Preparing for my girls!

[danver]

Bare skin contact with fresh feces is the way this most typically happens - again fairly rare in our country but bare feet in the back yard always make us stop and think.

 

[callen0912]

Yes we de worm twice a year. If you have small children this is a particularly important thing to do... (roundworms can cause blindness in children) look for Strike III @ TSC add to the feed no "lay off" for egg consumption. It is an important thing to do for the health of the flock. Remember you are now part of that flock.

I do have small children. Thank you so much for this info!

 

[wornoutmomto3]

What everyone has been saying about bedding and food sounds great. A good starter crumble with the chicks on pine shavings.
I don't know if you have purchased your chicks yet or not, but I thought I could help illustrate how truly small day old chicks are. In the picture below there is a 1 week difference in age. These two ended up growing up together and did just fine. I even had a two month old pullet care for some foundling chicks my neighbor found after her lawn guy accidently startled the hen off the nest as they were hatching. (She was hiding under an old rundown mower, and refused to accept the chicks after all was said and done.) In both of those cases everything worked out because of the personality of the older birds. However, there are apparent risks involved. Can you imagine what one more week in age difference can do? Older birds can be more aggressive, day-old chicks are still a bit wobbly on their feet, and then there are disease issues. Trust me you do NOT want to risk an infection of any kind taking out your flock. Keep the chicks separate until the youngsters are older and you are 100% certain that there no disease risking the health of your birds.

 

[TexasChicken12]

Wether or not to get medicated feed depends on if the chicks were vaccinated against the illnesses that the feed is guarding against or not. If they were vaccinated and you give them medicated feed it will render the vaccines useless. Hope this helps!

 

[wornoutmomto3]

Wether or not to get medicated feed depends on if the chicks were vaccinated against the illnesses that the feed is guarding against or not. If they were vaccinated and you give them medicated feed it will render the vaccines useless. Hope this helps!

I thought medicated feed helped prevent coccidia outbreaks. What about Mareks disease? Will feeding a medicated feed to chicks only vaccinated against Mareks negate that vaccine also?

 

[Mauka]

I thought medicated feed helped prevent coccidia outbreaks. What about Mareks disease? Will feeding a medicated feed to chicks only vaccinated against Mareks negate that vaccine also?

From what I understand, the only way to prevent mareks (medically) is by vaccination. Medicated food is for coccidia, not mareks. If you feed it to a chick vaccinated for that and mareks it will only render the coccidia useless.

 

[Ocala RIR]

lol! Mine are day 10 now and do try to roost. They will pass out with their heads hanging down.

 

[wornoutmomto3]

lol! Mine are day 10 now and do try to roost. They will pass out with their heads hanging down.

Too funny! Mine are only 5 days old and do that as well. I even found one doing that with its head in the food bowl, as it it was trying to eat when it fell asleep. LOL!

 

[wornoutmomto3]

From what I understand, the only way to prevent mareks (medically) is by vaccination. Medicated food is for coccidia, not mareks. If you feed it to a chick vaccinated for that and mareks it will only render the coccidia useless.

Thanks. That is what I thought. I just had to make sure.

 

[callen0912]

What everyone has been saying about bedding and food sounds great. A good starter crumble with the chicks on pine shavings. I don't know if you have purchased your chicks yet or not, but I thought I could help illustrate how truly small day old chicks are. In the picture below there is a 1 week difference in age. These two ended up growing up together and did just fine. I even had a two month old pullet care for some foundling chicks my neighbor found after her lawn guy accidently startled the hen off the nest as they were hatching. (She was hiding under an old rundown mower, and refused to accept the chicks after all was said and done.) In both of those cases everything worked out because of the personality of the older birds. However, there are apparent risks involved. Can you imagine what one more week in age difference can do? Older birds can be more aggressive, day-old chicks are still a bit wobbly on their feet, and then there are disease issues. Trust me you do NOT want to risk an infection of any kind taking out your flock. Keep the chicks separate until the youngsters are older and you are 100% certain that there no disease risking the health of your birds.

I do have my chicks already, and I got them all at the same time, so they are the same age. Also do you know what breed the chicks in the picture are? I have two like that (got my chicks from TSC) and they weren't sure what breed they were. I'm between either brown leghorn or speckled Sussex.