Preppin for babies

[MrsHatz]

Ok So i have been wanting chicks for forever and I think I got this somewhat down, now I know most of these can change depending on the chicks themselves but this is what we have:

Brooder:

96 quart clear tote (or the biggest clear tote we can find)
red heat lamp
water & food tray
medicated chick feed
pine shavings & paper towels
cardboard to block the cats view & a small box inside for the to "hide"
Chicken wire to cover a portion of the top and 1/4 of one side (to increase ventilation)
Thermometer
Electrolytes
chick grit

After two weeks
we add roost
marbles
toys
treats

After 6 weeks
fermentation of food (few times a week)

After 8 (or when the weather breaks)

Outside into completely enclosed coop and run (full chicken wire all the way around).

Chicks will be here week of April 10th they are already vaccinated against

Marek's disease.​

Are we missing anything or we off to a good start?​

I feel like we are expecting babies all over again!!!​

 

[SunkenRoadFarms]

So exciting! I just got my Meyer ship notification, love having little babies! It sounds like you are off to a good start. One suggestion I'd make is use hardware cloth/mesh on the run and coop and not chicken wire. Chicken wire is designed to keep chickens in, but not predators out.

 

[havery]

I can't think of anything right now that you're missing!

I will say, though, this year is my first year doing watering nipples instead of a normal waterer and I have been extremely pleased. I don't have to clean out the water 4x a day (their scratching around will inevitably fill the dish with pine shavings and poop) and that is worth so much more than I paid for them lol! The youngest in my brooder are a week old and they're all doing great with them, and I plan to try to get my existing flock to using them as well.

 

[azygous]

Not missing anything except other alternatives to the brooder and heating method you've selected.

I'm getting my next batch of six chicks in May. Up until now, I've brooded indoors using a heat lamp, although my brooders have been getting more and more creative. (Last time I utilized a plant gro-window as a brooder with high success.)

This time, however, I'm installing the six two or three-day old chicks, as soon as they're delivered, in the grow-out pen in my chicken run. They will start their lives right out in the same run as the adult flock, although protected from them for the time being. The heat source will be a heating pad and "chick-cave" where it simulates a broody hen. The heat temp inside the cave will be close to 90F to begin with, and it will be close in so the heating pad touches the chicks backs. The chicks will have full run of their grow-out pen and will crawl into the chick cave when they need warming, just as they would with a mama hen.

As the chicks get older, the chick cave is raised up and the temperature is lowered on the heating pad control, and around three or four weeks, the chicks will be ready to move into their coop, transitioning into the coop with the chick cave heating pad until they no longer are sleeping inside it.

No more dusty brooders in the house. More freedom and space for the chicks. Quicker feathering out because they aren't subjected to a constant heated environment. And they have been integrating into the flock from the start, picking up immunities from disease, and sealing their ranks in the pecking order as they slowly learn to mingle with the adults.

Details on the chick cave/heating pad method, also known as "mama heating pad", can be found on this forum.

 

[MamaRudey]

You don't have to wait to ferment the feed if you don't want. Ours ate it from day one.