Raising baby chicklings
Page 1 of 1
Raising baby chicklings
by Admin Mon Dec 23, 2013 1:20 pm
There are many ways to raise chicks, so here are a few ways people do it.
1. medicated grower with crushed boiled eggs mixed and ls-50 in their water first 7-10 days has worked good havent lost a chick this year
2. Medicate, and provide heat, food, and water with electrolytes
3. Use medicated chick starter, clean water and lots of boiled eggs shell and all. Put a lamp for heat I like to use a red bulb so the chicks don't start to pick each other and they should do fine.
4. if u hatch in the winter u gotta wait til they are much older, same goes for if u live in a colder rainy place wait til they are older if u live in the south and its late spring early summer u can get them on the ground sooner just watch your chicks and see how they handle everything and don't go by what there's say listen to your chickens
5. toe mark, clean your brooder once a day, plenty of water, medicated feed, keep the brooder between 90 and 100 degrees for the first week, 80 to 90 after that, and I do 60 days before I put them on the yard. I also have a roost pole in my brooder. Good luck! REMEMBER THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS CLEANLINESS!!!
6. Here's what I've been doing, and it has worked well for me (only one chick lost to sickness after the first two days out of 70)
Day 1: Electrolytes or brown sugar in the water
Day 2-5: Some kind of amoxicilin in the water
Day 6-9: Water
Day 9-12: Vitamins
Day 13-16: Oxytetracycline in water (same as vetricin)
16-19: Water
19-22: Vitamins
23-24: Pyristat in water (or something else for coccidia which usually hits at one month) as a preventative for coccidia
25-29: Water
30: Deworm
7. LS50 first 7 days, vaccinate with pox if you have a lot of chicks or Thymol powder for seven days when you only have a few! Vitamin/electrolytes until they are free ranged. LS50 2 days before free range and Thymol powder a day before free range then start again with vitamins/electrolytes! Until penning age!
8. i want to tell u few things, if u want ur stags/ pullets to be a strong one; then u should let them in free range, there is no second option for that (no matter about the quantity). i will tell u the few reasons that i know.
1, it gets streptinomycin (natural antibiotics) naturally from microorganisms. it is present in LS 50 , that people r giving at first , and Also penicilin.
2, s we can supply vitamins, electrolytes, trace elements etc. to chicks, but only when it needed, not all the times. (if we supply and raise chicks like this, it may have fighting qualities, but it may lost its natural instinct '"SURVIVING", from all, and it would be raise more or like a broiler or like manufacturing a live product from a company). some wise one saying that " BEST AND SMARTEST ONLY WILL SURVIVE IN THE FREE RANGE". it would made u easier to select the best from the rest...
3, ya we must feed them with cereals and other natural things, as keep feed & maintenence feed, bcoz it was domesticated long long ago by man, so it our duty to offer feed to them. only caged birds needed all the nutrients and other things, but not all the free range birds.
4, if it is in free range means, it will get insects, greens, sunlight etc naturally from the envoirment. but we cant supply most of the things to caged birds...
5, it will be active, but the caged birds doesn't all the time. and the caged birds cant use the legs freely during sparring, that results in bill holding.
6, i am not complaining that raising chicks in pens, is bad. it depends upon the place. but we should let them in free range if we have place and chance.
7, free range ones gets immunity naturally, when it scratches the ground, as well eating some food stuffs naturally.
8, free range will prepare them mentally strong, like alert, sharp, mental toughness etc.
This is few things only, there is more, u will get from naturally. So most of the times stick to natural, dont rely too much of artificial.
9. Antibiotics in their water twice or three times a week and letting them free range if possible has given me 80% survival rates. I also do the feeder crickets once a week starting at 6 weeks. The bugs they eat out on range makes their immune system stronger from the natural protien they have and other benefits! I have a pet store where I buy 100 crickets for $5 and keep them in a fish tank where they reproduce! If you cant free range try to build a big enclosure where they can roam and dig around. Rake the area or the pen from poop and other stuff. I like to water down the area first and dig it up to make it soft and rake every weekend. I have my chicks on a good set schedule. I keep the hen in a big enclosure with a small opening on the bottom. In the morning all the chicks go out and hit the garden bed to eat bugs then I feed the protien crumble mixed with scratch and clean water every morning so they come running back into the enclosure with mom and head back out into the garden bed. At dusk they go back in the enclosure with mom and sleep over night.
10. I hen hatch , pull the chicks at 30 days, keep them in a large brooder pen with lamps until I see them flying up to the 4 foot high roost which is above the lamps, then I leave the brooder pen door open in the daytime and close it at night eventually the group gets smaller due to some taking to the trees with the yard hens, lose very few this way.
11. Feeding: I feed them once a day with medicated chick starter and if the mom is in the brooder they will get some whole corn and catfish food. All this is soaked in water. Sometimes they get canned corn, various berries, different fruits and veggies.
