QUESTION, handling chicks

[jessied1227]

Adorable!!

I'd like to know where you got that little plastic feeder, also!! It looks so much better than my metal one, which is also a pain in the butt to open and close.

BTW - we have 11 chicks here at my house that are 7 days old. I hold them a lot. It's an addiction, lol. I really have to supervise my 4 year old tho', she'll grab them by their heads and everything.

Aren't baby chicks just the best??

Jess

 

[MandyH]

I raise poultry and you cannot handle a chick too much. Just make sure they don't get cold. They will begin to shiver pretty quickly away from their heat lamp. I have a 2 year old and every chick we have is HERS. Right now I have about 90 chicks that are 1 week old that I just hatched out and 20 dozen more in the incubator.

 

[MissPrissy]

My 7 week olds were handled everyday for just a little while. As they got bigger it got harder being able to catch each one and hold it for a few minutes. (We have 48 seven week olds.) I know we must have missed some and handled others more than twice. Now they are about the size of a shoebox and they love to be handled. Even my roosters come running to us and won't leave us alone until they get the attn they seek - to be picked up and held for a while. After a few minutes they are ready to get down and go about their chicken business.

To those hunting the plastic feeders/waterers- If you check TSC they have the red feeders and waterers in the plastic dishes. A local feed and seed has them in other colors. If you look around you are sure to find them. Or look on line. Little Giant makes them in colors.

http://www.eggcartons.com/product-e...e_Giant_1_Quart_Plastic_Round_Feeder_Base_806

"feeder is available in four colors: yellow, purple, apple green, and red"

$2.95

Jefferson Livestock has them also but at a better price - $2.39

http://www.jefferslivestock.com/ssc...2&dept_id=476&Area=&browselist=475&sort=&c=11

Check the shipping price because sometimes a low price isn't that low with high shipping and handling fees.​

 

[frankensusan]

OOOh I love this thread. I was wondering the same thing as I have baby chicks about 5 days old now.

I talk when I'm coming into the room with the brooder, I move at a reasonably slow pace, I try to be calm and yet I still feel like the giant alien abducting the little guys to clean their bums. There are 36 of them so when one starts to panic it sets off the whole flock. I can almost hear them saying

"Here comes the big alien again, RUN for it RUN for the hills! It got me last time but it won't get me again!"

I've even left my hand in there for them to just walk all over and held them without cleaning them.

I was going to wait for all clean bums before I gave a treat but I wonder if they'd like me better if I treated them after their cleanings?

This is so different from working with wildlife where we work so hard NOT to tame baby birds.

 

[s6bee]

wegot our chicks 3 days ago, and about an hour later, we started to handle them, put our hand with food in there, is that a problem??? and as i am writing this, my chick, Gloria, is siting and wathching the screen!

some tricks to helping us pick them up quickly and quietly? thanks!

 

[jessied1227]

I handle our chicks all throughout the day, and if they're away when I'm up with the baby (usually around 3AM) I usually poke my head over the brooder just to say Hi, lol. They always run in terror.

You'd think they were abused or something.

I think it took my last bunch a couple weeks to get rid of the hand fear.

We had a lot of fun with moths last night. I caught them a few and dropped them in the brooder and closed the lid and then watched the chaos ensue.

They gobbled them up like champs. Such good little babies.

Jess