Raising Baby Chick-Along

[Jessimom]

Question of the day...
What do you think about socialising (with people, handling them, giving them treats, etc) your little ones? Does it make for having a friendlier bird?
My results have been mixed, and I'm not sure if it's more breed related as to which birds will end up being friendly. We have found (my daughter and I) that it's important for us to teach them the treats come from us so it's easier to catch them if we need to. Chicken "catching" is my very least favorite part of poultry ownership!

I have seen a large pool net, or fishing net works great at catching stray birds. I don't have one yet, but it's on my wish list. My friend had one and he just has to get close enough and there is no chance the bird gets away.

 

[WVduckchick]

Maybe, if all goes well and they end up reproducing next year, we can swap some gulls for some orps... I still think about those beautiful lavender babies you hatched. How do they do with the heat? (It's supposed to be 109 degrees here by Sunday and my poor Bielefelders are already panting up a storm!)

Wow, my lavenders wouldn't hold a candle to those beauties, but I'd be game! Our temps occasionally push 100 and other than drinking a lot more when its hot, they seem to do fine in the heat. About half of mine like to sleep outside in the run when its hot.

I have seen a large pool net, or fishing net works great at catching stray birds. I don't have one yet, but it's on my wish list. My friend had one and he just has to get close enough and there is no chance the bird gets away.

I swapped out lavender orpington roosters last year. Had 2 big boys in a small dog cage. As we were transferring them to the customer's box, I accidentally lost handle of one. As big and clumsy as those boys are, he still eluded us for a little while. Neighbor went and got his big fishing net. By the time I got close enough to try the net, we had worn him down and he eventually stopped running from me. I reached down and picked him up!
I have had some seramas that are impossible to catch, if they don't want to be caught though. Quick little devils!

 

[orrpeople]

Wow, my lavenders wouldn't hold a candle to those beauties, but I'd be game! Our temps occasionally push 100 and other than drinking a lot more when its hot, they seem to do fine in the heat. About half of mine like to sleep outside in the run when its hot.




I swapped out lavender orpington roosters last year. Had 2 big boys in a small dog cage. As we were transferring them to the customer's box, I accidentally lost handle of one. As big and clumsy as those boys are, he still eluded us for a little while. Neighbor went and got his big fishing net. By the time I got close enough to try the net, we had worn him down and he eventually stopped running from me. I reached down and picked him up!
I have had some seramas that are impossible to catch, if they don't want to be caught though. Quick little devils!

I'm just glad nobody has been around with a video camera to watch me attempt to catch some of my little stinkers. I currently have one project cuckoo legbar cross that has decided he sleeps in the oak tree near his coop. I let him do it a couple times because he was waaayyy up there, but now the rest of the juvenile delinquents in his pen have decided they want to be up there too. So we've been throwing things at them to get them to fly down. Everyone but the project bird will just run up the ramp into the coop because they are relieved the peer pressure to sleep in the tree has been vanquished. But then, we have to catch "the project". And every time, I swear I am going to go out there and cut back some of the brush because every time, I get some sort of cut or scrape from crashing through it after that stupid bird! The pool net is a fabulous idea, but I think I need to get a lighter weight net frame than the one we have - I'd be worried I might break his neck or something... although at this point, maybe that's not such a terrible idea...

 

[orrpeople]

Can you say, "Little lemon gull with a very full crop?"

 

[JJByrd]

Ugh. I have one Brahma with a sore on her little bum. Its all bald from vent to between the legs and a tiny spot with broken skin. Put antibiotic ointment on it. Watching and nobody is picking at her. Think she got a goopy bum and it got picked off and all her fluff went with the poo. Considering separating her but if nobody starts picking hoping she will heal quickly.

 

[orrpeople]

Ugh. I have one Brahma with a sore on her little bum. Its all bald from vent to between the legs and a tiny spot with broken skin. Put antibiotic ointment on it. Watching and nobody is picking at her. Think she got a goopy bum and it got picked off and all her fluff went with the poo. Considering separating her but if nobody starts picking hoping she will heal quickly.

Sounds like you are doing all the right things. I sometimes will really overdo the antibiotic ointment to help them keep from having poo stick to them, but some of them are just more poo-ey than others, so they need more attention. I think sometimes probiotics help them get a handle on the consistency of their poo, so it sticks less. Funny though, how all the rest will be fine and there's just that one that seems to be perpetually in need of a washing up! If your other chickies pick at her, you might try a little blue food coloring applied with a cotton swab, or blue-coat from the farm store.

 

[MageofMist]

Gave the chicks back to the hen, but I still brood them in a brooder at night when I am asleep, but she has them all other times. The hen seems to see me as a co-op brooder which helps, she is completely fine with me taking and holding the chicks and is just as happy to take them back. When with the eggs she'd attack my hands, but I can put my hands under her to get the chicks with 0 issues and the chicks often come out to see me anyways.

She and the chicks went outside for a little today, the chicks sticking with the hen but occasionally wandering to me also. She did her food chuckles and called them to food, and the clumsy things sprint in and face-plant on the offering. Though the hen went back inside to her nest, which I made 'steps' using weights for the chicks to be able to get into easier, and they followed. I then put a fan by the nest so the hen can keep cool as it is a very hot day today and she was panting, the moment the fan was on, she poked her head out of the nestbox, rested it on the lip, and just closed her eyes in complete relaxation.

