single chick and behavioral development

[nok13]

folks, this is the second question , part of one i am asking in the incubator thread: the gist is that i have one viable chick out of four hatches from old eggs, too low temperatures, etc... so we have the chick in a large cardboard box that hubby cut a round door with small piece of fencing for door, plus to heating lamps and thermometer. one water station and one food station . newspaper flooring with rough sawdust covering. the chick is perky, active, eating and drinking and moving around pecking at things. so:

the second question is: what are the ramifications for the one strong surviving chick? by not being with toerh chicks will that make him/her have socialization problems later , like in learning behaviors? such as a single pup with no litter mates has a harder time learning to socialize with other dogs? we may have other hatches in a week or two, but not coutning on anything viable.

iahve a day of vacation on wenesday i could possibly buy two chicks of rhode island red or something, worse comes to worse they will be cockerels and will go to the freezer... i've never had problems eating animals ive raised if i know that is their purpose, and in the mean time the chick will have brooder mates. then there is the problem of diseases. mine wont be vaccinated as there is no one to share the serums with me, but most of the breeders here do vaccinate; im more worried aobut coccidiousis

and finally; the chick is getting layer feed we ground up. it is very difficult to find chick feed in home use amounts. everything here is geared to agrobusiness and our kibbutz no longer has chicken coops or hatchery (we used to have a county central hatchery here). does he need grit also? the layer feed is 16 % protein. it is the same stuff sold everywhere (two central feed providers that everyone rebags)

thanx for reading thru the ramble

 

[RonC]

Many will not recommend the newspaper or the sawdust flooring.The newspaper can be too slick causing leg problems and sometimes they will eat the sawdust. Mine were raised on pine shavings which many will not recommend for the same reason but had no problems.

Chickens like to be in a flock. It's just their nature even if it's only one or two others. Later socialization could be a problem if raised alone although I have no experience there.

The only disease I have encountered with mine was a case of fowl pox which is usually not serious and passes on its own. Coccidiousis can be avoided by feeding medicated food. The only added ingredient in medicated food is strictly to inhibit the cocci parasites from developing and nothing else.

Do not feed the little one layer feed! The calcium content is too high and can cause internal organ failure in chicks. Starter/grower would be a better choice if chick feed is not available. Chick feed is available in smaller bags but may have to be mail ordered. My six used a couple of 50 lb bags in 5 months. They seem to waste almost as much as they eat. Kept dry it will last for quiet a while without going bad.

 

[nok13]

hahah..

serendipity strikes twice:
yesterday a friend called to say he hsa sold off all his hens, and has chick feed leftover;
today a friend of my duaghter called to say she has five 2 week old chicks from a shcool project (most likely meat or layer leghorn types), although husband wasnt thrilled (not pure bred thai fighting stock), i can keep them indoors a few weeks, and then we will try to move them to his coop, and fence off an area...

the other chick is doing ok, the saw dust is most likely pine plus whatever... the chick sorts out the food from the sawdust, legs are strong and he/she stands in that pecularly stretched out stance of game fowl//

will see what we'll do with the new chicks, i wont mix (too afraid of diseases and also too big already for the youngster).