My first chicks (3weeks old) Brood box?

[chrismahon]

A very happy group without doubt Eirwen. Sometimes they steadfastly refuse to be picked up but will happily sit on your hand. Chickens don't like to be touched when they are feathering up and at the moment the chicks will be growing new feathers constantly. New feathers are easily damaged and the process of growing them is clearly uncomfortable, more so for some than others. Some like to be carried facing forwards, some prefer backwards; some want their feet supported, some won't be carried with their feet supported as they then stand up; some will be carried perching on your arm, some perch backwards , some forwards. You just need to get to know what they are happy with as they will all be different.

 

[Marigold]

Yes, neglect of other duties, not to speak of husbands, is a sure symptom of a bad attack of chickenitis, Eirwen. This virus can strike at any time, and once you go down with it, you have it for life. It may sometimes lie dormant for years, as it once did with me, but will inevitably flare up again. Attacks can be sudden and quite unexpected, causing the patient to feel an overwhelming need to get some chicks or pullets.

Treatment is expensive, involving the purchase of a great deal of equipment, much of which may eventually be found to be unnecessary. The patient will compulsively browse the Internet for information, and will often join an online support forum to share experiences with other sufferers. As the disease progresses, it often migrates into Morehens Disease, which can have even more serious consequences for the patient's bank balance and marital relationships.

 

[animartco]

Hi Eirwen. A proper sun lamp might be a good idea if the weather gets dull and sunless as it did in the beginning of 2013. Also I couldn't see looking quickly through the replies, any mention of garden soil. Chicks need grit to digest. Sorry if you already know this. If they are not out on soil within days of hatching they will need a little fine 'bird grit' added to whatever substrate you are using. Also I always give babies a little chopped grass, but only as much as they can eat fresh. It shouldn't be left lying.

 

[Eirwen]

Update Some photos from last week!
Your comment made me laugh Marigold!
Well chicks are 7 weeks old now, and 1 Legbar is 10 weeks, poor girl has to wait for her little sisters now till they can go out! I'm thinking I'll see what the weather's going to be like next weekend when they'll be approaching 9 weeks old. They've had no heat in their room for a week now, and the coldest it's gone down to is 8C, and they've been fine, no huddling except for bed time.

Oh speaking of bed times, they have all taken to roosting on top of their fence now, it cant be comfortable! But every night they're on there in ond happy line! They're always back in by morning! I tried putting them back down first, but I've given up by now!

They are much tamer now, they will happily walk up my arm to perch on my shoulder, and some will just fly up there, I must look crazy with a minimum of 4 chickens roosting on me with my arms out like a scare crow!! I do think I'll miss them when they go outside

Oh and by the by, my speckledy sneezed 3 times in a row today.. I hope it was just one of those things, I'll keep close watch on them for any more sneezing.

Oh I do have chick grit in the pen with them thanks

 

[Marigold]

They're doing really well, Eirwin.
If they are going to perch on the edge of the wire anyway, maybe you could fix a length of 2" x2" planed wood, or a similar thickness of broom handle, to make it more comfortable for their feet. I think probably perching on a wire might not be good for them. Just lash the wood on to the top of the wire with strong string would be easy to do.

 

[chrismahon]

They all look fine Eirwin. We used to put ours out in the day in a run which had shelter and was wind protected and then bring them in at night.

Sometimes chickens sneeze just from dust and there is absolutely nothing wrong with them.

Agree with Marigold, they would be best with a wooden perch to avoid damaging their feet on the wire. At their age you could use something smaller than 2" x2", the important thing is that it has rounded corners, so a broom handle would be ideal. We bought a broom handle from Wilko's I think as it was much cheaper than round doweling from the woodyard.

 

[Eirwen]

Hi all! Update! Built the coop today, chicks ready to go out next next weekend, just got to sort out electric fence, will have to order more posts I think to hold it up.
As you can see we put a perch in their pen with them, though they still occasionally perch on the wire :-/ not for much longer now! They are quickly demolishing their cardboard home at the mo, scratching and pecking at it! Definitely time for them to fly the nest! They will be nearly 10 weeks this time next week!

The speckledy flies up to me every time I pass, if I bend down she's on my back in a second! She's so nosy she has to see what new interesting fluff is on my clothes! The 'ginger nut' as I call her (the 'blackrock'), is the next most friendly, and enjoys a good belly rub The rest are only intersted in me when I have food!

They are all coming along nicely now, and are much more interested in the grit! Can't wait to see them run free outside, though I will miss them in the house, just not their poop and dust!!

