Raising Baby Chick-Along

[orrpeople]

EXCELLENT idea!!! Thanks for creating the thread! I'll share something I did to my brooders because I noticed the babies wanted to roost on the long tray feeder, which made a mess and wasted food!

I had my husband drill holes in my brooder tubs and I inserted rods from an old laundry drying rack (you could use dowels etc).

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Yes!! I always think it's amazing how quickly they are doing "big chicken" behaviors like perching, scratching for food, and my favorite, dust bathing in the shavings!!

 

[CABINHOLLOWNC]

Aww, that's sooooo cute mine is like uh oh when i find her and she jumps back in. She is an Araucana so she is very flighty, once i found her sister completely outside of the brooder!

Bad girls!!!! LOL! I have my chicks downstairs where my dog can't see or get to them...so random escapees would not be good...thus the wire covered brooders!

 

[Burbs03]

We have our girls in the garage and keep it closed all day because we have almost no room inside the house for them. My dog doesn't know about the chicks, and i don't want him too because he tried to eat one of my hens!

 

[CABINHOLLOWNC]

We have our girls in the garage and keep it closed all day because we have almost no room inside the house for them. My dog doesn't know about the chicks, and i don't want him too because he tried to eat one of my hens!

Unfortunately, most dogs think smaller animals are there to be their playthings...and they don't play nice. So Tomo will never be allowed around them. He has his fenced yard and is walked on a leash. The chickens will be in the chicken fortress...so everyone will be safe!

 

[Burbs03]

my dog is very anxious and scared of everything, when they were chicks he was scared of them! Three months later, he built up the courage as he got older to try to attack the nicest one, he failed though, thankfully, and was scared off by our rooster

 

[Jessimom]

Oh boy, I have lots and lots of chicks - although most have been moved out to the yard. the ones that are still inside, FINALLY moved to my garage, I have a great set up. I'll have to get photos later. Both pens are covered. One is a rubbermaid tub, that has a small heat plate, and the tiny, tiny 6 week old seramas and the 2 week old babies. The other pen is a large wooden box my father made for me. We are using a section from an old coop. In this pen we used a section of a log, attached that to a piece of plywood, then nailed a rounded wood railing we had left over. They perch on that. This has the Golden laced sebrights and maran chicks that I hatched. The Tolbunt polish were bigger and more adventurous than the sebrights, so they got moved out to a pen with some bigger sebrights and bantam chicks. They MAJORLY attacked them after they had happily cohabited for a week. So, they got pulled out and added back to the garage. I'll get photos soon!!!

 

[orrpeople]

Oh boy, I have lots and lots of chicks - although most have been moved out to the yard. the ones that are still inside, FINALLY moved to my garage, I have a great set up. I'll have to get photos later. Both pens are covered. One is a rubbermaid tub, that has a small heat plate, and the tiny, tiny 6 week old seramas and the 2 week old babies. The other pen is a large wooden box my father made for me. We are using a section from an old coop. In this pen we used a section of a log, attached that to a piece of plywood, then nailed a rounded wood railing we had left over. They perch on that. This has the Golden laced sebrights and maran chicks that I hatched. The Tolbunt polish were bigger and more adventurous than the sebrights, so they got moved out to a pen with some bigger sebrights and bantam chicks. They MAJORLY attached them after they had happily cohabited for a week. So, they got pulled out and added back to the garage. I'll get photos soon!!!

I feel like I'm in constant transition with mine, too! I just put my three week old chicks out in our "big tractor". Now, before anyone says that's too young, remember, I'm in Redding, CA where the average summertime low is about 70 degrees. Sometimes it doesn't drop below 80. I also make sure they have a heat source until they are more fully feathered.
My favorite thing (besides getting them out of the house!) is watching them with their first outdoor experience "melt" in the sunshine. First time it happened, it scared me because they all looked quite dead!!
Here's a couple pics of the "big tractor"

 

[WVduckchick]

I've missed you guys!!

I'm overrrrrrrruuuuunnnnnn with chiiiiiiiiiiiicks!

 

[orrpeople]

I've missed you guys!!

I'm overrrrrrrruuuuunnnnnn with chiiiiiiiiiiiicks!

Likewise, my friend! What breeds are you brooding? How many broody mamas are making those adorable cluck-cluck sounds around your place right now?
I went from "hatchaholic" to "bid-on-auctions-aholic" and this last one I won was for just 10 mixed color East Frisian Gulls... well, Greenfire must be overrun with chicks too, because they're sending me 16 extras....so... a total of 26 more chicks are in the mail as I write. What???? We already can't walk in the laundry room, there's boxes and tubs of babies everywhere! No more auctions. No more auctions. No more...

 

[WVduckchick]

Likewise, my friend! What breeds are you brooding? How many broody mamas are making those adorable cluck-cluck sounds around your place right now?
I went from "hatchaholic" to "bid-on-auctions-aholic" and this last one I won was for just 10 mixed color East Frisian Gulls... well, Greenfire must be overrun with chicks too, because they're sending me 16 extras....so... a total of 26 more chicks are in the mail as I write. What???? We already can't walk in the laundry room, there's boxes and tubs of babies everywhere! No more auctions. No more auctions. No more...

Auction-aholic! I must be a broody-aholic. My girls have gone crazy. I barely have a laying hen that didn't go broody this year. Sssshhh!

My incubators were off for a few weeks. Only on for 4 days, after a broody lav orp decided to kill her first 3 hatchlings. So I took the remaining 4 eggs, drove an hour home with them in a butter bowl, between my thighs, and popped them in the incubator. One was already DIS, but the other 3 hatched! Now I have a broody OEGB raising them, because she only hatched one chick. The lav orps will be bigger than she is, in a few weeks!

But here's the latest, bestest one. Another broody OEGB. Its been so hot and humid here, she let this chick pip, zip, and hatch without even covering the egg. I stood above them and watched in amazement! She finally turned toward it, as it was about to push out. It had 2 prior siblings there to help. This was yesterday. I'm anxious to get home now, to see how many more have hatched. To be continued.....