11.1 I keep feed infront of them 24/7 and clean water that why they can eat whatever they like every once in a while i give them cooked rice just a couple spoonfulls because if they dont finish it you got a whole bunch of flies
11.2 I don't feed them the first 24 hours (or even after 48 hrs) after they hatched. This will allow their body to absorb whatever nutrients is left in their system. The first week, give them a good brand of chick broiler (I don't know what we have in P.I. now but I'm happy with Purina Show Chow). Feed them ad libitum. The second week, I make a little variation on their feeds. Instead of giving them feeds for the whole day, I just give them enough until midday or early afternoon. In their afternoon feed, I mix boiled rice (kanin) with the Show Chow and some probiotics powder. If you don't have the powder form, use yakult to wet your rice-broiler mix. You don't have to do it everyday. Two or three times a week should be alright. I also add 1 teaspoon of Apple Cider vinegar in their drinking water. Much better if you can get the organic type of ACV, the one with the "mother" on it - Bragg is one good brand (also good for gout and arthritis, hehehe...). After a month, you should have robust chicks ready to be ranged.
Even if they're already on the range, it wouldn't hurt if you'll give them this boiled rice-ShowChow-probiotics mix occasionally especially after deworming or administering antibiotics. Maintaining a healthy digestive system is the first step if you want to raise winners.
12. Growth of baby chicks: I put them lights in the brooder to keep them warm. I feed them with just enough amount. I want them to grow their muscle and skeletal in a balance phase to develop strength and coordination for their fighting skills when they reach their time, that's for the stags. For the pullets, I want them ready to raise the next gen, they should have vigor and health!
12.1 Too much protein in diet will affect them too. Too much growth and high protein levels will give your birds negative health affects. Bad joints, ligaments and brittle bones to name the least.
12.2 NO! The best chicks you could ever raise are the ones that were hen hatched, hen brood, hen raised, and free ranged as long as possible just before they start to kill each other. They should hit the ground with momma hen at day one, no exceptions. He's probably implying to let nature deal with the bird. All birds have their own luck and gifts.
12.3 What you guys should try is adding bugs into your chicks diet! I feed them crude protein crumbs mixed in with scratch daily, but I also buy them small crickets and worms from local feed store for natural protein. Since I been using bugs into their diet, I get 90% survival. I don't keep them in brooders but in a large cage outside where they can range on the ground! It is the closest to free range that I can provide but it works!
12.4 Chick Starter and Vitamin/Electrolyte powder.
Note: the Vitamin/Electrolyte powder is very concentrated and you only need about 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon per quart. If you over due it, you can hurt them and give them pasty butts or kill them.
I did the math on it and came up with a 1 tsp per gallon. I tend to give a little less than what the directions say just to be on the safe side.
about every third watering, I cut out the vitamins. If you give vitamins all the time, their body won't learn to process vitamins on its own.
13. Hen raising chicks:
If it is practical and if I'm raising my next broodstocks, then by all means, I want my chicks raised by a good hen (with emphasis on "good").
Since I only raise a few fowls at a time, I can afford to have an outdoor coop (a sort of breeding pen/outdoor brooder combo) for my laying hens. While in the coop, the hen and her chicks will have access to soil, grass and sunlight and they would stay there up to three weeks (4 weeks maximum). After that, they are all free ranged. In my experience, the mortality is really high (close to 50%) but those who survived are usually the "smartest", with good bone structure, good muscle development, more resistant to disease, with strong, healthy and shiny feathers and with very good appettite (some are even voracious eaters, lol). I remember Anthony Hidalgo (I think?) wrote in one of his books that chicks raised by hen learn some "chicken sense" from their mother (I really believe this and even had some good experiences but that's another story).
So what's my point? All the things I said above are some of the good qualities we want our fowlss to also have. And the best way to pass these from one generation to another is to hen raised your chicks, let Mother Nature help with the selection process, do your additional culling and at the end of the day, even you end up with fewer fowls, you're confident that what you have left are the best from the batch, the cream of the crop, so to speak. These select few will carry on the good qualities they "learned and acquired" down to the next generation.
Hatching and raising chicks the natural way is more difficult, very risky and requires a lot of work and time than using incubators and brooders. However, the rewards far outweights the time and work required. So take the risks, succeed and you can sleep well. A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.en-raised is always ideal.
However given the circumstance, stated it well that considering the rainy season and the susceptibility to illness due to decrease immune system the use of a brooder would be more practical.
With it being the rainy season, then I would consider a like a 4x4 dome or stag pen made with 2x4 wire. THis way your hen can't get out but the chicks can range as they grow older and stronger but they will always stay close. THey also can get back into the pen to stay dry and warm with the hen. Just a thought. When the chicks get old enough to roost with the hen instead under the hen you can probably turn them all loose as they should be feathered quite nicely by then.
prefer hen raised because of what the hen can provide to her flock. the earlier you range them the better. i got better results this season doing it this way compared to using the brooder. the stags i have this year are healthier, stronger, bigger and taller.
tch and raised by native chickens hehe. it is amazing that the native chicken can hatch 13-15 eggs and raised it all healthy. (I am talking of regular breeding season).
During off season, the same except that the hen is on a pen with lights during night time
"More chicks are lost from feeding too soon than from most other causes. Nature put into the egg enough of just the right kind of food to keep the chick going till strong enough to get its sustenance without. When we feed too soon we interfere with Nature's plan and pay the penalty in losses later on. At the Kansas experiment station the best results were had by letting the chicks go without food for 90 hours after hatching. If the reader is skeptical on this point try it a time or two in a small way. We get back to Nature and make the first feed for the chicks by cutting into fine bits some tender grass. The amount needed is small. The hen that stole her nest and brought off a brood did not provide much for the chicks for the first few days. Many persons make the great mistake of overfeeding while the chicks are young. They usually pay the price in dead chicks later on."
