Things that make me chicken about raising chicks

[saritacoleman]

Hello,

We just brought home our 5 chicks on Tuesday. We've read up in books and in the forum long before we brought them home.

They seem to be happy in their brooder in the basement.
What didn't make them happy is holding them. One of the books I read said to do that every day...day two...all they wanted to do was get away from me. Then on the forum I read that treats in the hand (chopped boiled eggs) were the trick...worked like a charm. I'm going to let them come to me going forward.

Another thing about the book was the scary things that could happen (most alarming to me is an egg bursting inside the hen). I really do not think it's in me to kill a chicken much less watch it suffer. We have 6 cats and a dog...our vet *might* be kind to us.

I know I'm thinking about 50 steps ahead of myself. Last year we started beekeeping...this spring our bees are still here so we or they or both must have done something right. I did the same thing with the bees.

Anyway, hello my name is Sarita Coleman...I am now a chicken owner in the city of Louisville.

Thanks a bunch for all of the references on the forum.

Best,
Sarita

 

[bairo]

Thats great....glad you figured it out. We went through the same thing until we found that simply laying you hand (palm up) on the bottom of the brooder worked like a charm. They just need time to figure it all out. Now some our newest chicks at a month old will stretch their necks when I walk into the room with the brooder and they here my voice. As soon as I lower my hand in, I have all 6 of them trying to fit into my hand. It's a real treat to your soul when that happens.

Good luck, and a warm welcome to BYC

 

[gryeyes]

A lot of chicks don't like to be caught, much less held, at first. You do have to work at it.

And some are stand-offish and just tolerate it. Just wait until they are older and realize you are the source of all food and treats.

What breed of chicks did you get? Are they sexed pullets or straight run?

 

[motoclown]

Some are cuddlier than others.

 

[saritacoleman]

We got 2 Ameraucanas, 2 Buff Orpingtons, 1 Silver-laced Wyandotte and 2 Rhode Island Reds that will be coming in next week. I'm planning to put a barrier between them when they arrive.

The most calm of the chicks is the Wyandotte. First to eat out of my hand is the smaller Buff Orpington.

They are a lot of fun and I'm constantly in the basement checking on them.

Just a tad worried about all of the things that could go wrong. Feels like having a newborn in the house...times 5.

I'm really grateful for this site.

Best,
Sarita

 

[saritacoleman]

They are supposedly all hens with a 90% success rate.

 

[gryeyes]

You can put them all together, actually. They will be close enough in age for it not to matter. I mix chicks of all ages between 3 days and 3 weeks, all the time. That's about the widest stretch of difference, though...

One week's difference won't be a problem.

How could one NOT spend a bunch of time watching chicks?!?!?!

In my first batch of 8 chicks, I got an accidental rooster. If you don't want one, I hope you did indeed get all pullets. I thought I would re-home my cockerel, but by the time I knew it wasn't a pullet, I was too fond of her, err, him. He is now the dominant rooster of my rather large and varied flock. He's a wonderful rooster.

Those are all great breeds for someone starting out with chickens.

 

[Yay Chicks!]

Congratulations on your chicks! I'm a worrier, and I got really freaked out in the beginning by reading the emergency/diseases threads. What I later realized is that no one posts in that section to say "Hey, I've got some really healthy birds and nothing is going wrong."

So, what I'm trying to say is, yes, there are things that can go wrong, but mostly, chickens are pretty resilient and pretty darned easy. At least that's been my experience this last year.

Have a great time!

 

[wbruder17]

There's always lots of things that can go wrong with anything we do. As long as you do right by your chickens...food, water, clean living space, and if you really want to have happy chickens, free ranging, treats and playthings, then you should really not have many problems. My chickens are very healthy and happy, although you will always have issues to deal with.

Hopefully you will not have the need to cull any, but if you do, it will be the right thing to do and it will not be so hard. You will learn to understand that sometimes life is like that.

 

[hennyannie]

My cousin refers to my chickens as "The Baskin Robbins" chickens. She says I have 37 flavors. I actually have about 10 or so differant breeds. I was so glad to see others with lots of breeds.