The Road Home

The Road Home
There is no place like home.

Friday, April 11, 2014

Baby Chick Five Week Update

Hello, Frank here.

As of today, Friday, the baby chicks will be five weeks old. The last time we posted the birds were just a few days old. A little bit of food for thought. Sometimes things just don't work out the way you plan. After getting
the baby birds out of the house and into their temporary quarters, I developed an upper respiratory infection, or that's what the doctor called it anyway. But a side affect of that was, I could not tolerate any form of dust, which includes chicken dust. So, we had a problem and we needed a solution. I needed an industrial grade dust mask. I looked up a farm supply, a company called Gempler's, and ordered a couple of masks that are made for ammonia, but also come with a dust mask attachment. The chickens are scared to death of me. I'm not sure my cats will ever come back home, but my dog still loves me.


Okay, back to the chickens. The birds stayed in their temporary quarters a little longer than we had planned. They were well fed and watered, but when we moved them to their permanent quarters, the first hour or so they didn't walk like normal chickens. The reason being their height was constricted in their temporary quarters after they got so tall. But after a couple of hours they stretched their legs were fine.


Their diet. We started off with medicated chick starter, it's a crumble type product. After two weeks on the chick starter we went to regular laying crumbles. It's the same size feed, it's just made for bigger birds. This is what some people feed their birds on a daily basis. Now we switched to an all-purpose feed that we also give our goats. This is what we are feeding our adult chickens now, too. The change from chick starter, to laying crumbles, to the all-purpose blend we did very gradually. There is one difference between what we feed the goats and the chickens, we don't add alfalfa to the chicken blend. And here is that blend:
  • 6 parts rolled oats
  • 4 parts sweet feed
  • 1 part sunflower seed
  • 1 part wheat bran
  • And for the goats, 1 part alfalfa pellet
This is a well rounded blend with a solid protein level. Okay, that's the feed.


Water. For about the first week we also added a vitamin electrolyte solution to their drinking water. This just helps the birds get a good start in life. Now they are drinking regular water.

With time we've also changed what they eat and drink out of. Now I know the baby chicks feel really special because they are eating and drinking off the same dishes that the big birds eat and drink out of.
In the growing process, we lost a couple of baby birds. We had one die from a crusted vent. We had a couple die for unknown reasons. We had one bird that had a deformed beak, and he was put down. You ever notice when you have to put something down it's a he? Funny how that works, isn't it?



Housing. Before we could get the baby birds to their permanent housing we had to do some chicken home improvement. This has only been waiting about four years to get it done, and it took us probably three hours to do it. But now the big birds and the little birds are separate. 




Don't think that a little bird can't find a hole or a weak spot in your chicken fencing. The first day we put all of the baby birds in their new home, the next morning probably half of them were someplace other than where they were put the day before. I don't understand. But they can find a weak spot in your fencing. I guess it's basic animal behavior, to always want to be someplace other than where you are. You know, the grass is always greener on the other side type concept? If we hadn't caught the escaped babies early in the morning before sunrise, then the adult birds would probably have pecked them to death. But that didn't happen and we are thankful. Once a bird develops a pecking problem, there is no way to stop that behavior. Well, there is a way to stop that behavior, but you have to stop the bird, permanently. 
 
Adult birds checking out the new babies
 

Next on the agenda, believe it or not, is separating the young roosters from the young hens. I will pick out the two roosters I like the best, and at the age of 12 weeks, we will butcher all but two males. So, for the next few weeks, it's just feed, water, look for problems, make sure everybody is healthy and happy. It's fun to watch the birds grow as they start to take on their adult colors and shapes, because pretty soon, 12 weeks will be here. 

A little review here. We have about 46 to 50 baby birds. Half of those came from Murray McMurray Hatchery, and the other half of the birds I hatched. Now for the simplicity of math, I'm going to say we have 48 baby birds. If they're half and half male and female, then I will have 24 females and 24 males. So, that means I will be butchering 22 young males. Also, if I have 48 birds and 24 came from the hatchery, that means 24 of them I hatched. Of that 24, half of them came from friends of ours. So, that means 12 of the baby birds are pure Easter Egg chicken. The 12 from my friends, the rooster was an Easter Egg, but the hens are an assortment of heavy breeds, like Barred Rock, Buff Orpington, and some other heavy breeds. The 24 from the hatchery are Black Australorps. I am new to Black Australorps, this will be my first time with them. They are a dual purpose, heavy breed.

