What to do when chicks arrive from PO?

[SassyKat6181]

Sorry about your loss.

I raised my 1st batch of chicks in September and now have 12 healthy laying girls. They were shipped on a Wednesday and arrived on Friday. Here is what I did:

1) My brooder had sides 12" tall to protect from draft
2) I used a 250 watt red heat lamp bulb - at one end so they can get away if too hot. I had a thermometer in there, but went by the chicks. If they were huddled under the lamp they were too cold. If they were at the far end, they were too hot. You want them peeping and active. I found that they actually preferred about 5 degrees less than recommended.
3) I put an electrolyte solution (quik chik-mcmurray) in the water for the first few days
4) I removed each chick from the delivery box one at a time and dipped its beak in the water. Let it have a few minutes and proceed to the next. If there are sleepy ones, start first.
5) I kept the food out of the brooder for at least an hour to let then drink and rehydrate.
6) I kept paper towels over the shavings so they knew to eat the food. This also makes cleanup quicker since they poop everywhere.
7) I put my waterer up on a block, or you can put marbles in it, to keep the chicks from falling asleep in the water and drowning.
8) I picked up each chick multiple times per day to give them a look over and make sure each one was healthy. If a chick was angry, I held it til it settled down. I have 12 extremely friendly chickens that greet me at the door and I can pick up still to take a look over every day.

I wish you the nest of luck with your next batch. This is a great website with lots of friendly, knowledgeable people. I spent at least a month reading on here before I got started.

 

[SweetPeaMandy]

Thank you for the detailed instructions! I did start with the sleepy ones first when I received mine, it just made sense to start on the lethargic ones first. Thanks for the tip on holding them until they calmed down, I do want friendly chickens, it just makes things easier in the long run.

 

[chicksbestfriend]

Good advice from SassyKat6181. The only thing I did not see mentioned in this thread................
After I hatch out chickens from my bator, I not only give them sugar water, but their first meal is hard boiled eggs chopped up very fine. After they have eaten all the eggs, I then place them on the crumbles. I leave the sugar water in the brooder until it completely runs out, usually a couple of day, before giving them plain water. I have had a very high success rate with mortality with very few losses.

An old school chicken breeder shared with me his concept of feeding them the boiled eggs which made alot of sense to me. He told me that while the chick is developing, it is eating the yolk and the thick albumen for 21 days which we all know is full of protein and it promotes the healthiest start we could give to the chicks. Before feeding them boiled eggs, my survival rate was good, but now I go through hatches all the time with very few losses if any. Hope this also helps.

 

[SweetPeaMandy]

Thank you for the tip! I will definitely have some hard boiled eggs ready for them next time around then.

 

[GhostRider65]

oh so sorry to hear about the chickies..............so very sad

I pray all goes well in the new batch. Kim

 

[4kids*2dogs]

Quote:
Would Pedialyte work as the sugar water or is there a special brand??

 

[SweetPeaMandy]

Well they surprised me with a shipment today, I was not told they were being shipped Monday and to be expecting them! I got a call from the PO while I was at work, so I had to get my sister to go pick them up and give her detailed directions on what to do. 17 were shipped this time, one dead in the box, one lethargic, but the rest awake and cheeping. I told her to give them sugar water, make sure to do it one by one, dunking their beaks in the water so they knew where it was and what it was. I am just glad I already had the brooder ready to go! I came home, boiled a few eggs, chopped them up and offered them to the chicks. They loved it! Two have died since they have arrived, but it is a better success rate than the first shipment! I am bracing myself for maybe two to die during the night, just to keep myself from getting too optimistic. I think more survived this time because they put a heat packet in the box with them. So as of right now I have 14 living chicks, woot!

 

[Shoshana]

With that many chicks coming, I would make a brooder out of a plastic kiddie swimming pool. I made the mistake of making two of these brooders: http://www.poultryhelp.com/brooders.html . My chicks will be fine when they first arrive, but I'm going to have to move them to something larger after a couple of weeks. I'm going to make a baby pool brooder like the one in the second pic down on this page: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=6233 . HTH!

Edit: With regards to your light choice, you may want to consider getting a red heat lamp. My understanding is that they will peck each other a lot with a regular, white bulb.

 

[SweetPeaMandy]

Right now they are in a box that those sterilite containers come shipped in, I have a box that the under bed boxes come in. So it is long, but not too tall, I will switch over to that one soon. I have switched over to the red heat bulb before I got the second shipment in, so no ornery chicks and more heat.

It stays around 90 degrees under the light. As of right now I have 9 survivors and all of these look like they are going to make it. All of them are active and cheepers!

 

[cointoss]

I'm curious where you ordered from? Because honestly it sounds like you didn't do anything wrong, and I'd like to avoid them in the future. It seems like the first shipment simply took too long to get there and the chicks were too stressed to make it. I am glad this shipment is faring better, though I'd still like to hear higher survival rates. They should have let you know when to expect the replacement shipment...

As far as the convo regarding bulbs goes, the temperature is what matters, not the wattage of your bulb. They do need to be able to get to a cooler area, but don't put them in so big an area that they can get "lost" and cold, and not find their way back heat -- in the first week, that can be just a couple feet away.

Here's to continued cheeping and peeping!

Blessings
Maya