The Winterizing Baby Chicks Experiment

[aart]

What do you mean by this? Gain size quicker than one that's experiencing the fluctuations of ambient temperature?

I've admit I've never been impressed by any chicks I've seen artificially brooded but they are more than adequate for many folk's needs, many folks aren't as fussy as me, and I don't have to grapple with a snowy landscape, thankfully! I forget that some people may feel offended by my often too generalized criticisms of some methods. I don't mean to be derogatory about what anyone prefers, just sometimes I almost forget that others have different standards and objectives.

Each to their own. Chickens are livestock more than pets for most and when you're trying to grow your own food in a frozen place, whatever works!

I recall one Friesian cow I saw in an old picture, a barn raised one who spent at least half her life in some barn in some frozen mountain in Sweden I think it was.... She looked like a spotted pig. Not a cow. Never seen anything like it. But she was happy, and brushed till she shone, and very, very clean, and plump enough, and seeing that pic I understood why our own massive Friesian cow, not hand raised, would nonetheless always lie on the ground on her side to lay her enormous head in our laps if we sat down. Because that's what the cow in the pic was doing with the little children whose job it was to tend her. I'd bet the most tame chooks we have probably come from countries where freeranging throughout all seasons is simply not an option.

Have fun with your experiments, and it will be interesting to see what unexpected things result. Best wishes.

...generalized criticisms.... are rarely productive (for anyone involved) or sensible, and are usually best kept to oneself.

 

[chooks4life]

Quote:
I disagree; perhaps what you state is true for you, but not for everyone.

The subject at hand is 'winterizing' baby chickens. A heat brooder will not do that. A heat brooder appears to have a few disadvantages from what I can see, and while I will state my stance on it, I do not intend to offend, hence my previous post to the OP.

When you see something that consistently produces poorer results, whether this meets other people's benchmarks or your own, or not, is a little beside the point. You're entitled to voice your opinion on it. Everyone has pet peeves or simply things that fall on the wrong side of their personal beliefs or philosophies. For those who share these beliefs or have overlapping areas, these 'generalized criticisms' can contain something useful to them, and likewise for those who are very new to the topic and are trying to discover the purported pros and cons of the subject as discussed by those who have more experience.

Generalized criticisms do have little value in some areas, it's true, but so do generalized lectures and random pieces of useless and unsolicited advice. They are rarely productive for anyone involved, nor sensible, and are usually best kept to oneself.

Best wishes.

 

[Kelsakat]

this had started as a winterizing chicks experiement, but in the way of such things it morphed into a look at which rooster shoot blanks durning the winter and how quickly chicks grow. When I said that they grow quicker I do not mean in size but in feathers. It has been my experience that chicken raised by a broody hen keep their fuz just a little bit longer than under a brooder lamp.
Also I cannot be displeased with the results. The chicks are vigorous and healthy, if a bit small. I often wish I could farm somewhere as warm year round as Australia, but I can't so I do the best I can with my Missouri weather which changes in the blink on eye. We were 60 degrees on Sunday, it is 30 and heading lower as we speak today. I plan on putting the chicks out in my chicken pen here within the next couple weeks as soon as they have all their feathers.
While agree that broody hens are better, the lamp works for those of us without one or the money to purchase one. This was another part of the experiment I wanted to test. I wanted to see if I could hatch chicks in the winter to get a jump on spring when it had never been done by me or any of my clan before. The results are not yet final as I need to see how the chicks do out of the brooder box and among my normal chickens.

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: Very odd, my experience has been the opposite, but chickens sure do have a massive range of variation. Were they the same breed and from the same parents, the chicks you're comparing?

About the rooster shooting blanks during winter, that's also something I'd only heard of, never experienced, but it does make sense in some ways as an adaptive precaution. Male dingoes come 'into heat' like the females, only during a certain period of the year, and are very unlikely to sire any offspring at any other time even if they do mate which is also very unlikely. In places which have life threatening extremes of temperature or seasonally limited food sources, males having cycles of reproductive viability like females makes sense.

 

[Kelsakat]

Very odd, my experience has been the opposite, but chickens sure do have a massive range of variation. Were they the same breed and from the same parents, the chicks you're comparing?

About the rooster shooting blanks during winter, that's also something I'd only heard of, never experienced, but it does make sense in some ways as an adaptive precaution. Male dingoes come 'into heat' like the females, only during a certain period of the year, and are very unlikely to sire any offspring at any other time even if they do mate which is also very unlikely. In places which have life threatening extremes of temperature or seasonally limited food sources, males having cycles of reproductive viability like females makes sense.

Some of the chicks were the same breed as the current ones I am raising. I have see other mixed breeds as well. All came from the same parents. I didn't know that about dingos, but it makes sense. This "adaptive precaution" makes the most sense as to why the only three chicks came from the silke rooster as opposed to the other two, which I have produce good chicks just this last spring.

 

[chooks4life]

I guess we'll have to see the outcome of your experiment a few seasons from now to see whether it's a definite causation rather than coincidence, regarding that Silkie rooster's results. It'd be even more sure if you had many different family lines from different breeders too but I guess it's not like you're conducting an experiment with a view to peer reviews so perhaps that's all beside the point and more trouble than it's worth. Anyway, should be good information to discover here anyway.

 

[centrarchid]

Interesting. I have produced chicks year round with most hen-raised. Cold of winter generally impacts chicks through means other than simply direct temperature stress. It also impacts forage quantity and quality as well as the amount of time birds can invest in actually going after feed. I am unable to detect accelerated feathering with cold temperatures relative to mild conditions but my chicks under extreme heat do delay feather development a little.

Falls and winter hatched birds generally mature at lower weight with reduced ornamental feathers although I am now certain chickens can compensate with continued growth after reaching adulthood. By time birds are 24-months old I can not disextinguish between cold and warm season hatches.

 

[Kelsakat]

Interesting. I have produced chicks year round with most hen-raised. Cold of winter generally impacts chicks through means other than simply direct temperature stress. It also impacts forage quantity and quality as well as the amount of time birds can invest in actually going after feed. I am unable to detect accelerated feathering with cold temperatures relative to mild conditions but my chicks under extreme heat do delay feather development a little.

Falls and winter hatched birds generally mature at lower weight with reduced ornamental feathers although I am now certain chickens can compensate with continued growth after reaching adulthood. By time birds are 24-months old I can not disextinguish between cold and warm season hatches.

I have to agree on the not being able to tell once they reach a certain age. They were very small in size, but that has more to do with the breed of bantum as opposed to the weather.

 

[centrarchid]

I have to agree on the not being able to tell once they reach a certain age. They were very small in size, but that has more to do with the breed of bantum as opposed to the weather.

How are they doing? Late-hatch birds of mine had to deal with some mild frostbite which is not a typical concern for me with juveniles.

 

[Kelsakat]

I have lost one to an unknown factor. I discovered that the black chick in the picture had a limp, which made it hard to get around. I thought it had simply hurt its leg, due to the large pumbing crate I kept them in. last time I do that, but it was free and what I was looking for. The chick never got better and eventually became so weak it couldn't keep its eyes open. I gave it a mercy kill. Everything else was fine and I had seen not other signs of illness from the other chicks or the animals I fed the dead chick to, waste not want not. I found out last night the redish brown chick is limping in the same manner as the black one. It is not acting sick or matching any of the symptoms of the known chicken illnesses I had found.

Not sure what to make of it. I have a new floor in the crate and I am watching and waiting to see what happens.