I personally incubate 95% of the time using hens usually as a measure of last resort, accident or very late in the season. A couple of things I changed that I feel has helped me a bunch. First is I limit the amount of water that actually goes into the incubator. I normally use just a small pan filled when placing the eggs in the bator. Then refilled (of course it is bone dry) at 7 days when I first candle. Then refill again at 14 days when I candle again. At day 18 I move the eggs to my hatcher. The hatchers water pan is roughly 4 times as large as the one in my bator. I close the hatcher up and don't open untill day 23. At that time I take them out and put in a brooder.
By restricting the amount of water during the incubation I get better air cells, stronger chicks with many more hatching out. Because where I live and at the time of incubating the relative humidity is usually quite high and if you keep the humidity too high you run the chance of drowning the chicks in the shell plus they are usually a lot cleaner hatching. I would think this would be a problem in the PI as well...By not opening the Hatcher untill day 23 I keep the needed humidity in the hatcher for those that are a bit late and instead of a exhausted chick that only wants to sleep.... I get biddies that are strong, active, hungry, and thirsty......
I hen raise my chicks until they roost then turn them loose till harvest time.....when with the hen growing up I observe which hen releases her chicks while I'm in the coop (6'X8') feeding time.....some hens will call back her chicks to the back of the coop while I'm in feeding...I make sure I pay more attention to these types they tend to be a little more hard to handle when grown up (mental side too) so I try to be in their pen longer and more often....as another way how I make my culls.....temperment and easy to handle and mentally sound.......as one of the reasons why I hen raise....small kine backyard breeder
. But if you can find those ceramic eggs (less than $2.00 per piece from feed stores), I suggest you use these. They are exact replica of normal sized eggs (size, weight and color). Sometimes I have to mark these for easy identification. Just let one fake egg stay in the nest and collect the real eggs. Let the egg-eating hen do what she wants with the fake egg. She would soon "learn" that she can't eat her egg and would leave it alone.
I actually do both. Once the chicks hatch out, I'll place them in the brooder till about 4 weeks old then place them in a bigger cage but without the lamp then when they get about 8 weeks old, I'll let them free range till it's time for them to be penned up. With my pure breedings I'll be penning up the hens about 6 months old, my crosses will be a little later and the stags as soon as they start to show I'll pen them. Right now I am in the process of clearing some property adjacent to my property so I can build some temporary pens about 20' x 20' x 10' high so I can place my pure pullets in until I need them. I'm looking at building 4 of these big pens! I don't actually use the hens to raise the chicks cause right now I am trying to produce more pure lines so I can have a better selection to choose from when it comes time to select future brood fowl to maintain the line.
But in my personal honest opinion, I would rather have the hens raise their biddies, place them in a cage on green grass with enough room for moma to move around and have an access door for the biddies to run in and out of, let them get as much excercise as they can get. And they seem to be alot healthier when moma and mother nature is in charge of the up bringing.
Following are the ways we raise chicken/ "showing" roosters etc (mostly we dont get medicines/ vaccinations for most of the diseases, most of them available only for broiler/ legorn, that too in particular places, not all over places, we rely only on human grade antibiotics/ medicines)
we use only lasota rb strain.
we let them in free range (its not a clean enviornment like urs), free range means ; they always scratch waste piles, dung hills, sewages (may be/ may not be contain human wastes), etc. They get most of the things there. they are food, nutrients, & immunity as well some diseases. If they really scratches in the garden& soil means, i always be happy.
This is for both fighting & ordinary ones, 70% people raise chicken in healthier way& 30% people raise in worst way.
We give nutrient foods only during keep/ sometimes for breeding. For maintenance some prefer millets/ bhajra, that too only for fighting roosters and hen, not for the ordinary ones. And we give multivitamins in particular time only, not all the time.
Anway they adapted to the situation very well here, i know someways are not ethic.
These all totally different from ur way of raising chickens.
if you try to only feed them well during keep and brood ur not gonna have 110 % performance you have to treat them as best as possible their whole life and they will do better for you if letting them free range then make sure they cant get in a bunch of nastyness human waste or whatever but if u cant stop them from getting in that stuff id keep them penned they can live their whole life in a pen heathyier with good feed and a clean pen than they will with free range in nastyneds cause if ur trying to help them by free ranging its not helping if they are getting in that crap it only helps if they are gaining nutrients from it otherwise its pointless but that just my opinion u take from it what u want
the good& bad way percentage varies from place to place. In some places only, some people rase in worst way. They dont even feed them proper foods. (probably 30%)
But my cousin (he lives at village and have enough space) and myself raise them in healthier way. We deworm them regularly, we vaccinate RB strain lasota only. (pls read my first para)
we feed them millets and bhajra. As i live in metro city, I let them in a controlled enviornment.
