Getting Chicks

[mnjrutherford]

Thanks! ;D It's been about 5 hours now and they are all still alive and amazingly, so are we!

Question... sorta... You are NOT supposed to turn off the heat lamp at night, right? That would be sorta stupid right?

[plantsnobin]

Right. Chicks are a lot of fun, but you won't believe how quickly they become, well, rather ugly ducklings.

[steveont]

Feb 27, 2010 21:08:24 GMT -5 mnjrutherford said:

Thanks! ;D It's been about 5 hours now and they are all still alive and amazingly, so are we!

Question... sorta... You are NOT supposed to turn off the heat lamp at night, right? That would be sorta stupid right?

keep the heat lamp going! we went with too low watts on seperate circuits so if one went out, there was the other!

[mnjrutherford]

Thanks Steve! The lights are still on and they are all still alive, still it's been less than 24 hours.

Karen, I woke up this morning and there was a stench... was it Mike on the potty... or the chicks? ;o)
Interestingly, the bathroom itself smells like pine... very nice... just the bedroom? HuH?

[flowerpower]

Congrats on the chicks. But if they are in your bathtub, how are you gonna shower?

[mnjrutherford]

HA! Good question! We have one of those "garden" tubs and it's separate from the shower stall. Normally our boys take a bath in it together, but the stopper has become discombobulated and Mike hasn't repaired it yet, so we are not using it until he can recombobulate it. Therefore, it has the lovely opportunity to be home to the babies!

By the by... there are some "things" in the shavings. Not poops, I was wondering if it's the chicken equivalent of an afterbirth or umbilical cord. It's a couple inches long and sort of looks like dried "skin".

[cornishwoman]

Their planning there escape,there going to tie all the bits of string looking stuff together and repel out of your bath tub.

[flowerpower]

Jo, did you buy straight run or all female chicks?

[mnjrutherford]

They are straight run... That means I'm clueless about the sex, right? Which is actually something I wanted to ask about. Is there a standard male:female ratio? Like 3:5 or something? Or is it pretty much 1:1?

They are cute as they can be. Some are clearly a bit older cause the "stuff" on their wings and butts look like feathers while others still look like fur on those parts. The Buff Orps seem to be the oldest. We cleaned out the tub as a team yesterday and even for a first run the process went pretty well and took about 20 min.

Oh yea, they are all still alive too! ;o) WHEW! So far, so good!

[bluelacedredhead]

Roughly 50% male, but don't hold me to that.
The 50/50 thing is usually over the course of hatches for the year...I've had hatches almost entirely male and then later in the year, female. Guess it just depends on how hormonal the roo is?

When I ordered from hatcheries, I would pay the extra to get Pullets. The margin for error there is 4%, so if you get a few males in the bargain, well, it's a Bargain.

[flowerpower]

I think it was 25 cents extra/chick to order pullets. I just wanted them for egg production, so I didn't need a rooster. I also ordered through the local Agway as opposed to TSC. They take much better care of the chicks and customers can't reach into the bins.

[mnjrutherford]

I missed your last post CW! Love it! They haven't repelled out YET, but to see the feathers coming on, they won't have to go there! Man are they getting big FAST!

I'd kinda like to get maybe 4 to 6 more Amerucaunas, but could I put brand new ones in with ones that are as much as a week or 2 old already?

They are getting more "fragrant" each day as well. We clean them up every day and I wipe the tub down with a bleach solution of 1 T. bleach to 1.5 c. water. It's tolerable, but I'll be glad when they get old enough to go to the coop.

Yea, all still alive!

[bluelacedredhead]

Yes Jo, you should have no problems adding some youngsters to the flock. Just watch for the first little while to make sure that there is no bullying going on. But I used to hatch weekly throughout the winter and spring, and if I had to have a brooder for each hatch, there would have been no room in the house for Humans, lol

[mnjrutherford]

YIKES Blue! I guess that would be true huh? There is less and less room in the bathtub with each passing day!

So, it's been a week and 2 days now. We did loose 1 chick after 6 days. Interesting thing to note... the boys each picked out a feeder, one picked red and the other picked green. Up until about 4 days ago, they were about equally emptied each day. Then, suddenly, the green feeder is practically untouched while the red feeder is empty. We switched locations within the tub and still the red is eaten from more. Kinda cool to see the color action in reality.

The coop is almost finished. Mike is tired of the daily task of cleaning out the tub. I think it's kinda fun cause we all do it as a family and everyone has a task. It's the truest form of teamwork we have going. I don't think my tub has ever been cleaner, that's for sure. It gets scrubbed, rinsed, and disinfected daily! Even the hard water marks are fading. I will not mind losing the poo smell though. I'll never forget the first morning... I still don't know if it was the smell of the chicks or my own gaseous emissions that woke me up... (beans and greens will do that to a person ya know ;o)

So, as we prepare to transition to the next stage/age... any new words of advice? I am wondering just how much food (in weight) is needed per birdie. When can we begin to feed them something other than mash?

[sandbar]

You know ... everytime I read this thread, Johno, I keep thinkin' .... "Does Mrs. Johno know he started a thread titled 'Getting Chicks'?"