Raising a chick in a developing country

[RebeckaK]

I am a missionary in South America and received a baby chick as a gift (on Easter- which is NOT traditional here). My problem is, that in researching on chick care, I am finding the need for products that are unavailable here.

My language skills are still not very good or I would ask someone here.

I will be able to find a lamp to use as a heat source, but I am pretty sure the highest watt bulb is 75, and I am not even sure I can find that. I am in the Andes mts and the temp gets to about 50 degree F at night. I know that chicks survive here, because chicken run all over the streets, I just don't know how they stay warm (unless they are all raised with mama hen).
Regardless, I have a sweet baby that needs to stay warm. Any ideas? I kept it warm last night by having it sleep in the crook of my arm, but that is definitely a very temporary solution.

The other question is in regards to food and water. I can not find a water or food dispenser that all the sites said I would need. I don't want by baby to drown in a bowl of water or to soak herself (it gets so cold here), but do you think a shallow dish would be ok? Right now I am using a lid to a butter container. The chick keeps dumping it out, but other than that...it seems to be working.

The people who gave it to me brought it with some white powder they said was food. At first I put it in a bowl, but found the chick sitting right squat on her food. So today I just sprinkled it on the ground. Will this be ok?

I have her sleeping in a cardboard box that is lined with newspapers and I put a couple of towels in there for her to snuggle into for warmth, and during the warm parts of the day Can get up to 85 degrees F) I have her out and about. It follows me everywhere!

I love this little chicky because she is clever, sweet, and came from some great friends. I really want to keep her/him safe warm... and alive. Can you give me some advice?

I am not sure how old the chick is.

 

[alicefelldown]

Welcome to BYC (and congrats on the baby chick!)

Let's start at the beginning:

- You will need a 'brooder'. This is a fancy name for a box (cardboard, wood, rubbermaid container, etc) that holds the chick. Find some wire mesh to make a lid and then the heat lamp can be above that. Use wood shavings, paper towels, pine needles, dead leaves, etc - to line the bottom. You'll need to clean this out quite often as baby chickens love to poop.
Keep the brooder indoors for a few weeks if you can, a garage or some shed is your best choice as baby chicks also create a TON of dust which is beyond annoying.

- Your 75 watt will have to do for the lamp - if you find the chick is ALWAYS under it, you might need a second lamp. If the chick is trying to hide from the lamp, then it is too hot and you should raise the lamp.

- Any shallow dish for water will work. If the chick is tipping it over, you can maybe place it inside the brooder on top of a brick or wooden board (nothing higher than the chick can reach though!!). Another trick is to place small rocks in the bottom of the dish to weigh it down.

- Same with the food, any shallow dish will work. If you can make a gravity feeder for the food and water, all the better.

- You can you can feed the baby for a day or two on instant oatmeal, flaked infant cereal, or other whole-grain cereals. You can put whole grains (rice, wheat, barley, old-fashioned oats, anything) into the blender and blend them slightly. Do not blend completely to a powder --- the feed should have some "grits" in it. Leave the feed with them all the time --- they will stop eating when they have had enough.

Best of luck on your new addition - please keep us updated!!

 

[RebeckaK]

Thank you so much! Your post was incredibly helpful, especially since I just saw two of those kinds of feeders today. Thank you also for your picture of your set-up. It was very helpful to me.


PS. I named my chick Macintosh because I have found myself making a tent between my legs and my laptop for it to stay warm. Little Mac likes it a lot. LOL

 

[catdaddy66]

Great job, aliceFD!! That is baby chick raising in a nutshell. Continue to read these pages, rebekaK. There is an unbelievable wealth of chicken knowledge here from some very experienced persons. Good Luck with your chick!

 

[catdaddy66]

Great job, aliceFD!! That is baby chick raising in a nutshell. Continue to read these pages, rebekaK. There is an unbelievable wealth of chicken knowledge here from some very experienced persons. Good Luck with your chick!

 

[catdaddy66]

Great job, aliceFD!! That is baby chick raising in a nutshell. Continue to read these pages, rebekaK. There is an unbelievable wealth of chicken knowledge here from some very experienced persons. Good Luck with your chick!

 

[catdaddy66]

Sorry, operator error !!!

 

[BellaLulaFarm]

When we needed an emergency extra chick waterer last month, I took an old small coffee can, poked holes in the plastic lid and one in the side right up by the lid for better draining of water, filled it with water, and inverted it over a tin pie plate. Worked just fine!

The little picture from alicefelldown to determine too hot/too cold is really key--I didn't feel like our strip thermometer worked very well, since it swung from 80 deg to 117 deg in a few minutes, so I tossed it and went by what the chickies were doing. Now they're 5 weeks old and thriving.

We have some friends that recently raised 50 chicks in Kenya in their bedroom--I just sent her a message to see if she had any advice.

Where in the Andes are you? My dad was in the Peace Corps in the Altiplano above Cuzco, Peru--has great stories of those times.

 

[RebeckaK]

Thanks for the well-wished catdaddy.
Thanks for the well-wished catdaddy.
Thanks for the well-wished catdaddy.
Thanks for the well-wished catdaddy.

(I am laughing because of all the times I double and triple post by accident)


BellaLula, I am in Ecuador- right on the border of Peru. I love it here. LOVE it.

An update on the heating (on non-heating situation):
We went lamp shopping today and the one that we could find that would work was 60.00. That is outrageous considering that my water bill is 3.00 and a nice lunch at a restaurant is 1.50. My chick was far less than a dollar.
However, we would have bought it if we had had the cash in hand. BUT, because we can only take out small amounts of cash at a time we will have to wait until tomorrow to buy the outrageously expensive chicken warmer. So- tonight, my little chickie sleeps with me again.

Also, here are a couple of other cultural differences:
1. Chickens in Ecuador do not say "Bawk", "Cluck", or "Cheep". When I told this to some Ecuadorian ladies, I thought they would pee their pants laughing. Here chickens say, "Pee-ooo Pee-ooo. pee-ooo".
2. The lady who gave it to me says that it is definitely not a hen, because all hens are orange. But that it is also not a rooster. It is just a plain old chicken. I got a translator and another Ecuadorian to verify that this is indeed what she was saying. Maybe Ecuadorian chicken are androgynous?

 

[rufus]

Get an porcelain electrical light fixture (una portalampara de porcelana con contacto y cadena). Screw it to a board and wire it up to an old extension cord. Install a 60 watt bulb, then place a terra cota pot over it. There you have your warmer. The chick will hug it all night.

Mahroni, a frequent poster on this site, did a mission to Ecuador, although I suspect it was probably many years ago. He probably has some good information for you.

Buena suerte con su mision.

Rufus