Week old Peking/silkies in our kitchen!

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Katy-may

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Hello, I hatched my 3 beauties a week ago from a incubator currently in a brooder, light off now as the house is warm. I was thinking of moving to greenhouse when have full feathers? Good idea or not? And will they need a lamp? Their names... Rolex, beebee& miss Millie! Any advice would be grateful x x x
 
Very difficult to keep a stable temperature in a greenhouse. Can be freezing in the morning and cooking by midday. We have a problem with our Leghorn bantams in there now over Winter. We have an automatic air vent but sometimes I have to open the door a bit as well. I watch the weather forcast very carefully every morning and adjust accordingly. So I think at any age the greenhouse is a bad idea unless you are able to monitor the situation all the time. We now have a gas brooder to be used in cold mornings in the greenhouse as lighting a Tilley lamp is rather time consuming (although much cheaper).
 
I have 3 japenese quail in there at the moment. So once my Pekins have feathers should I adjust them to the outside pen or keep them in house? I always watch the weather forecast for the quails in greenhouse and adjust the vents, they are laying eggs and 'look' happy! Please tell me what is a gas brooder?! Thank you for your advice most grateful! Just want to do the best for them x
 
Hi Katy. A gas brooder is effectively a gas powered heating lamp. We haven't got mains electricity in the Orchard so an electric heater lamp isn't an option. We have bought the smallest available, SA2 Gasolec model running on Propane. It delivers 600 -870 watts of heat, which is 3 x the biggest electric bulb heater. Trouble is it is expensive. Unit with empty gas bottle £120. Gas £20, which lasts 90 hours. Electric would cost £6.75 for the same heat. You can have much larger gas cylinders which cost less in fuel but I can't move them!! Biggest drawback is the need for extra ventillation to supply air and remove Carbon Dioxide and water. Don't we just take electricity for granted.

Its a big adjust for your Pekins outside ,so young, in the depths of what is predicted to be a very harsh Winter. I'd keep them in the house at night and in the early morning and let them outside if weather permits.
 
Hello, we do take electricity for granted!! We are expecting a hard winter, so I'm going to keep my babies indoors. Going to get one of those dog cages, and will slowly adjust to outside during the day. I have 4 cats! But they haven't taken any notice of the chicks, so will be safe in a cage in a shut off room. I'm taking your advice, no greenhouse! Carbon dioxide would just worry me too much with the gas brooder. How many chickens do you have?? Thank you for your advice x
 
Hi Katy. Including Bottom, our pet Buff Orpington Cockerel, we have 41. Just 7 without names yet. They are now in 9 coops. Aiming to get them down to 8 coops soon as I have finished building a new one and have refurbished another 2. Then 2 coops with runs to build next year and we can have our big shed back!
 
iv 20 4 week olds in spare bedroom poor things getting to big for the brooder but too little to go out
 
We reared 46 in the study up to 6 weeks. What a mess. So much feather dust my paperwork was completely hidden. Took weeks to clean up. Never again -next hatch will go in a purpose built insulated shed outside.
 
chrismahon said:
Hi Katy. Including Bottom, our pet Buff Orpington Cockerel, we have 41. Just 7 without names yet. They are now in 9 coops. Aiming to get them down to 8 coops soon as I have finished building a new one and have refurbished another 2. Then 2 coops with runs to build next year and we can have our big shed back!
Click to expand...
Is bottom a house pet?! What are you going to do with big shed when have it back? More animals I hope? X :D
 
One of the biggest problems this time of year with youngsters is feed.
They need to eat an awful lot to keep warm and grow and the short days, with less time to eat, is the reason so many do not do well and thrive.
I keep my late hatched youngsters in a shed with additional light, they have at least twelve hours light, to keep them eating long enough to do well.
 
Hi Katy. Bottom is a house pet. He makes an appearance for a few hours every day in the Orchard just to prevent squabbling between dominant hens. Then waits by the gate and he comes back to 'his coop' for a cuddle and a snooze -if he doesn't get his cuddle immediately he goes crazy!

Shed will store chicken stuff. We have a feed store but spare feeders and drinkers are piled up outside at the moment.