What i wanted to know is... is this enough or i should incorporate some things in our schedule...? i mean some important nutritional supplements or vaccinations. (i dont think that we will get vaccinations regularly)
i use thunderbird chick booster from day 1 up to 30 days. i'm just following the indications on the 1 kg bag to feed day old chicks ad libitum up to a month then switch to stag developer crumbles from day 31 up until 6 months. along the way, say 3 or 4 months, i start mixing a small portion of concentrate grains to their feeds at a ratio of 25% grains - 75% crumbles or growing mash (whichever you prefer). starting at 6 months onwards, its 50% grains 50% crumbles gradually increasing the percentage of grains until they start looking sharp
since i'm just raising a few heads, mine is from day old, purina chick booster until 6 weeks, then 6 weeks until 5 mos. purina stag developer. from then on i'm starting to mix it with small amount of soaked concentrate and cracked corn for two weeks. after that concentrate mixed with pigeon pellets & cracked corn as maintenance.
with this kind of feeding, you can appreciate the good result starting at the age of 5 mos.
I use PURINA ROOSTER BOOSTER CHICK BOOSTER (Php30.0/kilo) until they are 1 Month Old and then i switch to ROOSTER BOOSTER STAG DEVELOPER (Php27.0/kilo), i give them this until they are ready for cording. but on the fourth month i start mixing grains gradually together with the STAG DEVELOPER. together with regular deworming and the use of water soluble vitamins plus a sound vaccination program... The stags and the pullets out in the range will turn out real nice. their faces are red, bodies feel like a football, well boned and their legs are real sleek.
I like to use 21% starter for the first 6 weeks and then 18% starter/grower for 6 weeks or so.Then I use 18% grower until I start them on my yard feed.All of the starter-grower feeds are medicated but they change the type of medication to try and prevent the type of problems most common for their particular age.I have tried the higher protein feeds such as turkey and gamebird starters and growers but found no noticable difference except in price.
f you can afford to buy several bags you want to feed its best to start them first few days on 30 % or so. Then lower to 26 or 24 for day 3-10 then drop to 18% or so after that. After 30 days I start mixing in yard feed and be 45 days they are on regular yard feed. Remember if you grow them too fast the bones will be brittle and break easily during a fight.
Grow then fast first little bit of their life. Then slow them down. That's how I always did it.
Do you guys know that puppy chow and grind it up or break it up and mix it with scratch if you want has higher levels of crude protien and cheaper! Next time your at your store look at the protien level of puppy chow or similar puppy food and compare! Thats what I use but you can try it for yourself
I believe the reason for using 30% CP or higher CP content chick stater is for faster gowth especially chickens that are use for their meat. They use it for the so-called 45 days chickens because it can be processed after that period. For our purpose, slow growth is better for slower bone development that's why I use 18 to 20% CP and I hold them longer in big above ground chick pens to 8 weeks or more. But I did use Nature Wise CS & Turkey CS before and it is perfect if you plan to range you chicks after 3 to 4 weeks. Our feed store cannot consistently supply us with it because they only order smaller amount everytime and I hate to change from CS to another. I guess they don't have big storage to store it and it is also easier for a high CP chick starter(CS) to get stale and moldy.
If you can make a big pen, like some kind of an enclosure, where you can let your hen and her chicks some freedom, enough space to roam around and lots of exercise while in a safe environment, then that will be the way I would go. There are just too much good benefits an excellent mother hen can give to her chicks.
My point really is let the hen raise her chicks and give her the chance to 'teach' her youngs the fundamentals of being a gamebird.
i take them at one day old put them in a pen with sand floor and two water jars two feeders and two lights so they wont all huddle up together not saying this is the right way to do it but it works for me looks like i wont have to worry about it this year i have had bad luck so far ive not hatched the first one hens coming off early must be the weather
Moma hen raises them until she weans them and ready start a new brood. I usually let them out pens when the chicks are fully feathered 6 weeks to 2 months. If weather in warm summer months earlier. Some hens I can't afford to let out. Many I do most would not but I believe in raising chicks as natural as possible. Stags you do pen up very few are culls
Generally the following is what is used up to six or seven months. The following are generic and you'll have to find out what the branded types are at your place.
1st month - Starter Feed (crumble)
2nd to 6th or 7th month - Stag Developer (crumble or pellet)
From there you usually feed a maintenance feed until you are ready to condition. For conditioning...well, there are about as many different feeds and methods as there are cockers out there
If you are going to breed (which I assume you are because you have a young trio) there are breeding feeds out there. Add lights to extend the "day light" and you should be good. I have had good success with laying using 1/3 commercial laying pellets, 1/3 gamefowl breeding pellets, and 1/3 grains (value mix). You just have to keep an eye on them to make sure they aren't getting too fat or skinny and adjust the amount of feeds accordingly.
The main difference with the feeds is the ratio of protein, fat, and carbohydrates. You want them to develop correctly when they are young and this requires a certain level of protein. You don't want them to get too fat, that's why feed for meat chickens doesn't work very well. But that is why you'll see people say they feed pig feed, pigeon feed, or other things. As long as you are feed has the appropriate levels of protein, fat, and carbohydrates you are good. I'm still fairly new at this and so I don't experiment with my own feeds. I figure is it better to go with the professionals' feeds first and then if I feel the need to tweak it later I can. Hope this helps.
i start on a 22% non medicated starter mixed with a ground corn meal 50lbs to 50lbs and a little chick grit after a week or so old, at 5 or 6 weeks i am putting them slowly on my yard feed by the time they are two / two and a half months old they are eating yard feed, the faster you can work them onto whole grains the better in my oppinion.
