The Best???

[jay1995]

I need help to know what is best for my new chicks. Due to my faied hatching I bought five silkie, cochin, and cochin frizzles. yay. But what is the best food, bedding, housing and... EVERYTHING!! Please help.

 

[brooster]

use a name good chick starter, tractor supplys is moldy sometimes. use pine shavings for chicks, then you can use the shaving or straw. Do you not have a coop or are you wondering about a brooder. Check out the learning pages it has everything for raising chicks and chickens, and lots of coop designs.

 

[birdlover]

Oh my goodness! This is something that needed to be researched before getting chicks. Okay, well, first, if you go to the learning center, it will tell you everything you need to know. EVERYTHING. But I will tell you that you need to give them heat from a light source - 95 degrees the first week, and then reduce by 5 degrees every consecutive week by moving the light source away. A desk lamp with a 100 watt bulb works well. If the chicks bunch up under the lamp, they are not warm enough. If they bunch away from the lamp, they are too hot. Make sure you put them in a box (brooder) that allows room for them to get away from the heat. SHine the light into one corner so the have room to get away. You need to get chick starter from a feed store. You can get medicated or unmedicated. Ask them to explain. You need to have clean water available at all times in a shallow dish or water. Put marbles or pebbles in the water the first few days to keep the babies from drowning. You should put PINE (not cedar) shavings in the bottom of the box (brooder)with paper towels covering the shavings for the first few days until the babies learn what is food. You should sprinkle the feed right on the paper towels as well as have some available in a dish that they can reach. That is a start. I hope they will live long and happy lives.

 

[jay1995]

Thanks for the info ive read up at the learning pages.