very new and need help please!

[samoachicks]

Well I live in Samoa, for those who don't know it is a small Island in the south pacific. Its hot humid weather and I have just become a chic owner out of no choice. Here you find animals running everywhere as its an island we don't really have chicken coops even the pigs run freely. I have noticed that the chickens on our land keep walking all over the place that sometimes there chic's cant keep up and i often find chic's screaming away not sure where there mother hen is. I wish it was easy enough to just find the hen and give the chic's back. But because I live on a lot of land and most of it looking like jungle, also the fact that we have over 30 hen's running around everywhere it makes it such a difficult job to find the mother hen and i figured once i touched them the mother hen might not want them back? Anyways i started with finding two lost chic's and i think i was too late, because one of them died pretty much 5 minutes later. The other one (Butter) though has survived his first week with me. An just this morning I found another chic from im sure a different Hen because they look very different. This one I have named Tooki - it looks younger because he dosnt have as many of those different colored wings coming through but he is a lot bigger than Butter so it makes me confused. I need help with the following though please!
1) I live on a island so going to the shop and buying chic 'Feed' is impossible im not sure what to feed them so far its been: coconut, scrambled egg (they dont really like that one), rice and i try to dig up worms for them.
2) I have no idea there age ? and if they are different breeds of chickens if so what? and doe it matter that i have put them together?
3) how old can they be to sleep outside? through the day its normally around 32 degrees and through the night it can drop down to around 20 degrees but never lower

if anyone can help me i would be soo grateful!
this is a pick of them below: (wish i had a red light but there is no such thing as that here haha)

The one at the back looking evil is Tooki the one i found this morning: and Butter is the one in front but there is a better photo of him under this one



Butter:


help pleasee!

 

[vehve]

The lamp will produce heat for them nicely, but the light might mess with them a bit. One idea would be to place some fairly large stones in the sun to soak up heat and put them in the brooder to release it slowly, that way you could at least get a couple of hours of heat without the light. Make sure you have some sand for them to use as grit if you're feeding them solids. If you give them a bowl of sand, they will eat some of it for grit, and also start using it as a place to dust bathe as soon as they learn to do that. I don't know much about the nutritional make up of what you're feeding, but it has to be better than letting them starve at least. Hopefully someone will give you some insight on that diet. Scrambled eggs are good though, but not as the only source of food, so maybe what you're giving them is pretty ok.

For water, I would suggest putting some small pebbles in a low bowl, so that they don't drown in it. They might be old enough to not need that anymore though, but especially for recent hatchlings this is a good idea. Change the water daily.

I would say they are around a week old, maybe a bit older.

Also, keep the lamp far enough from the bedding to not start a fire.

 

[Michael OShay]

Welcome to BYC! Vehve has given you some good advice. Hopefully at some point you can figure out a way to purchase commercial food as it has been nutritionally formulated to meet the needs of chickens at various ages. Do you have the internet where you might be able to order some through Amazon or something similar? In the meantime, you can feed them canned vegetables (corn, peas, etc.), cooked rice (not too much of this), baby food (assuming you can buy jars of it), seeds, and tropical fruits (split open) like papayas, mangos, guava, and bananas. It may not the best best balanced diet for them, but as vehve says, "It has to be better than letting them starve." Good luck with your flock.

 

[vehve]

Welcome to BYC! Vehve has given you some good advice. Hopefully at some point you can figure out a way to purchase commercial food as it has been nutritionally formulated to meet the needs of chickens at various ages. Do you have the internet where you might be able to order some through Amazon or something similar? In the meantime, you can feed them canned vegetables (corn, peas, etc.), cooked rice (not too much of this), baby food (assuming you can buy jars of it), seeds, and tropical fruits (split open) like papayas, mangos, guava, and bananas. It may not the best best balanced diet for them, but as vehve says, "It has to be better than letting them starve." Good luck with your flock.

Id keep giving the scrambled eggs too, and maybe throw in some sort of meat too, either in the form of the worms and bugs you've been giving, or some leftovers from dinner, or if you've been cleaning some meat. Fish would work too. Just keep the meat to small amounts.

 

[theoldchick]

You can feed young chicks scrambled eggs as suggested along with cereal that does not have added sugar, soaked dog or cat food. Since you live in the jungle you have lots of natural forage for these youngsters: green grass chopped to smaller portions to accommodate smaller beaks, native seeds, and insects. I know you have lots of bugs flying around. All you have to do is walk around with a homemade butterfly net and catch all the bugs you can. You can make your own bug traps with screen wire and a light bulb. As a kid in Florida I'd simply go outside at night with a flash light and use a tiny fish net (sold in pet stores) and snatch up the bugs attracted to the light. You can improvise with a metal clothes hangar and a piece of light colored cloth (makes seeing the insects easier when using a light color) and fashion a homemade net.

Your chicks are most likely game/jungle fowl type of bird. They are usually hardy and very quick to develop. Try not to overfeed them as this type of poultry do not do well if they gain weight too fast. You'll end up with crooked legs and so forth if they grow too fast.

By 32 degrees I assume you are talking Celsius? Is that correct? So you are talking about 90 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and about 80 at night? If so you most likely don't need much of a heat source except at night. I like the warm rock idea but you'll have to be careful they don't cool off during the night, but at 80 degrees I think you'll be safe.

Also be careful about predators finding them. Snakes love chicks at this age and you'll have to be mindfuf of predator proofing your setup.

Good luck with them and thank you for taking them in!

 

[vehve]

You can feed young chicks scrambled eggs as suggested along with cereal that does not have added sugar, soaked dog or cat food. Since you live in the jungle you have lots of natural forage for these youngsters: green grass chopped to smaller portions to accommodate smaller beaks, native seeds, and insects. I know you have lots of bugs flying around. All you have to do is walk around with a homemade butterfly net and catch all the bugs you can. You can make your own bug traps with screen wire and a light bulb. As a kid in Florida I'd simply go outside at night with a flash light and use a tiny fish net (sold in pet stores) and snatch up the bugs attracted to the light. You can improvise with a metal clothes hangar and a piece of light colored cloth (makes seeing the insects easier when using a light color) and fashion a homemade net.

Your chicks are most likely game/jungle fowl type of bird. They are usually hardy and very quick to develop. Try not to overfeed them as this type of poultry do not do well if they gain weight too fast. You'll end up with crooked legs and so forth if they grow too fast.

By 32 degrees I assume you are talking Celsius? Is that correct? So you are talking about 90 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and about 80 at night? If so you most likely don't need much of a heat source except at night. I like the warm rock idea but you'll have to be careful they don't cool off during the night, but at 80 degrees I think you'll be safe.

Also be careful about predators finding them. Snakes love chicks at this age and you'll have to be mindfuf of predator proofing your setup.

Good luck with them and thank you for taking them in!

20C would be about 68F, perhaps a tad cold for the chicks.

 

[sumi]

Welcome to BYC

Glad you joined us! Please make sure the chicks have access to some kind of grit to help them break down the food. Place a saucer of sand or soil in the brooder for them to peck at. They'll get roughage from that. I've successfully raised chicks on a diet of cracked corn, greens like spinach, scrambled eggs and lots of bugs. Not ideal, but it works if you don't have other options. Good luck with them!

 

[theoldchick]

Correct. At 68 degrees they do need extra heat.

 

[Mountain Peeps]

Welcome to BYC! Please make yourself at home and we are here to help.

X2 give them grit. Also, once they reach a month old they don't need heat anymore unless where they are living is below 60.

 

[TwoCrows]

Hello there and welcome to BYC!

You have been given some great advice here. So I will wish you all the best and we do welcome you to our flock!