1. medicated grower with crushed boiled eggs mixed and ls-50 in their water first 7-10 days has worked good havent lost a chick this year
2. Medicate, and provide heat, food, and water with electrolytes
3. Use medicated chick starter, clean water and lots of boiled eggs shell and all. Put a lamp for heat I like to use a red bulb so the chicks don't start to pick each other and they should do fine.
4. if u hatch in the winter u gotta wait til they are much older, same goes for if u live in a colder rainy place wait til they are older if u live in the south and its late spring early summer u can get them on the ground sooner just watch your chicks and see how they handle everything and don't go by what there's say listen to your chickens
5. toe mark, clean your brooder once a day, plenty of water, medicated feed, keep the brooder between 90 and 100 degrees for the first week, 80 to 90 after that, and I do 60 days before I put them on the yard. I also have a roost pole in my brooder. Good luck! REMEMBER THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS CLEANLINESS!!!
6. Here's what I've been doing, and it has worked well for me (only one chick lost to sickness after the first two days out of 70)
Day 1: Electrolytes or brown sugar in the water
Day 2-5: Some kind of amoxicilin in the water
Day 6-9: Water
Day 9-12: Vitamins
Day 13-16: Oxytetracycline in water (same as vetricin)
16-19: Water
19-22: Vitamins
23-24: Pyristat in water (or something else for coccidia which usually hits at one month) as a preventative for coccidia
25-29: Water
30: Deworm
7. LS50 first 7 days, vaccinate with pox if you have a lot of chicks or Thymol powder for seven days when you only have a few! Vitamin/electrolytes until they are free ranged. LS50 2 days before free range and Thymol powder a day before free range then start again with vitamins/electrolytes! Until penning age!
8. i want to tell u few things, if u want ur stags/ pullets to be a strong one; then u should let them in free range, there is no second option for that (no matter about the quantity). i will tell u the few reasons that i know.
1, it gets streptinomycin (natural antibiotics) naturally from microorganisms. it is present in LS 50 , that people r giving at first , and Also penicilin.
2, s we can supply vitamins, electrolytes, trace elements etc. to chicks, but only when it needed, not all the times. (if we supply and raise chicks like this, it may have fighting qualities, but it may lost its natural instinct '"SURVIVING", from all, and it would be raise more or like a broiler or like manufacturing a live product from a company). some wise one saying that " BEST AND SMARTEST ONLY WILL SURVIVE IN THE FREE RANGE". it would made u easier to select the best from the rest...
3, ya we must feed them with cereals and other natural things, as keep feed & maintenence feed, bcoz it was domesticated long long ago by man, so it our duty to offer feed to them. only caged birds needed all the nutrients and other things, but not all the free range birds.
4, if it is in free range means, it will get insects, greens, sunlight etc naturally from the envoirment. but we cant supply most of the things to caged birds...
5, it will be active, but the caged birds doesn't all the time. and the caged birds cant use the legs freely during sparring, that results in bill holding.
6, i am not complaining that raising chicks in pens, is bad. it depends upon the place. but we should let them in free range if we have place and chance.
7, free range ones gets immunity naturally, when it scratches the ground, as well eating some food stuffs naturally.
8, free range will prepare them mentally strong, like alert, sharp, mental toughness etc.
This is few things only, there is more, u will get from naturally. So most of the times stick to natural, dont rely too much of artificial.
9. Antibiotics in their water twice or three times a week and letting them free range if possible has given me 80% survival rates. I also do the feeder crickets once a week starting at 6 weeks. The bugs they eat out on range makes their immune system stronger from the natural protien they have and other benefits! I have a pet store where I buy 100 crickets for $5 and keep them in a fish tank where they reproduce! If you cant free range try to build a big enclosure where they can roam and dig around. Rake the area or the pen from poop and other stuff. I like to water down the area first and dig it up to make it soft and rake every weekend. I have my chicks on a good set schedule. I keep the hen in a big enclosure with a small opening on the bottom. In the morning all the chicks go out and hit the garden bed to eat bugs then I feed the protien crumble mixed with scratch and clean water every morning so they come running back into the enclosure with mom and head back out into the garden bed. At dusk they go back in the enclosure with mom and sleep over night.
10. I hen hatch , pull the chicks at 30 days, keep them in a large brooder pen with lamps until I see them flying up to the 4 foot high roost which is above the lamps, then I leave the brooder pen door open in the daytime and close it at night eventually the group gets smaller due to some taking to the trees with the yard hens, lose very few this way.
11. Feeding: I feed them once a day with medicated chick starter and if the mom is in the brooder they will get some whole corn and catfish food. All this is soaked in water. Sometimes they get canned corn, various berries, different fruits and veggies.
