We finally did it. New chicks arrived yesterday!

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clinto

clinto

In the Brooder
Feb 10, 2015
37
4
34
Palm Valley FL
Hello all. My name is Clint and i am from Florida. After years of wanting to do it we finally got chicks yesterday. I have 1.5 acres now and felt it was the right time. I did lots of research first and hope i do it all correctly. I got 10 red sex links and have a simple rubbermaid bin in the laundry room for them. The temp is 91 under the light and there is plenty of room to get away from the heat. Im not really excited about the place i got them from after i arrived but i am hoping they do ok. He bought them in large amounts from a breeder and is reselling. When i got home there were 3 that didnt look too good and this morning all 3 of those were dead unfortunately. The others were all laying around this morning and it scared me to death. But after doing some reading i see that is normal. they were all eating and drinking last night. Once they were somewhat used to their brooder we gave them each a look over and some had the pasty butt issue. We cleaned them up and applied a small amount of vaseline. They have food and water that they cant drown in. The guy at tractor supply told me he has been raising birds for many years and sold me a powder antibiotic to put in the water for the first week. Any thoughts on that? I am using paper towels on the bottom for the first few days then am moving on to pine shavings. I was told they are about 5 days old. Any other recommendations to get me started off right?

 


Congrats on your new additions and welcome to the wonderful world of chicken keeping!
The bin you are using will become too small fairly quickly as you will be amazed at how fast these little guys grow. Even now you can see that tehre is not much room for our birds and the feeder and the water. Small brooders such as this make it difficult to avoid overheating your birds if using a heat lamp for warmth.
Can you get a little better picture of your birds? I am seeing some differences in appearance that give me pause considering they were sold to you as sex links - mainly the two in the far right corner, are they as different in color/appearance in person as they look to be in this photo?
 
Hello
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and Welcome to BYC!

It sounds like you've taken care of everything! I use this powdered antibiotic for the chicks from tractor supply and its works fine. I normally just put them straight into shavings after bringing home but what your doing is fine. If you have anymore questions were here to help!
 
Welcome to BYC. Glad you did some research before you started. Ol Grey Mare is right in letting you know the tote is not going to be big enough. You will need something else within a week because they do grow like weeds. Sorry to hear about your losses. Ask the guy at the feed store why he recommends the antibiotics. It may be Corid? It is helpful when people recommend something that they then follow up with the why ,so you know what and why in the future. Also down the road if someone asks you if you treated for a specific thing then you will know. If you are feeding them medicated feed then you don't need the powder.
Wishing you the best on your new adventure. We are all here to help.
 
Thanks for the fast replies everyone. The antibiotic is Oxytetracycline. It is a broad range antibiotic. He told me to use 1 tbs per gallon. After doing that i did the calculations myself and it looks more like 1/5 tsp per gallon. I about freaked and immediately removed the water and put in fresh water without the meds. It says 400mg/gallon on the package. it was in there over night with that dose but i just looked at them and they all seem hyper again and are running around and jumping all over each other. im not using medicated feed so that is why i was going to do the meds in the water to begin. I am revisiting this tonight when i get home. Ol Grey Mare... the 2 in the corner are being illuminated by the heat lamp and thats why they look different. the pic below is a better up close. Did i get what i thought i was sold? As for the tote brooder... Can they go in a garage if the area directly below the heat lamp is at the correct temp. Our daytime temps here are 60-70 and night time is 40-50. i wanted to make something bigger but was afraid to put them anywhere but inside the house. Thanks again.
 
*I* personally am not a fan of the overuse of antibiotics - I medicate when necessary, meaning indicated by symptoms of illness for which antibiotics are an appropriate course of treatment. Medicated feed is not medicated with any sort of antibiotic- the medicated feed is dosed with coccidistat (coccidiosis meciation) which is not the same as anti-biotics. I don't use medicated feed - I simply keep Corid (one of the treatments for Cocci) on hand and use it IF needed (the package I picked up last year when starting our latest brood of birds is unopened as they never needed it). What I am getting at is that using antibiotics in the water will not do anything with regards to whether you are/aren't using medicated feed as you are not replacing the drugs that are "missing" by using an unmedicated feed.
 
Hello :frow and Welcome To BYC! X2 on Ol Grey Mare & the antibiotics not being used unless necessary.
The chicks do look like some sort of female red sex link (the girls should be a reddish color and the boys mostly yellow/white).
As long as you can keep the temperature (under the lamp) where they need it (and a big enough spot so they all can fit there comfortably without piling), you can keep the chicks in the garage. The main concern I have in the winter/ really cold weather is if the power goes out or the lightbulb burns out, and you don't catch it right away, the temps can drop dangerously low pretty fast especially in unheated buildings.
 
Welcome!
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I'm glad you joined the BYC flock.

I would consider stopping the antibiotics in the water. Antibiotics are best used only when a chicken has clear signs of a disease. Otherwise, they can build resistance to the antibiotic and it might not work well anymore. The only medication that I give my baby chicks is medicated feed. It doesn't contain an antibiotic (only a coccidiostat), so I don't have to worry about disease-resistant bacteria or other problems.

Other than that, I think you're doing everything well! The brooder will need to be enlarged as they grow older, but is fine for now. In a couple of days you should be able to remove the paper towels.
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