels usually.

 

[HomeschoolPollo]

We have a 6 day old chick named Amber (my son is really into minerals and rocks). My 12 year old daughter hatched her from an egg we got when I picked up a dozen fresh eggs with a $10 lamp, plastic bin, a wet washcloth and her great faith. We had a second egg, but it wasn't fertilized. Amber hatched on day 25 and we are all overjoyed. Been handling her since day one and I am surprised by her sweetness. We are all in love and plan on raising her has a house pet. Can't wait to be able to read through all of your great stories here.

I do have a question about giving treats at this young age. Is it okay? She is crazy about hard boiled yokes and I want to use those to encourage her to sit in our laps, etc. I am trying to figure out what other training treats we could use at this young age that will be okay on her digestive system. When can she start having worms, etc? Looking to give her healthy treats to continue taming and training our sweet girl.

 

[DuckysGran]

We have an almost 2 month old that we've had since 2 days. It gives hugs and kisses, comes when called, and jumps around flapping when it sees my 7 year old! It's still on chicken starter and we've done meal worms and corn, but it's very picky! Scrambled eggs is a favorite too. But it just became real human like since we handle it and my daughter loves and plays with it everyday. They are very sweet animals and it even will sleep in my daughters arms while she watches tv. We have one rotten chicken!

 

[Sylvester017]

We have a 6 day old chick named Amber (my son is really into minerals and rocks). My 12 year old daughter hatched her from an egg we got when I picked up a dozen fresh eggs with a $10 lamp, plastic bin, a wet washcloth and her great faith. We had a second egg, but it wasn't fertilized. Amber hatched on day 25 and we are all overjoyed. Been handling her since day one and I am surprised by her sweetness. We are all in love and plan on raising her has a house pet. Can't wait to be able to read through all of your great stories here.

I do have a question about giving treats at this young age. Is it okay? She is crazy about hard boiled yokes and I want to use those to encourage her to sit in our laps, etc. I am trying to figure out what other training treats we could use at this young age that will be okay on her digestive system. When can she start having worms, etc? Looking to give her healthy treats to continue taming and training our sweet girl.

We have an almost 2 month old that we've had since 2 days. It gives hugs and kisses, comes when called, and jumps around flapping when it sees my 7 year old! It's still on chicken starter and we've done meal worms and corn, but it's very picky! Scrambled eggs is a favorite too. But it just became real human like since we handle it and my daughter loves and plays with it everyday. They are very sweet animals and it even will sleep in my daughters arms while she watches tv. We have one rotten chicken!

Chicks are a lot of fun. We were told to offer cut strawberry to our chick but she ignored it. She went nuts for soft cucumber seeds instead. Main thing with chicks or adults is not to give too many treats or they won't use their balanced nutrition feed. A fresh 1/4 tsp of chick starter in the palm of your hand works well too just because it was just poured into your hand. Chickens are funny in that they want the most recently doled out food first! Mealworms are fun for any chicken but some say it's too much protein and use sparingly as a treat. My chick was so busy eating her chick feed and grit non-stop I never needed to give her side treats. She was just naturally curious, exploring, sleeping on the warm computer keyboard, jumping on our shoulder, nibbling our hair or eyeglasses. Chicks are just the cutest.

 

[DuckysGran]

This is our Ducky she'll be 2 months old in 2 days, I'm saying she because I really don't want a rooster!!!

 

[HomeschoolPollo]

Our chick is now 19 days old and I have been using paper towels in the bottom of her brooder which is working fine. The brooder is kept in the kids bedroom. So I don't want pine shavings, etc. in the brooder. But wondering if there is something else I can use so she can dig because we are seeing that behavior now in her food dish. I thought somewhere I saw something about rice hulls? Any suggestions? Thanks so much.

The kids and I are really loving having our Amber. She is a joy.

 

[DuckysGran]

We put a box top, one of those kind of deep ones in for our Ducky with pine shavings in it. She digs around in it and it's not a huge mess, I do sweep and mop around her everyday or so just to keep them up and to keep the smell away. What do you do about yours using the bathroom?

 

[Skink]

I haven't used rice hulls, but because babies tend to make a water mess, I personally wouldn't. I'd be too worried about mold. Instead of pine shavings you can try pine horse stall pellets. They are compacted in to a pill form so they won't be scratched in to such a dusty mess, and they also won't get flung everywhere to cling to the carpet, clothes, bedding etc. You could also try newspaper pellets. I have not tried these myself but would like to. If it is less the mess and more the aromatic nature of pine you're worried about, you can try aspen chips instead. It has a much lighter smell and is not as "oily."

I find that after a certain point, it gets important to get them on to an at least sorta-particulate bedding like pine, aspen, or horse stall pellets.. I really prefer the paper towels for as long as I can keep it, but eventually they start shredding the paper towels within a short period of time, stuffing it in to their waterer if it is the type with a lip which drains it and makes a gross unhealthy swamp mess, and just generally making a huge problem! If a particulate bedding is a problem with the brooder in the kids' room, it sounds like the solution is going to be in a location change more than in trying beddings.

 

[HomeschoolPollo]

I change the paper towels daily. She runs around with us on and off all day and thankfully most of those poops are easy to clean up. The ones that aren't so easy to pick up get a squirt or two of a special cleaner we have that takes all the yucky mess up. She associates white towels with her favorite treat which is yoke. So it is pretty funny to watch her play tug of war with the white washcloth when I am attempting to clean up after her.