11.1 I keep feed infront of them 24/7 and clean water that why they can eat whatever they like every once in a while i give them cooked rice just a couple spoonfulls because if they dont finish it you got a whole bunch of flies
11.2 I don't feed them the first 24 hours (or even after 48 hrs) after they hatched. This will allow their body to absorb whatever nutrients is left in their system. The first week, give them a good brand of chick broiler (I don't know what we have in P.I. now but I'm happy with Purina Show Chow). Feed them ad libitum. The second week, I make a little variation on their feeds. Instead of giving them feeds for the whole day, I just give them enough until midday or early afternoon. In their afternoon feed, I mix boiled rice (kanin) with the Show Chow and some probiotics powder. If you don't have the powder form, use yakult to wet your rice-broiler mix. You don't have to do it everyday. Two or three times a week should be alright. I also add 1 teaspoon of Apple Cider vinegar in their drinking water. Much better if you can get the organic type of ACV, the one with the "mother" on it - Bragg is one good brand (also good for gout and arthritis, hehehe...). After a month, you should have robust chicks ready to be ranged.
Even if they're already on the range, it wouldn't hurt if you'll give them this boiled rice-ShowChow-probiotics mix occasionally especially after deworming or administering antibiotics. Maintaining a healthy digestive system is the first step if you want to raise winners.
12. Growth of baby chicks: I put them lights in the brooder to keep them warm. I feed them with just enough amount. I want them to grow their muscle and skeletal in a balance phase to develop strength and coordination for their fighting skills when they reach their time, that's for the stags. For the pullets, I want them ready to raise the next gen, they should have vigor and health!
12.1 Too much protein in diet will affect them too. Too much growth and high protein levels will give your birds negative health affects. Bad joints, ligaments and brittle bones to name the least.
12.2 NO! The best chicks you could ever raise are the ones that were hen hatched, hen brood, hen raised, and free ranged as long as possible just before they start to kill each other. They should hit the ground with momma hen at day one, no exceptions. He's probably implying to let nature deal with the bird. All birds have their own luck and gifts.
12.3 What you guys should try is adding bugs into your chicks diet! I feed them crude protein crumbs mixed in with scratch daily, but I also buy them small crickets and worms from local feed store for natural protein. Since I been using bugs into their diet, I get 90% survival. I don't keep them in brooders but in a large cage outside where they can range on the ground! It is the closest to free range that I can provide but it works!
12.4 Chick Starter and Vitamin/Electrolyte powder.
Note: the Vitamin/Electrolyte powder is very concentrated and you only need about 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon per quart. If you over due it, you can hurt them and give them pasty butts or kill them.
I did the math on it and came up with a 1 tsp per gallon. I tend to give a little less than what the directions say just to be on the safe side.
about every third watering, I cut out the vitamins. If you give vitamins all the time, their body won't learn to process vitamins on its own.
13. Hen raising chicks:
If it is practical and if I'm raising my next broodstocks, then by all means, I want my chicks raised by a good hen (with emphasis on "good").
Since I only raise a few fowls at a time, I can afford to have an outdoor coop (a sort of breeding pen/outdoor brooder combo) for my laying hens. While in the coop, the hen and her chicks will have access to soil, grass and sunlight and they would stay there up to three weeks (4 weeks maximum). After that, they are all free ranged. In my experience, the mortality is really high (close to 50%) but those who survived are usually the "smartest", with good bone structure, good muscle development, more resistant to disease, with strong, healthy and shiny feathers and with very good appettite (some are even voracious eaters, lol). I remember Anthony Hidalgo (I think?) wrote in one of his books that chicks raised by hen learn some "chicken sense" from their mother (I really believe this and even had some good experiences but that's another story).
So what's my point? All the things I said above are some of the good qualities we want our fowlss to also have. And the best way to pass these from one generation to another is to hen raised your chicks, let Mother Nature help with the selection process, do your additional culling and at the end of the day, even you end up with fewer fowls, you're confident that what you have left are the best from the batch, the cream of the crop, so to speak. These select few will carry on the good qualities they "learned and acquired" down to the next generation.
Hatching and raising chicks the natural way is more difficult, very risky and requires a lot of work and time than using incubators and brooders. However, the rewards far outweights the time and work required. So take the risks, succeed and you can sleep well. A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.en-raised is always ideal.
However given the circumstance, stated it well that considering the rainy season and the susceptibility to illness due to decrease immune system the use of a brooder would be more practical.
With it being the rainy season, then I would consider a like a 4x4 dome or stag pen made with 2x4 wire. THis way your hen can't get out but the chicks can range as they grow older and stronger but they will always stay close. THey also can get back into the pen to stay dry and warm with the hen. Just a thought. When the chicks get old enough to roost with the hen instead under the hen you can probably turn them all loose as they should be feathered quite nicely by then.
prefer hen raised because of what the hen can provide to her flock. the earlier you range them the better. i got better results this season doing it this way compared to using the brooder. the stags i have this year are healthier, stronger, bigger and taller.
tch and raised by native chickens hehe. it is amazing that the native chicken can hatch 13-15 eggs and raised it all healthy. (I am talking of regular breeding season).
During off season, the same except that the hen is on a pen with lights during night time
"More chicks are lost from feeding too soon than from most other causes. Nature put into the egg enough of just the right kind of food to keep the chick going till strong enough to get its sustenance without. When we feed too soon we interfere with Nature's plan and pay the penalty in losses later on. At the Kansas experiment station the best results were had by letting the chicks go without food for 90 hours after hatching. If the reader is skeptical on this point try it a time or two in a small way. We get back to Nature and make the first feed for the chicks by cutting into fine bits some tender grass. The amount needed is small. The hen that stole her nest and brought off a brood did not provide much for the chicks for the first few days. Many persons make the great mistake of overfeeding while the chicks are young. They usually pay the price in dead chicks later on."