So, we're at five weeks, at 12 weeks we butcher the males. At five to six months they start laying and at one year we hatch their babies. Unless something comes along, the next time we talk chickens, should be in six to seven weeks. If you hatched some birds this year or you ordered some, please let me know how it's going. Email or comment would be appreciated. Just to let you know ahead of time, this year instead of freezing the males we butcher, we're going to can the meat instead. We've done this on a smaller scale before. That's the plan anyway.

We'll talk more later. Frank

16 comments:

  1. I built a simple 8x8 "A" framed house just for brooding chicks. I had a brooder like this one & It worked really well.
    If I was going to do it again I'd put 1 ft high knee walls on the "A" frame.

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    1. Rob, how many chickens did you have in that brooder? I can see the reason for the one foot knee wall, it would make it a whole lot easier to clean. Rob, thank you for the comments, they are appreciated.

      Frank

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  2. I have six hens from last year. I got six more and they are 6 weeks old. I have now put them outside in their own mini temporary coop. The older ones are walking around them and laying right next to the mini coop. I live in a residential area in the county in Cali. Hoping I never get a complaint from the neighbors (all those around me are old and can't hear well!) Your blogging on chickens saved several of mine because I knew what to look for. Thanks and I would love pics and details when it comes to the butchering and canning of the males.

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    1. Thank you for reading. When it comes time to butcher we will include pictures. Some people find this to be kind of gory, so we will post warnings ahead of time. In the top right corner of the blog, look under 'Cooking With Fern' and open 'An Extra Rooster? Sounds Like Lunch To Me'.

      Thanks again,

      Frank

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  3. Frank, you will love your Australorps. They lay nice large eggs on a very regular basis. Never butchered them but they are good sized birds and take cold weather very well. Beware, though.... you'll end up with a favorite hen since there will be one or two that will be really chatty. Not squawky chatty, but friendly. They will see you from across the yard, wander over to greet you and then give you 'the eye' to see if you have something tastey to share.

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    1. Many of our neighbors have Black Australorps and are very happy with them. When in Rome, do as the Romans. So, we are going to give them a try. Here in a few weeks, I'll let you know how they taste. Thanks for the nice comment and thanks for reading.

      Frank

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  4. I been enjoying your posts about the baby chicks. It's been very helpful. I bought 25 baby chicks from a local breeder 2 weeks ago. This is my first time with chickens. So far they are all very healthy and doing great.
    For us "newbies" out there the information is appreciated.

    Jackie

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    1. Jackie, thank you for reading and thank you for the comment. You didn't indicate whether you bought straight run or all hens, but you're over the biggest hump so far. If you do have some males then there will come a time when you will either have to sell them or butcher them. You may have a couple of set backs along the way, that's just a normal part of life. I hope you like your chickens as much as I do. Best of luck.

      Frank

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  5. We ordered 25 Australorps chicks from Estes hatchery. They are great. We ordered them in September and they are laying like crazy. Along with our 4 (2 yr old) Red Sex Links, we are getting 15-18 eggs a day. The hens (and 1 rooster) are divided into two chicken tractors that my husband designed and built. Right now they are working on a one acre pasture that we will be putting cows on in a week or two. We love our hens and their eggs. We will never go back to store bought, if we can help it.

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    1. Everyone that comments, Lanita, seems to really like the Australorps. I haven't been able to find just the right bird for this part of the country. I hope these work out for us, and I hope yours continue to work out for you. Take care.

      Frank

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  6. I can see why there was Fear in the hen house but I bet that mask helps a lot. When a person is involved with livestock we do breath in the strangest things. Chicken dust can be bad. I believe everyone should consider both dust masks and hearing protection around the farm! The chicks look wonderful and I have to admit envy for the taste of them fresh and home raised.

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    1. Before, we had always bought our dust masks in little 10 packs from the local hardware store, the formed paper type with the little nose clip. I had to go with something of a little bit higher standard because the dust was seriously affecting my lungs. It's not so bad just walking into the chicken house, like feeding and leaving. But when I go in there to work or clean, there is a tremendous amount of dust and it has a negative impact that lasts for days. I wish they had a dust mask in a light blue or maybe even camo, but black rubber is the color of the day. Thanks for the comment.

      Frank

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  7. I noticed your nest boxes have a flat top. Do you have a problem with the chickens roosting on them? I sure do, and the top of mine is slanted, so it didn't help except that the droppings tend to roll down the slope.

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    1. In years past we had a few that did. We would go out after dark and put them up on the roost. After a few times, it was over. But they do like to go up there and leave presents sometimes.

      Frank

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  8. Thank you for the pictures and the information. I miss not being able to have them but can live vicariously through you right now.

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    1. We're glad you are enjoying the posts. Thanks for reading and thank you for the comment.

      Frank

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