Feeding chicks

Good news KittyKat. They should have developed natural immunity to Coccidiosis by 6 weeks, but I think a lot has to do with the formation of the gut flora. We give all our chicks probiotic natural yoghurt at day 2, but may now try a tiny amount of Avipro Avian.
 
Chris, do you have the facilities to experiment between the three options? Unfortunately I don't at this time, but I will try my best at the first available opportunity. Possibly next batch, if I can get another brooder set up, which will depend on whether some of the current batch sell.
 
Unfortunately KittyKat our facilities here are limited. Until we buy somewhere we have only the enclosure we built and a big box trailer. We will have to incubate next month just to keep the breeds we have and rearing is going to be very difficult.

A local breeder has asked for Wyandotte hatching eggs and perhaps we will be able to buy some of the result- that will help. Ours are much bigger than any here. The cockerel (Zebedee) we bought to replace Merlin is only the same size as our hens! Big Softy Arnold, our original cock, was 50% bigger than little Zebedee at the same age.
 
Just to mention KittyKat we will soon be starting the incubator to hatch Leghorn Bantam pullets. So we have just bought a 10Kg bag of chick crumb and have translated the contents fearing that one on the list may be ACS, which we don't want. Good news is that there appears to be no ACS additive (more translation required though) and furthermore it contains a permitted enzyme which acts as a probiotic improving digestion and hence growth rates. It's called 6-Phytase. Quite why they don't use it in the UK I don't know, but this crumb is specifically for the very small poultry keeper in the countryside. Poultry keeping in towns has only just started here and is so unusual one couple were mentioned in last weeks TV news!

Just edited to add that we have translated all the components and there is in fact a cocktail of enzymes in the feed, each targeted to assist in digesting different things, like cellulose and protein. These chicks are going to grow fast and be very healthy I think. I'm wondering if we should use a mash made of this to build up our sickies after antibiotics?
 
The only thing is it might not store very long Chris. All the better-quality foods seem to have a short shelf-life,then start losing their vitamins. In UK it is possible to use Chickenvet's Amino Plus for chicks, although I've not tried it myself for chicks, only sick birds. Wishing you both luck with your chicks.
 
Use by date is 5th June 2015 Chickenfan. By my calculations they will hatch April 12th and be fed on the crumb for 5 weeks it recommends, so it will still be OK. Some of the ingredients on the French list are Amino acids. We bought the stuff early because we have a lot to do here before I go to the UK for a week and return incubation day 17 -the day before half the eggs are transferred to the hatcher (Suro20 without cradle). The second half will be on day 11 so I can candle and discard. Still got to work out where to raise them as space is limited.
 
I'm currently buying feed directly from a mill and they told me that expiry is 100 days from manufacture which seems pretty standard from what I have seen. I currently have 20 4 week old chicks of three breeds and each group is growing quite differently. They've just become all sexable over the last few days so I get to find out what I've got this weekend when I tag them.
 
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