 

[Marigold]

They have come on very well, haven't they?
Do remember, though, that they are still not fully feathered enough to be able to cope with big temperature swings between night and day, and also with the cooling effect of high winds and rain in particular. Has it been possible to cover the roof and three of the most exposed sides of their outside run? After all your care it just wouldn't be worth risking them getting chilled at this stage. If they were mine, I might perhaps put them out for an hour or two if we had a calm warm day with some sunshine, but first time out of the conservatory in January does sound a bit chilly to me! They will,soon be starting their moult and growing their adult feathers, so are due to have less effective insulation in the coming 5 weeks or so as well.

 

[Eirwen]

Hi Marigold! Not sure if you can make it out in the pic of their coop, but their electric netting is up around the coop, it's 100m long, so they will have 25 by 25m to run around in, and as it's electric I won't be able to cover it.. But they will be under a tree, and they can also get under their coop if it's rainy.. Temps outside have not gone down below 8C where we are, and though it's going to drop to 5C middle of next week, that's the coldest it's going to get here for the next month, with night time temps of 1C. But next weekend the atlantic weather is back with warmer temps and yet more rain. Also temps are only fluctuating 1-2C from day and night with this atlantic weather we've been getting. I've been keeping the conservatory door open a few hrs at a time over the last week and the coldest it's gotten to is 9.9C. Our weather last march/april was colder than we've had this january! Strange weather these days!

The seem to have been moulting this week, with their more adult feathers coming through, giving them nice tails Their heads are getting new feathers coming through right now, can't wait to see how they'll look!

I do hope they'll be ready to go out next weekend, as I'm starting to feel bad for them being penned in a small place now they are getting so big. Their coop will probably be warmer than the conservatory, but they will have to contend with some wind and rain should the want to venture outside. I suppose I could use the puppy pen that they have now as a sort of wind brake outside? I could peg it down around 3 sides of their coop if it would help?

 

[chrismahon]

Hi Eirwen. They are looking great but you will have to be very careful putting them outside mid-Winter. They will need good wind shelter in that area so you need to put something all around the coop. You will have to cover the feeder anyway. As I mentioned before, ours went outside into special broody coop-run assemblies with solid wind protection all round and then came back at night for a while. At that age they are far more vulnerable to predators as well, even during the day. As Marigold mentioned, their feathering isn't complete yet so neither is their insulation and if they get wet they will chill very quickly so you need to keep a very careful eye on things at this stage.

Looks a good setup, but I would definitely add free standing shelters and wind breaks within the area longer term.

 

[Marigold]

You never know what the weather is going to do over February and March, and if they will be out in Atlantic gales and rain without cover overhead and round the sides they will get very wet and cold. The tree will drip on them rather than provide significant cover,, the rain will probably blow in under the coop and there won't be any more room for them to shelter there than in your conservatory, even supposing they have enough sense to seek shelter there. I would strongly advise that you take them in at dusk to roost indoors for at least the next month, and allow them out only on fine dry days for an hour or two. They need to acclimatise gradually to outdoor conditions - older, fully-feathered birds that were used to those conditions would have no problems, although personally I would provide more cover and wind shelter for any of my own adult birds, let alone growers. A lot of the energy that should be going into growing new feathers and developing their bodies will be transferred to keeping warm if they are constantly wet and wind blown.
As we said earlier, raising chicks in winter isn't the easiest of tasks, and yours are now at the stage where most would be going out gradually in April- May, rather than January-February.

 

[chrismahon]

Another important point based on my recent experience Eirwen. They must not go straight onto long grass with empty crops. They will gorge themselves on the grass anyway and if it is long or they take too much they will crop impact or gizzard impact. Gizzard impaction is invariably fatal. You need to get the area down to less than two inches and keep them there until the novelty of grass wears off and introduce them to it after they have eaten in the morning.

 

[dinosaw]

Good advice as usual from Chris and Marigold, try and expose them to the outdoors as gradually as possible and keep them in at night for as long as you are able, March if it's possible. Especially liked the post about gizzard impaction which is rarely discussed. Our first experience of keeping chickens was to have a pol hybrid die 4 days after getting them, I did a post mortem and it turned out to be gizzard impaction which I think had occurred at the poultry centre where they keep their grass very long. At the time I found this article which may be helpful to anyone interested in it.