Had a little scare though when they were out, went inside to get and drink and came back seeing just 4 chicks around the hen instead of 5, the 5th was in a tuft of grass just tall enough to hide it, pecking at small insects not too far away from the hen and other chicks.

Also, my cat learned to stay far away from the hen when she has chicks. Angel got too close for the hen's liking so the hen chased Angel and pounced her, I saved the cat from the hen and neither had any injuries, barring a small tuft of fur the hen had pulled out.
The chicks were super confused and first ran to me and then followed me as I went to save my cat, and the rooster was doing his "what the hell is going on!?" scream that sounds like an old man yelling, and the older chicks just... Stared and then continued to forage.

 

[orrpeople]

Gave the chicks back to the hen, but I still brood them in a brooder at night when I am asleep, but she has them all other times. The hen seems to see me as a co-op brooder which helps, she is completely fine with me taking and holding the chicks and is just as happy to take them back. When with the eggs she'd attack my hands, but I can put my hands under her to get the chicks with 0 issues and the chicks often come out to see me anyways.

She and the chicks went outside for a little today, the chicks sticking with the hen but occasionally wandering to me also. She did her food chuckles and called them to food, and the clumsy things sprint in and face-plant on the offering. Though the hen went back inside to her nest, which I made 'steps' using weights for the chicks to be able to get into easier, and they followed. I then put a fan by the nest so the hen can keep cool as it is a very hot day today and she was panting, the moment the fan was on, she poked her head out of the nestbox, rested it on the lip, and just closed her eyes in complete relaxation.

Had a little scare though when they were out, went inside to get and drink and came back seeing just 4 chicks around the hen instead of 5, the 5th was in a tuft of grass just tall enough to hide it, pecking at small insects not too far away from the hen and other chicks.

Also, my cat learned to stay far away from the hen when she has chicks. Angel got too close for the hen's liking so the hen chased Angel and pounced her, I saved the cat from the hen and neither had any injuries, barring a small tuft of fur the hen had pulled out.
The chicks were super confused and first ran to me and then followed me as I went to save my cat, and the rooster was doing his "what the hell is going on!?" scream that sounds like an old man yelling, and the older chicks just... Stared and then continued to forage.

Sounds like a good, full day of chick, hen, rooster, and even cat adventures!! I love when my normally docile chickens all-of-a-sudden get protective with chicks in the mix! The splash rooster I got from @Jessimom is super protective when any of his girls is dust bathing. Yesterday our dog came by for a sniff (probably looking for a nice crunchy piece of poo to eat ) and Toby wasn't having anything to do with it. Thankfully our pup was like, "Okay freakish rooster boy, calm down, I was just looking." and walked away.

 

[orrpeople]

Question of the day! What are the top three ailments you have addressed in chick raising? And/or, what's the weirdest ailment you have come across?

 

[MageofMist]

Question of the day! What are the top three ailments you have addressed in chick raising? And/or, what's the weirdest ailment you have come across?

Luckily I have been doing well in regards to the health of my birds. Pasty butt was a main offender but isn't really an issue anymore, and one of my silkies had a gunky eye at day 2 that later became a bubbly eye, it still has the bubbly eye, but is healthy in every other way other than that.

Also, more about crazy egg hatches than ailments, but still some of the strangest stuff I have seen:

I had a recent occurrence with a silly chick pipping in the middle of the egg, and I was completely oblivious of it even when clearing away some dried membrane around the pip and ended up hitting the inner membrane and then stopped it from bleeding, and continued to not notice the oddity until like, 5 hours later when it suddenly hit me like a sack of bricks.

Luckily it sorted itself out, I shown an egg candler through the air sac to see where it was and the bump in the egg membrane that was it's beak, as it had pipped off quite a bit of egg shell and when I was keeping the membrane moist, it nipped me through it, move upwards. So I put it back in and waited... Well, it made a pip in the air sac, rested for a little, and then sent eggshell flying across the incubator with the force it was breaking the eggshell with as it zipped with some mighty thudding sound, it even rolled the egg over as it's beak hit the bottom of the incubator when breaking the shell under it! It took a minute to zip after the rest after pipping, and then tumbled out of it's egg and into another eggshell behind it, peeping as loud as can be.

It was the last egg to hatch as all the others had hatched, so I took it out, dried it off, and then fluffed it out. It had a splay leg it hatched with, probably due to the odd positioning in the egg, but I held it's legs together as it was in my hand while it dried off and fluffed and the leg corrected itself.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/chick-pipped-in-the-middle-of-the-egg.1179921/

That isn't the only odd occurrence though, with the first egg that had pipped, the hen had gotten off the nest for a poop break which messed up the humidity, making me put the other eggs in the incubator.

There was a bit of dry membrane stopping it from hatching, so I took the dry membrane off and put the egg back under the hen, and it started SCREAMING and then burst out of the egg so hard, it took the poop-sac out of the egg with it. I thought it was the yolk sac at first due to it looking like it had yolk in it, but later found out that it was the poop-sac. Both the cord and poop-sac dried up and dropped off during the night.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/chick-hatched-with-ruptured-yolk-sac.1179633/