CCM is right about rearing chicks this time of year. If they don't eat for long enough each day they won't grow strong. I would give them more like 16 hours daylight though -same as late Spring /early Summer.
 
I like the sound of bottom! What a character! My 3 are in a rather large dog cage in play room, very happy and warm! Going to keep them there through winter. Problem is they are rather tame, like bottom they jump out of gate when open & sit on my lap for tickles! Can I give them any treats? 2wks old now, I do give them a worm every few days x
 
Glad they're doing so well Katy-may, they sound lovely. Maybe hold off on those earthworms, though, as they can act as a host to the sort of worm eggs which affect chickens. (Chicken eats earthworm, worm eggs in earthworm's body hatch in chicken's gut and cause chicken to lose condition and become ill if not treated, then worms lay eggs which pass out in chicken's droppings, fall on the ground and are eaten by earthworms, and so on, round and round...) Probably not a big worry for you at present if your garden hasn't had hens in it yet, but maybe a bag of dried mealworms would be a lovely idea for your chicks' Christmas stocking?
There's a thread in the Chickens Health section, at http://poultrykeeperforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=483 telling you more than you wanted to know about chicken worms and how to treat them. Many people give them their first worming dose of Flubenvet at around 18 weeks old, I believe. The breeder I got some chicks from this year told me to treat them shortly before they joined the big girls at about that age.
 
As Marigold says, avoid earth worms and slugs and snails as well; they all carry nasty intestinal worms. Bottom likes maggots; he talks to them before pecking until they stop wriggling, then eats them. The hens gulp them down, wriggling or not. You might find dried mealworms easier to hand out. He likes grapes and tomatoes as well, plus rice, pasta twirls, spaggetti and yorkshire pud. We limit the stodgy stuff as its not healthy.
 
I do have red & Lewis Hamilton (black rock) in garden, they are penned in with the ducks. I only bought the hatching eggs for red to sit on, was broody for 4 months. Then the day after I bought them, she got off her nest&joined in with out door fun! She went missing last night&just found 14 eggs in a nest! Typical!! No more worms from garden for the babies, thank you both!! My two hens love the roast dinner veg remains&go mad for spagetti& rice! Can I treat the babies sooner for worms? Can you tell I'm slightly obsessed with this trio!! X
 
Forgot to say spagetti and rice should be cooked. 18 weeks earliest for Flubenvet as Marigold said earlier. Could perhaps use Vermex earlier but don't know. Bottom likes roast beef best of all.
 
Don't go overboard with the treats, they'll grow best if you stick to chick crumb until 8 weeks and then gradually change to growers pellets between 8-10 weeks, then on to layers pellets by about 20 weeks. If this is almost all of their food it will have the right balance of protein, calcium, vitamins etc. Also give them some greenstuff, cabbage etc, but not too much or they'll get the runs. Chickens are like kids (and all of us,) they love what for them counts as junk food, even though it may be perfectly acceptable for humans. Stuff like spaghetti and rice will be nutritionally useless for growing chicks.
 
Just to give you an update, all 3 doing really well! Took them to the vet on Friday as was worried about worms. The vet was quite shocked that all 3 jumped out&sat on his shoulder! Got some wormer ordered to give a very light dose. I'm going to keep them indoors at night & greenhouse during day as now 5wks old, and feel I have to let go of the purse strings a little! They are fully feathered. The vet didn't charge me? He said very rare he gets such a delight!! If only I wasn't married!!! X
 
Yes I bet he was shocked Katy-may. Reminds me of our young Cream Legbars, but they fought to stand on your head. I used to fetch them down from the trees at night as they struggled with the concept of being snug inside. Left it too late one night, they had climbed too high and I couldn't reach them. So I got the step ladders out and climbed right to the top. So now my head is higher than their branch and Lucy, the biggest, jumped onto my head. Not to be left behind Lottie tried to get on but couldn't, so ended up standing on Lucy. I came down the ladders with them perched one on top of the other on my head and took them to the coop like that before getting them onto my hand and then onto the perch.

At 5 weeks they may still get very cold in the greenhouse. Our 2 year old Leghorns spend most of the day in their coop in the greenhouse, even when the sun is shining. Make sure they have a nice warm box to go into and snuggle together if it turns cold for them.
 
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