 

[3441sussex]

In the conservatory we can give them 0.9m width x 4m length in an L shape run to sleep in, and double that to run around during the day, using an old 3ft high puppy pen. I hope this is big enough until they are are ready to go out, if they do outgrow this space before they are ready to go out (between 9-12 weeks?) I have a few options in mind about an intermediate area outside in a space in-between two outbuildings where we have a corrugated plastic roof above, so in affect a 3 sided shelter, that has a wire mesh gate covering the entire opening space which has a padlock. I am parking my car there at the mo but I don't need to, I could put their green frog coop in here with a heat source as it has a power source in the outbuildings next to it, this could be converted to be used between the ages 9-12 weeks (or longer if the weather is severe) I'm hoping as my car has never frozen under there, after that I'm hoping they'll definitely be ok to move their coop to the field where they will have a tree and an old empty caravan to shelter from any harsh weather, surrounded by a 4ft high electric fence..

[/quote]

Why don't you keep them in the space between the two outbuildings for a couple of months as you suggested you could earlier in this post? This would mean that they would be fully acclimatised to the British weather when you let them out into the field.

 

[chrismahon]

Good article that Dinosaw. Reinforces my concerns and confirms my previous experience (which I posted a couple of months ago). I noted it mentioned that young birds coming up to lay are particularly vulnerable because of their high nutritional demands.

 

[Marigold]

Excellent advice from 3441sussex - sounds as if you have already thought of the solution, Eirwen. No need to heat the coop itself if the enclosure is roofed and sheltered.

 

[Eirwen]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. It made me doubt putting them out last weekend, so I didn't. They're still in the house being pampered! Good thing is that their growth has slowed down now, so space situation won't get any worse than it already is. They are using the whole room to roam anyway, fence not much of a barrier anymore, they're good flyers! Well, some of them, the sussex and blue ranger are more squat and clumsy.
They are sounding like proper hens now, clucking away! And good thing about keeping them in with me is they're becoming more tame everyday
I know they won't be going out next wknd either, more rain and wind coming, so they'll be with me till the half term where I'll be able to put them out gradually during the week as you suggested. I'm sure by 14 weeks they'll be ok, as the breeders chicks have been out since 3 weeks ago. Also some of my pupils I teach biology to are farmers and a few of them have growers who they've put out couple of weeks ago and they're younger than mine!

We have been lucky here in North Wales with the weather, whilst it has been raining and fairly windy, it hasn't been that much worse than usual, just much warmer than it normally is this time of year.

We have started to build a shelter around the outside coop, made out of pallets, and I'll ad some plastic sheets for extra wind buffering. I'm hoping that will make life more comfortable for them.

As for the car port I had in mind, the stupid coal man went and dumped our coal there because he ran out of bags.. So that option is out for now.

Also want to mention that just around the corner from us there is a small holding with dozens of chickens that have coops in the middle of a few acres of open fields, and the only shelter they have is a few trees, and they don't have any problems, so the extra precautions we are taking I feel is just that, extra preacautions. But at least it will give me piece of mind.

Oh as to mowing the grass.. Lol, would take a while to mow the field! But I will make sure when they're out for the first time they have been fed before hand. They are loving the chick grit now anyway and I have been introducing greens in very small amounts. They are not much interested in eating yet, only playing! They regularly have games where one of them finds a 'treasure' (normally a moulted feather) and run around with it whilst the others try to grab it! Very funny to watch. There is no clear leader in the group yet, they all hold their own when challanged with the neck extended feather ruffling of one trying its luck. That's as far as it goes though, they never hurt each other for which I'm glad!

Looking forward to getting some eggs now, in 9-10 weeks? I presume they'll start laying after 20 wks?

 

[Eirwen]

Some more photos!

 

[Eirwen]

Hi all, just wanted to let you know that the not so little chicks are still with me in the conservatory, at 13 weeks now. The wind had been really bad over the last couple of weeks, glad I hadn't put them out yet. Good news is that the coop and wind shelter remained intact and in place through hurricane strength winds, so at least I can be confident that they'll be safe there!

The plan is to introduce them to the outside during the week, whilst I'm on my half term, and by the end of the week get them settled in their new home.
What I'm wondering now is- how to carry 8 of them back and forth to the field with as little stress as possible, for us and them!

 

[Eirwen]

Oh and I'm thinking our amber stars are actually white stars, looking at the shape of their tail. Also they're smaller and leaner and better flyers than the others! I don't mind too much as I know they'll lay a lot of nice white eggs, and they're reasonably friendly too, although not quite as laid back as I imagine the amber stars are supposed to be. They'll let me pick them up ok, and one will fly to my shoulder. But they're always the ones that have hopped the fence and are coolly strolling around the conservatory pooping everywhere! I think they spend more time out of the pen than in! Luckily I have wipeable floors!
Some of the others will hop the fence occasionally too, the only one I think that's never been is the blue ranger, she's not so great at flying bless her!