suggestion to Ken and Dave about poultry categories

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I am about to get a batch of day-old chicks and have been trying to sort through the 421 "Poultry (General)" looking for specific info regarding care of chicks. What about making a separate category called "Poultry (Chicks)"?

-- Cathy N. (keeper8@attcanada.ca), July 04, 2001

Answers

Noted for something to consider. I'm several category improvements behind at the moment. You can somewhat cut down your search by using Control and F at the same time, which will give you a pop-up search box. Under that category, search under chicks. It only works on thread titles though.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), July 04, 2001.

Cathy, here's a site that may help:

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKRaisingChicks.html

We all do things that work best for us. Here's a few thing that have worked well for me.

I don't give water the first 3 days to chicks that come from a hatchery. I give straight un-flavored Pedialyte. (Yep, the same thing that's for human kids!) The electrolytes help the little ones get over the trauma of their trip. I put marbles in the waterer for the first week so the little ones won't drown.

As I take each chick out of the shipping box, I dunk their beak in the liquid so they can get a good drink. They will then know where the water is. I've never had to show them where the food is. Chicks can live 3-4 days on their yolk. Depending on the length of time from hatching to shipping, your birds may/may not be hungry when you get them.

My feed store sells 2 kinds of feed ~ one has antibiotics. I can't see feeding this to healthy birds. The other has Amprolium. I feed 17% Chick Starter with Amprolium. The Amprolium protects the chicks against getting coccidiosis.

I've never fed grit. The Chick Starter is broken down so grit isn't needed. Once the birds are free ranging, they pick up stones, sand, etc. that works like grit.

When the birds are 3-4 months old, I mix food grade Diatomaceous Earth and oyster shell into the feed. The DE helps to better digest the feed and deworms. The oyster shell adds calcium for strong bones and hard egg shells.

I train my birds to return to the pens at dusk. Hatchery birds are raised in the house until they feather up. (Some raise the birds outside in a protected area.) Outside, they are then penned for 3 weeks. There's always feed in the hoppers. The old flock can see the 'prisoners' and vice versa. When I open the gate at the end of the 3 weeks, the old and new flock mingle. I've had no problems doing this.

Chicks raised by the hens are kept penned until they feather up. All my birds, chicks and guineas, return to their pens at dusk ~ on their own ~ to roost. I then close the gates. Too many night time predators here to leave the birds lose.

If you move the pens, or move to a different house, the 3 week 'jail' time has to be repeated.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), July 05, 2001.


I created Poultry (Eggs) and Guineas categories which pulled out about 100 of the threads from that category. In doing a Control/F search on chicks I can only find about 25 threads, which doesn't seem to justify a separate category at this point.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), July 06, 2001.

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