I personally incubate 95% of the time using hens usually as a measure of last resort, accident or very late in the season. A couple of things I changed that I feel has helped me a bunch. First is I limit the amount of water that actually goes into the incubator. I normally use just a small pan filled when placing the eggs in the bator. Then refilled (of course it is bone dry) at 7 days when I first candle. Then refill again at 14 days when I candle again. At day 18 I move the eggs to my hatcher. The hatchers water pan is roughly 4 times as large as the one in my bator. I close the hatcher up and don't open untill day 23. At that time I take them out and put in a brooder.
By restricting the amount of water during the incubation I get better air cells, stronger chicks with many more hatching out. Because where I live and at the time of incubating the relative humidity is usually quite high and if you keep the humidity too high you run the chance of drowning the chicks in the shell plus they are usually a lot cleaner hatching. I would think this would be a problem in the PI as well...By not opening the Hatcher untill day 23 I keep the needed humidity in the hatcher for those that are a bit late and instead of a exhausted chick that only wants to sleep.... I get biddies that are strong, active, hungry, and thirsty......
I hen raise my chicks until they roost then turn them loose till harvest time.....when with the hen growing up I observe which hen releases her chicks while I'm in the coop (6'X8') feeding time.....some hens will call back her chicks to the back of the coop while I'm in feeding...I make sure I pay more attention to these types they tend to be a little more hard to handle when grown up (mental side too) so I try to be in their pen longer and more often....as another way how I make my culls.....temperment and easy to handle and mentally sound.......as one of the reasons why I hen raise....small kine backyard breeder
. But if you can find those ceramic eggs (less than $2.00 per piece from feed stores), I suggest you use these. They are exact replica of normal sized eggs (size, weight and color). Sometimes I have to mark these for easy identification. Just let one fake egg stay in the nest and collect the real eggs. Let the egg-eating hen do what she wants with the fake egg. She would soon "learn" that she can't eat her egg and would leave it alone.
I actually do both. Once the chicks hatch out, I'll place them in the brooder till about 4 weeks old then place them in a bigger cage but without the lamp then when they get about 8 weeks old, I'll let them free range till it's time for them to be penned up. With my pure breedings I'll be penning up the hens about 6 months old, my crosses will be a little later and the stags as soon as they start to show I'll pen them. Right now I am in the process of clearing some property adjacent to my property so I can build some temporary pens about 20' x 20' x 10' high so I can place my pure pullets in until I need them. I'm looking at building 4 of these big pens! I don't actually use the hens to raise the chicks cause right now I am trying to produce more pure lines so I can have a better selection to choose from when it comes time to select future brood fowl to maintain the line.
But in my personal honest opinion, I would rather have the hens raise their biddies, place them in a cage on green grass with enough room for moma to move around and have an access door for the biddies to run in and out of, let them get as much excercise as they can get. And they seem to be alot healthier when moma and mother nature is in charge of the up bringing.
Following are the ways we raise chicken/ "showing" roosters etc (mostly we dont get medicines/ vaccinations for most of the diseases, most of them available only for broiler/ legorn, that too in particular places, not all over places, we rely only on human grade antibiotics/ medicines)
we use only lasota rb strain.
we let them in free range (its not a clean enviornment like urs), free range means ; they always scratch waste piles, dung hills, sewages (may be/ may not be contain human wastes), etc. They get most of the things there. they are food, nutrients, & immunity as well some diseases. If they really scratches in the garden& soil means, i always be happy.
This is for both fighting & ordinary ones, 70% people raise chicken in healthier way& 30% people raise in worst way.
We give nutrient foods only during keep/ sometimes for breeding. For maintenance some prefer millets/ bhajra, that too only for fighting roosters and hen, not for the ordinary ones. And we give multivitamins in particular time only, not all the time.
Anway they adapted to the situation very well here, i know someways are not ethic.
These all totally different from ur way of raising chickens.
if you try to only feed them well during keep and brood ur not gonna have 110 % performance you have to treat them as best as possible their whole life and they will do better for you if letting them free range then make sure they cant get in a bunch of nastyness human waste or whatever but if u cant stop them from getting in that stuff id keep them penned they can live their whole life in a pen heathyier with good feed and a clean pen than they will with free range in nastyneds cause if ur trying to help them by free ranging its not helping if they are getting in that crap it only helps if they are gaining nutrients from it otherwise its pointless but that just my opinion u take from it what u want
the good& bad way percentage varies from place to place. In some places only, some people rase in worst way. They dont even feed them proper foods. (probably 30%)
But my cousin (he lives at village and have enough space) and myself raise them in healthier way. We deworm them regularly, we vaccinate RB strain lasota only. (pls read my first para)
we feed them millets and bhajra. As i live in metro city, I let them in a controlled enviornment.
