25 New Chick Came In A Box At P.0.

[bp fick]

The commercial layer mash is 16% protein, largely derived from soy, I should think. No layer can be at her peak without high protein, as she spits out 8% of her body weight in a protein filled egg everyday in laying.

Don't have facilities to mess with worms or some kind of meal worm production. That would be great though. I do feed my chickens scraps from the garden, and while high in vitamins and such, isn't very high in protein. I try not to allow that stuff to dominate their diet. Just for treats.

 

[mantis]

We just started a few weeks ago. Got a couple barred rocks, a Rhode Island Red, and an Ameraucana. Spent last weekend building the Chicken Cabana :laughing: Nesting box on each end with access doors. Ramp folds up at night to keep out the bad guys.

 

[300UGUY]

I bought ours from Myers. We got 25 RIR's from Myers last year. Unfortunately, we lost 10 birds to predators, foxes and coons. Haven't seen the fox lately, since I shot at it. Don't know if I hit him, but he hasn't been seen since. To cut down on losses, I have improved my fences, delayed letting the girls out until 8 - 8:30 am, and keep my dogs out in the evening. Yesterday, just before we put the chickens away, my dogs caught a coon stalking the hens. Predators are my biggest problem.

 

[mantis]

As you can see in my above pics, we are still in suburbia, so that is why we are starting off with only 4 chicks. We are working hard to get our land ready to move to, but in the mean time we will be raising ninja chickens in hopes of avoiding the HOA.

Pics from when we first brought them home:

 

[bp fick]

Nice setup there, mantis.

When the chicks arrive, you take each and dip its beak into the water. This somehow causes the drinking instinct to kick in. Well, it works!

The sound quality is a bit overwhelmed by all the chirping on this video, but anyhow, here they are, as my wife operate's the camera. Probably won't get nominated for any awards.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvJhlFK1IJY

 

[300UGUY]

Nice setup there, manis.

When the chicks arrive, you take each and dip its beak into the water. This somehow causes the drinking instinct to kick in. Well, it works!

The sound quality is a bit overwhelmed by all the chirping on this video, but anyhow, here they are, as my wife operate's the camera. Probably won't get nominated for any awards.
YouTube - DSCF2646.AVI

Seems like a good idea, but didn't know about dipping the beaks. My girls seemed to catch onto that by themselves. We got the gro gel, for the water. The birds seem to like that better than plain water. They are pretty cute to watch - little ones go around doing chest bumps and scurrying everywhere.

 

[dave1949]

Just for fun while your chicks are still small, catch a cricket or grasshopper and toss it in the chick box. It's too big to swallow and big enough for the other chicks to grab at from whichever one is holding it trying to figure out how to eat it. It's a hoot to watch the sprints, ducking and weaving.
Dave.

 

[Bird]

I didn't know whether the chicks were still shipped via USPS, but that's the way we got all our chicks every year 55-60 years ago from the Post Office in Ardmore, OK.

 

[Freds]

I seem to remember adding sugar to their first water. And I too dipped thier beaks because... well, because that's what I read somewhere, lol.

Nice setup, Mantis.

 

[bp fick]

I just brood chicks in my utility trailer, pulled inside the barn. It's a 5 x 8, with 30" sides. I swept it good, sprayed it down with a bleach solution and let it dry a couple days. Then I spread a cube of clean wood shavings. I find chicks tend to eat sawdust, so don't use that. 50 years ago, we used ground corn cobs and I'd still like to, but the price, yikes.

Anyhow, With the red brooder lamp, they stayed toasty last night. When I went to check on this morning, it was 44 degrees outside, but they were just fine. Not piled up on each other at all. Good sign they were plenty warm. No loud peeping, which is another sign if they are cold. They are all eating and drinking well.

I'll post some pictures later this morning.