Hi There,It's Chick Time and BYC suddenly awakens with eager newcomers seeking the sage advice of those who've been there before them. Getting those cute, tiny, helpless fluff balls can be very anxiety provoking. You just look at them and think, one false move and they're done for.
- What preparations do you make before hatching/buying chicks?
So you prepare. That means studying up on what things chicks require for safety, proper development, and over-all well being. Most people automatically think chicks are so fragile they need to be kept indoors in a box with a hot light on them, with a thermometer hung inside like an oven thermostat lest the tinys suffer a little cool-off and fall like a cake in an undependable oven.
Then later on, they are overwhelmed by the constant chirping, poop odors and dander and dust. "When can they move outdoors?" is the common question on the chick forum a few weeks into chick season. Well, I say move them outdoors from the very start!
I brood outdoors now. Gosh, it's so much better for everyone, especially the chicks. They start out where they're going to end up anyway, and there's no stressful adjustment later. They are installed with the adult flock and are accepted as members of the flock early on, making integration a breeze.
I use the heating pad system so no dangers of overheating, and the chicks establish natural day/night sleep patterns, contributing to their well-being. They harden off early to cooler temps, therefore they need no acclimatizing later on. And best of all, you have a clean house with no greasy dander to hunt down and clean up.
- Tell me about your brooder(s); Also, do you brood indoors or outdoors?
I section off a safe chick pen in the run. My run is covered and the sides are protected from the wind and weather. The chicks have their heating pad cave for warmth, and even when it's freezing at night and only in the 50s(F) during the day, they're just fine and manage to warm up when they need to.
They are growing up in proximity to the adults and learning every single minute from observing them. By the time they are given access at age two weeks by means of portals from their chick pen, they already understand which adults needs to be given a wide birth and which ones can be trusted.
By age five weeks, they are finished with their heating pad and can move into the coop with the big chickens. This method of brooding is so effortless and natural, it's really catching on here in the BYC community. I anticipate the day when plastic tote brooders with heat lamps will be laughed off the pages.
- How to raise healthy, strong chicks. (Supplements/Feed/Heat management, etc)
On day one, the chicks get Poultry Nutri-drench as a precaution and nutritional boost to combat any shipping stress and to get them off to a good start. I make a weak "tea" from it and the chicks drink it for their first week or so.
I feed my chicks fermented feed, but to start them off, I sprinkle dry crumbles on the ground to get them to want to eat. They scratch around and eat what they find and quickly graduate to the FF. I've found that, since chicks have a proclivity to swim in their food, a tiny container no more than a couple inches in diameter is best. I use the plastic cups the icing comes in that you get with those tubes of breakfast sweet rolls and I glue metal washers to the bottom to give them weight .
Growing up outdoors in proximity to the adult flock is the best way to insure healthy chicks since they are picking up immunities from their environment against disease, making them more disease resistant. Chicks brooded indoors miss this valuable "window", which closes after the first couple weeks. Chicks raised outdoors feather out quicker and are more cold hardy because of it. Best of all, there is very little stress involved as the chicks are integrated into the flock.
min 2 sq ft coop per chicken and 10sq ft of run per chicken.. .. but these are minimums more is better.
I won't brood any other way, and I'm up here in northwestern Wyoming not too far from Yellowstone Park. Springtime - chick time - here is still in the twenties with it still dropping into the teens from time to time. One year we got our last snowfall on June 6th. Yeah!
