Question about my New Baby Chicks That Hatch Today 5-24-08

[BirdBoy88]

Hey


my baby chicks hatch early this morning one at 530am an the other one soon after


my question is

How long can chicks go without eating after hatching?

 

[Guitartists]

I believe its 2-3 days... but don't quote me on that

Mine were drinking and eating within 24 hours because they COULD. So........

 

[dacjohns]

I'm with 2 or 3 days. The day olds you buy from the hatchery are quite often that old when you get them. Day old when shipped plus 2 days in the mail.

They survive off the yolk sac that is absorbed into the abdomen when they hatch.

 

[BirdBoy88]

Reason i ask cuz i sent my dad yesterday to buy the chick feed an he braught the wrong one.. he got chicken feed not chick feed

an the farm store is close right now it wont be open till tomorrow at 11 ??????

i hate myself for not going with him.. i was just to much into the hatching that i didn't.. witch made me kinda mad cuz my dad knows more about chickens than i do

 

[dacjohns]

Bear with him. I'm a dad and I make all kinds of mistakes.

I'm kind of in a partnership with another person in raising chickens. He grew up in the country watching his mother raise chickens and is on a tight budget. I think he is feeding our broilers strictly cracked corn or scratch and from what I've heard they aren't growing much. He also shoveled all the litter out of the coop because it was getting in the waterer. You can imagine what the floor of the coop looks like. He says the way to keep chicks from pecking each other is to put iodine in the water.

I'm telling this not to bash him but to illustrate that what we believe to a better way of doing things is not the way others do things because they grew up differently.

Your dad may have gotten his chicken knowledge elswhere or maybe the feed store gave him wrong stuff or maybe that was all they had or . . .

There are substitutes you can give your chicks until you get the chick feed. More importantly make sure they have water and know how to drink.

Don't hate yourself. Things happen. Remember the miracle of hatching.

 

[BirdBoy88]

Yea your 100% right

i'm just over reacting, it's my first hatch ever so i let it get to me a lil to much

i have there water in there an they been drinking out of it

Thanks for the info

..........

question about the broilers.

have you or anyone you know kept a hen for egg laying?

do you know how they are with that?

cuz my uncle gets them but he kills them for meat

 

[pips&peeps]

Bird Boy,

Boil them some eggs and chop it up real small for them and that will hold them.

 

[dacjohns]

Bird Boy. This is my first experience with broilers so all I have to go on is what I have read and been told. The broilers are a hybrid that are bred for meat production. If their growth rate isn't controlled then they grow fast and start dying of system failure or have leg problems after they reach butchering size. If taken care of properly they can lay eggs but egg production is pretty poor.

 

[BirdBoy88]

yea i did notice they do get very very larg to the point it's hard for them to stand sometimes thanks

And Thanks pips&peeps i sure will do that then