Raising Baby Chick-Along

[AUChickenGal]

My June chicks will be 23 weeks old tomorrow, and Reba (my RIR) laid her first egg today!! She’s been looking ready for a couple of weeks now. Since my older hens have been molting, I haven’t had a single egg in over a month. I’m very pleased with her! It’s a beauty, too.

One my my July chicks, the Olive Egger, has become quite the problem child. It’s very obvious, now that she’s mostly the mature, that she is a CCL/Welsummer cross. She is INSANE. I can’t get anywhere near her, and she is extremely flighty. For the last two days, she has been living the free range lifestyle because she flew over the run fence and won’t re-join her flock, despite my best efforts. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with her; everyone else got their wings clipped this morning, so at least they won’t be hopping the fence to join her...

 

[Scott214]

Here’s the chicks at 2 and a half weeks old! Gotta love them!

 

[Scott214]

Congrats on the egg! It’s sure is nice! Hope your Houdini hen comes back enough to where you can clip her wings as well. Good luck!

 

[orrpeople]

I just love to watch broody-raised chicks - they never cease to amaze me. In the morning when I open up the coops and throw out some handfuls of scratch/boss mix, those little chicks get in there with the rest of them - I even have one who has decided to take on the older girls if there's a question of who gets that delicious piece of corn on the ground! They also started sleeping on the perch with their mamma at about 2 weeks. If I could always raise chicks this way, I definitely would!

 

[CapricornFarm]

My August hatch chicks are growing up!

 

[orrpeople]

My August hatch chicks are growing up!View attachment 1191167

Really lovely!! They grow up so quickly!

 

[CapricornFarm]

In other news, i am making a solar powered water heater with poo powered back up! Check out my thread in Random Ramblings section, called Get Ready for Winter.

This is my solar cage, one side left to build.

 

[NW Chickadee]

Please help! I'm such a worrier!
Juvenile molting in the brooder??

I have 3 young Silkies - 1 Paint that is approx 3 mos, one White that is approx 6 wks and 1 lil' Splash babe, about 4 wks (grouo picture was taken about 3 days ago). I know it's an odd array of ages but it's what the breeder had, in some of the colors/sexes I'd wanted (DNA Feather sexing). I've had them for about 10 days.

I understand that older chickens typically molt 1-2x/yr but I've recently read about "juvenile molting". I've noticed some small feathers all over the brooder for the last 4-5 days or so and a lot over the last 48hrs. Started with a few and now it's much more.

I've watched & stressed & watched & stressed & checked every vent, under each wing, back, chest, feet with no sign of parasites....I've even gone into the basemen bathroom they're in with a headlamp on and checked them in the dark - I saw no bugs anywhere!) but, BUGS are my greatest fear! Especially with them currently living in my home! (I itch just thinking about it, when I hold them but that only started happening AFTER I read what a mite infestation can do to ones home! So now I'm holding them less, really just to "check" them at least twice a day (beak to vent, wing to toe!).
I'm not getting to enjoy them and I know for damn sure they're not enjoying me.

They came from a well known, highly rated breeder in S. California and were living in temps around 95-100+ degrees. I'm the the Northwest and the high temps have been in the 40's, so I'm just not ready to put them outside yet, as the lows are in the 20's and I'm not sure the 3mo old pullet is broody enough to keep the littlest babe warm. She doesn't seem to care much really.

So, my concern is the feathers I'm finding. The photos are of the feathers I've picked out of their large brooder in the last 24 hours. I suspect they're from my White 6 wk old (the age may be off by a week or 2) but she doesn't look like she's actually missing feathers. My main question is this; With Silkies can it be normal to find feathers like this in the brooder and I know this may be a silly question, but to verify what I've read, it would appear there's various fazes of the "Juvenile molting" where several feathers are/can be found in the brooder....is that corrrect?

Diet: I'm currently feeding them medicated chick starter and offering chick grit. I've just started offering the 3 mo old treats such as meal work, a few seeds here & there and I've added a little bit of Sav-a-chik vitamins to their water since I've had them (initially due to stress of the flight) along with a splash of ACV.

Heat: To make sure "Beakers", my 3 mo old, doesn't get too hot, I'm using a standard 75w light bulb about 18 inches above my the brooder. Seems to be just right for them all. It took some trial & error to get the temp right for all 3 - Making sure "Beakers" wasn't too hot and the lil' babe too cold.

I appreciate y'all so much! You've answered so many questions and helped to ease my mind many times! Thanks for looking and I appreciate any advice or thoughts!

 

[CapricornFarm]

I would not worry about the feathers unless you start seeing bald areas. My chicks hatched mid August and there are feathers all over the place.
Try to relax and enjoy your birds. You can set up a little dust bath for them if you want, so they can clean their own feathers. i know you are trying to do well by your birds. They should be fine!

 

[NW Chickadee]

I would not worry about the feathers unless you start seeing bald areas. My chicks hatched mid August and there are feathers all over the place.
Try to relax and enjoy your birds. You can set up a little dust bath for them if you want, so they can clean their own feathers. i know you are trying to do well by your birds. They should be fine!

Thank you and thank you SO much for such a quick reply! Funny you mention enjoying my birds - I JUST told my husband that I just want to be able cuddle them in the way I'd dreamed of when I decided to get Silkies! It's been all worry so far!

My littlest babe has a few spots that probably could be considered bald but in researching and looking at other pictures of Silkie chicks, it seems to be more of a transition from the the fuzzy-buff to feathers, as it's uniform (if it's on one side of the top, inside area of one wing, the other side looks identical - if that made any sense at all! )

I bought a small, square dog dish (large for a dog dish but not too deep) with thick/wide sides so they could pirch if they wanted....it'll fit in their brooder but will definitely take up about a third of it. Would you suggest trying to just push bedding out of the way and create a corner or use something like what I have? I've watched them attempt to dust bathe with the shavings a few times! Then they take terms "helpin' a chick out" and picking the shavings off each other. Poor babes!

Again, thank you so much for your response!