Washingtonians

[TerrorBird]

My five chicks are spending days outside and loving it. And I bring them back inside at night. They are four weeks old today. At what age do they stay in the coop all night? In their little run I have a low perch, food and water. I notice they try to dust bath in the dirt, so should I put a dust bath area in there? I have an old cat litter pan from ages ago that I just never got rid of, sitting in the garage collecting dust and odds and ends. Would this make a good dust bath, or is this unnecessary?

I put my four young ones out when they were about six or seven weeks old, but I'm a bit nuts in the chicken department. The first night, they all piled up against the door and fell asleep after crying for an hour. I saw them from the big girl side (2-door divided house) and felt completely awful. You might want to wait for more-sane people to answer that question.

If you really wanted you, you could give them a dust bath area. Though, I find that they make their own areas in gardens! I have a designated dirt bath area in my pen and all of my chickens are very fond of it.

 

[Chubby Chicken]

I feed organic. Its from a place in Canada. In Season Farms, in Abbotsford BC
I tried the scratch & peck and was not impressed. My chickens werent really all that into either.

My chickens dont seem boney, but they are thin. BUT they also free range and forage. I would be concerned if they were confined and not keeping weight on, not if they are active roaming.

I cant remember the name, but there is an organic feed that is NOT whole grains, its crumble or pellets, like layena/nutrena/excel
Its available through www.azurestandard.com It might be worth looking for a local drop if you want to try something else organic.

Are you talking about Rogue Feed? I love Azure Standard.

 

[KMHunter]

Quote: If you wait until you notice a worm problem, the first warning often will be a dead chicken. Chickens like most prey animals tend to hide the fact that they are sick. I personally lost at least 1 or more hens because of worms in the first year. I bought into the DE solution for natural worming. It doesn't work.

At this point, I wouldn't trust the health of my flock to a alterninative treatment for worming. I now use Epirnex to worm my flock. I am planning on alternating the Eprinex with Ivermectin. With the Ivermectin you have to toss the eggs for 2 weeks after treatment. But I am a rather frugal person, and I simply feed the eggs back to the flock during the withdrawl period.

The Eprinex is very easy to use, you simply put a half a cc of Eprinex on the lower part of the neck or upper back area.I use a srynge to measure the dosage. The Eprinex also will kill mites and lice on the birds also. You can buy both Epinex and Ivermectin at nearly any feed store.

Since I have treated flock, I haven't had any deaths that can be linked to worms. Just letting the worms do their thing in the bird, can cause peremant damage to a bird. I would rather be safe than sorry when it comes to worming my flock.
JB- Can I ask why you are going to alternate between Ivermectin and Eprinex? Just curious.

 

[Shyla-C]

We had very successful Intro to Freezer Camp today. Several members came today. It was wonderful to meet Shyla, and her DH, and Teresa. It was a bit warmer than my DH prefers, but I always feel better when it's warm. We had a good time swapping chickens between the three of us girls. Shyla now has a very nice Silkie trio. Teresa had a cockerel and I had 2 Blue Splash hens. I also got 4, 1 week old EE chicks.

I have had a couple of requests about buying meat birds next spring. I know that I will buy my meaties from this hatchery again next year. http://www.schlechthatchery.com/ They sent me the biggest healthiest chicks that I have ever gotten from a hatchery. So if anyone is interested in combining an order, so that you can buy less than 25 chicks at a time let me know. I am willing to coordinate an order for a group. The chicks are only .95 cents each for straight run chicks. I would think that there would be some saving on the shipping with a large order. I buy normally 30 chicks per year. This feeds DH for a year. I should note that my DH travels during the week, and so we are normally only cooking on the weekends at my house.

I will admit that I am a very spoiled rotten princess when it comes to hot weather. DH and I had a heat pump installed a couple of years ago, so we have air conditioning in our home. All our dogs were more than happy to hang around inside today. I mist say that I don't regret the cost of the heating and air conditioning on days like this. I did put some large ice block in the chickens run. I don't know if it made any difference, but it made me feel like I was at least trying to keep them a bit cooler.

Right now I am babysitting a broody hen, and hoping that she will accept the chicks. I am reluctant to leave the chicks with the broody over night. So I guess I am going to have indoor guests to night.

It was great to meet you and your gang too! We had a great time learning processing and talking with everyone. And of course getting a trio of silkies was great!

 

[CrazyChcknChick]

Morning, All: I am pretty sure that I know the answer, but I wanted to check! We have a lot of Oregon grape growing under our trees, and this AM when I let the birds out to range they headed straight for them and started pigging out on the berries. They are not toxic, correct? I've checked lists of plants poisonous to chickens and it doesn't show up, and I know people can eat them. Just wanted peace of mind...I'll have to pen them back up to keep them out of it, otherwise. Thanks

 

[lisaheath1]

Hi
i give my chicks grit at three days old they have to have it. i put it in a feeder in my coop and in a bowl in my brooder they eat what they need as they need it. I also go to lowe's and buy a bag of sand to mix w/ it. It makes the grit last longer and gives them what they need.

Oh, thank you. I will put a bowl of grit in the brooder then. I was reading the package and it said to give at eight weeks. So as long as it won't hurt them, I will give it now

 

[lisaheath1]

When the chicks are fully feathered out, is when you can move them into the coop. I would plan giving them another 2 to 4 weeks.I have offer grit to day old chicks.

I wouldn't put a lot in the brooder at one time, but a little bit isn't going to hurt the chicks.


The litter pan will work very well for a dust bath. You don't really need to give the bird a dust as long as they have access to bare ground. But even then some people like to give the birds an extra dust bath area. Some will add things like Sevin into the dust bath. The Sevin controls mites and lice.

They will have access to bare ground, I might put one in anyway. That is a great idea to add Sevin to the dust bath. Thanks

 

[lisaheath1]

I put my four young ones out when they were about six or seven weeks old, but I'm a bit nuts in the chicken department. The first night, they all piled up against the door and fell asleep after crying for an hour. I saw them from the big girl side (2-door divided house) and felt completely awful. You might want to wait for more-sane people to answer that question.

If you really wanted you, you could give them a dust bath area. Though, I find that they make their own areas in gardens! I have a designated dirt bath area in my pen and all of my chickens are very fond of it.

Thanks. Mine probably would cry, lol. This morning I went to say hello to them and get them fresh water and Pandora jumps right up onto my arm and says hello then I had to put them all back in and close the lid. I have to take the dog to the vet for a shot. And they all started crying, lol. Usually I play with them for a while, haha. Poor babies, I will have to play with them when I get home

 

[itsren]

My five chicks are spending days outside and loving it. And I bring them back inside at night. They are four weeks old today. At what age do they stay in the coop all night?

Watch outside low temperatures. They drop by 5° each week. At 4 weeks, they should be safe at a 75° (F) low temperature. But, if a night drops below that temp, bring them back inside or put them under a red light that is raised to the temp they're supposed to be at.

When I was going through this, I put a reminder on my calendar of what temp they were supposed to be each week. That helped me a lot.

Hatch: 95°
1 Week Old: 90°
2 Weeks Old: 85°
3 Weeks Old: 80°
4 Weeks Old: 75°
5 Weeks Old: 70°
6 Weeks Old: 65°
7 Weeks Old: 60°
8 Weeks Old... should be fully feathered.

As for grit... make sure you use "chick grit". It is smaller sized grit.

 

[hallerlake]

Quote: In the fall, I put my raked up leaves in there. It helps keep down the mud. That was Imp's idea.