Please advise on meat bird chicks

[Xouie]

X3 on paper towels for first few days, sprinkle food onto floor. Keep area small until you are sure they know where food and water are. Add a makeshift divider to shrink your broader at first. Dip each individual birds beak into water as you place them into brooder.
Most hatcheries have a hold for pickup at post office instructions with chicks. You could confirm with Welp.

Will definitely email Welp about their procedure. And thanks for telling me about beak dipping. A lot like turkeys.

 

[Xouie]

We keep ours in the brooder as long as they are comfortable there or you can’t stand the smell every morning.

That’s how we decide the quail are ready to move out of the house — when they’re ripe enough!

 

[Xouie]

This advice — every single thing — is golden. I can’t thank you all enough. I’m still nervous but at least I won’t be an absolute wreck when they arrive next week. Welp says they will ship Tuesday so I should have them Thursday morning.

 

[Ridgerunner]

On picking them up. Talk to your post office ahead of time to see what their pick-up procedure is and where you need to go if it's before they open for business. I had to go to the back and ring a bell, I was not allowed to just walk in due to security reasons. The front was locked as they were not opened.

They should ship with instructions for the post office to call you for pick-up when they arrive so the hatchery needs your phone number and you need to be able to hear that phone ring. Some postmasters wait until people have had time to wake up, some don't. Ask your post office what that policy is, what time of the day might you get that call. Deliveries arrive at different times.

I did not notice how many you are getting. That 2x6 brooder is decent size to start with but they grow fast. You don't want to cook them in the brooder any more than you want to freeze them. Your goal is to have one area of that brooder warm enough in the coolest temperatures and an area cool enough in the warmest conditions. The brooder does not need to be uniformly the same temperature. Just like people some chicks might prefer it a little warmer than others. Give them that option. In a climate controlled house that should be pretty easy. Instead of worrying about specific temperatures, watch their behaviors. They will tell you if they are too hot or too cold. As long as they have a range of temperatures, this part is not hard, they do all the work.

 

[jolenesdad]

Im not totally against your plate and lamp use in a 6x2 setup.... There's two modes of acceptable heating, "brooder" spot heating, and whole house heating. In an appropriate brooder you can go for whole house heating, and, I find it has been far more successful for me than brooder-style hot spot heating with broiler chicks. Brooder style heating should have a range from 85-100 degrees between hot and cool spots, and, whole house heating should be 90 degrees. The issue with too much heat or heating an entire space, is that people go TOO high, over 90 degrees. Whole house heating is more intense for management and setup to ensure you aren't over cooking your birds.... but I actually do think it's better. If you wanted to use the plate and the lamp, or if you can't get the lamp to heat enough space, I would heat the entire brooder to 85 degrees with the light, and then have the plate providing the higher temperatures.

I saved this in my note folder. It's got hubbards recommended temperatures for raising broilers.

I also saw in my notes that you should check the crops of the birds at 8 and 24 hours. at 8 hours, at least 80% of the birds should have a completely full crop. At 24 hours, 96% of the birds should have a full crop. If it is less than this, you need to reassess your feeders.

 

[Tre3hugger]

@Xouie welcome to the wacky delicious world of cornish x!! I think your initial plan looks good, and the advice on this thread so far has been awesome! I recommend record keeping to an extent of you are interested in the statistics\efficiency and comparing subsequent batches. I mostly kept my records in threads.

Post often, ask questions, and keep us updated!

 

[Compost King]

I mostly kept my records

I do a poor job of record keeping but when I made a thread about my breeding projects a couple of years ago I discovered that it helped a lot and now if I need to look something up I previously did I just look up my old thread. @Tre3hugger just gave out the best advice on that.

 

[Xouie]

Ok the broiler booster already arrived. Also ordered some sav-a-chick and chick grit from TSC. I’m going to use the plate/lamp combo that I’m used to for providing variable heat for chicks since our local temps have cooled suddenly. DH wants to start these chicks indoors though like we do with the quail. Well that will be an interesting aroma.

Just a few MORE questions.....

Should I give sugar water just the first day?
Is sav-a-chick appropriate to substitute for the sugar water?
When should I start the broiler booster and how often?
When do I start offering grit?

I’ve hatched birds by the hundreds, but the hatchery/shipping realm is still new. It’s like starting all over again. Thanks all!

 

[Tre3hugger]

I offer the broiler booster from their very first drink. I'm afraid that's the only one I can answer for you because that is the only extra th ing I offer mine! I give booster 5 days a week when they are in the brooder. Then less as they get older.

 

[jolenesdad]

Ok the broiler booster already arrived. Also ordered some sav-a-chick and chick grit from TSC. I’m going to use the plate/lamp combo that I’m used to for providing variable heat for chicks since our local temps have cooled suddenly. DH wants to start these chicks indoors though like we do with the quail. Well that will be an interesting aroma.

Just a few MORE questions.....

Should I give sugar water just the first day?
Is sav-a-chick appropriate to substitute for the sugar water?
When should I start the broiler booster and how often?
When do I start offering grit?

I’ve hatched birds by the hundreds, but the hatchery/shipping realm is still new. It’s like starting all over again. Thanks all!

I lightly top off the food trays with grit from the beginning for a couple of days and then once a week or so. I only do this with my broilers.

I offer the broiler booster every day in the brooder and the grow out pen (up to like 4 weeks) and then I give it every few days.