What i wanted to know is... is this enough or i should incorporate some things in our schedule...? i mean some important nutritional supplements or vaccinations. (i dont think that we will get vaccinations regularly)
i use thunderbird chick booster from day 1 up to 30 days. i'm just following the indications on the 1 kg bag to feed day old chicks ad libitum up to a month then switch to stag developer crumbles from day 31 up until 6 months. along the way, say 3 or 4 months, i start mixing a small portion of concentrate grains to their feeds at a ratio of 25% grains - 75% crumbles or growing mash (whichever you prefer). starting at 6 months onwards, its 50% grains 50% crumbles gradually increasing the percentage of grains until they start looking sharp
since i'm just raising a few heads, mine is from day old, purina chick booster until 6 weeks, then 6 weeks until 5 mos. purina stag developer. from then on i'm starting to mix it with small amount of soaked concentrate and cracked corn for two weeks. after that concentrate mixed with pigeon pellets & cracked corn as maintenance.
with this kind of feeding, you can appreciate the good result starting at the age of 5 mos.
I use PURINA ROOSTER BOOSTER CHICK BOOSTER (Php30.0/kilo) until they are 1 Month Old and then i switch to ROOSTER BOOSTER STAG DEVELOPER (Php27.0/kilo), i give them this until they are ready for cording. but on the fourth month i start mixing grains gradually together with the STAG DEVELOPER. together with regular deworming and the use of water soluble vitamins plus a sound vaccination program... The stags and the pullets out in the range will turn out real nice. their faces are red, bodies feel like a football, well boned and their legs are real sleek.
I like to use 21% starter for the first 6 weeks and then 18% starter/grower for 6 weeks or so.Then I use 18% grower until I start them on my yard feed.All of the starter-grower feeds are medicated but they change the type of medication to try and prevent the type of problems most common for their particular age.I have tried the higher protein feeds such as turkey and gamebird starters and growers but found no noticable difference except in price.
f you can afford to buy several bags you want to feed its best to start them first few days on 30 % or so. Then lower to 26 or 24 for day 3-10 then drop to 18% or so after that. After 30 days I start mixing in yard feed and be 45 days they are on regular yard feed. Remember if you grow them too fast the bones will be brittle and break easily during a fight.
Grow then fast first little bit of their life. Then slow them down. That's how I always did it.
Do you guys know that puppy chow and grind it up or break it up and mix it with scratch if you want has higher levels of crude protien and cheaper! Next time your at your store look at the protien level of puppy chow or similar puppy food and compare! Thats what I use but you can try it for yourself
I believe the reason for using 30% CP or higher CP content chick stater is for faster gowth especially chickens that are use for their meat. They use it for the so-called 45 days chickens because it can be processed after that period. For our purpose, slow growth is better for slower bone development that's why I use 18 to 20% CP and I hold them longer in big above ground chick pens to 8 weeks or more. But I did use Nature Wise CS & Turkey CS before and it is perfect if you plan to range you chicks after 3 to 4 weeks. Our feed store cannot consistently supply us with it because they only order smaller amount everytime and I hate to change from CS to another. I guess they don't have big storage to store it and it is also easier for a high CP chick starter(CS) to get stale and moldy.
If you can make a big pen, like some kind of an enclosure, where you can let your hen and her chicks some freedom, enough space to roam around and lots of exercise while in a safe environment, then that will be the way I would go. There are just too much good benefits an excellent mother hen can give to her chicks.
My point really is let the hen raise her chicks and give her the chance to 'teach' her youngs the fundamentals of being a gamebird.
i take them at one day old put them in a pen with sand floor and two water jars two feeders and two lights so they wont all huddle up together not saying this is the right way to do it but it works for me looks like i wont have to worry about it this year i have had bad luck so far ive not hatched the first one hens coming off early must be the weather
Moma hen raises them until she weans them and ready start a new brood. I usually let them out pens when the chicks are fully feathered 6 weeks to 2 months. If weather in warm summer months earlier. Some hens I can't afford to let out. Many I do most would not but I believe in raising chicks as natural as possible. Stags you do pen up very few are culls
Generally the following is what is used up to six or seven months. The following are generic and you'll have to find out what the branded types are at your place.
1st month - Starter Feed (crumble)
2nd to 6th or 7th month - Stag Developer (crumble or pellet)
From there you usually feed a maintenance feed until you are ready to condition. For conditioning...well, there are about as many different feeds and methods as there are cockers out there
If you are going to breed (which I assume you are because you have a young trio) there are breeding feeds out there. Add lights to extend the "day light" and you should be good. I have had good success with laying using 1/3 commercial laying pellets, 1/3 gamefowl breeding pellets, and 1/3 grains (value mix). You just have to keep an eye on them to make sure they aren't getting too fat or skinny and adjust the amount of feeds accordingly.
The main difference with the feeds is the ratio of protein, fat, and carbohydrates. You want them to develop correctly when they are young and this requires a certain level of protein. You don't want them to get too fat, that's why feed for meat chickens doesn't work very well. But that is why you'll see people say they feed pig feed, pigeon feed, or other things. As long as you are feed has the appropriate levels of protein, fat, and carbohydrates you are good. I'm still fairly new at this and so I don't experiment with my own feeds. I figure is it better to go with the professionals' feeds first and then if I feel the need to tweak it later I can. Hope this helps.
i start on a 22% non medicated starter mixed with a ground corn meal 50lbs to 50lbs and a little chick grit after a week or so old, at 5 or 6 weeks i am putting them slowly on my yard feed by the time they are two / two and a half months old they are eating yard feed, the faster you can work them onto whole grains the better in my oppinion.
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