The babies are here!

[pathwayholding]

Picked up my babies (7 Rhode Island Reds) on Tuesday morning. Wasn't sure Dotty was gonna make it...she face planted the second I got her in the brooder and didn't come around for a couple hours. Not only did she come around but she's the most dominant lady in the box now!

Linus and Peppe both have pasty butt but they are really good about the whole Q-tip and hot water treatment.

Got a question for you chicken people out there...when can I start giving them treats like fruit and veggie scraps?

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[bookwormom]

good for you.
hold off on the treats. I had not thought of them that way, to me that is scraps. but give them a little sand in their feed. it has been a long time ago, but I remember my mother explaining to a little girl (me) that they need sand or their butt will gum up.

[walls0stone]

who did you order from? My Cal' whites got away. Hole in the pen...totaly bummed.

[pathwayholding]

I bought grit to use when they are on a more fiberous diet. The "baby" food people say you don't need it when they are only on starter pebbles.

I got them through MyPetChicken.com and was totally pleased with the experience. They were able to send a small number of birds, they came exactly when they said they would, and everybody arrived alive. Although, I'm obviously not sure how well their sexing ratio is yet ...

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[walls0stone]

thanks for the tip.

What old timmers did here was give them adult chicken feed. I understand that chic feed has some meds in it... and they would give the chics a box of soil, sand er whatever to scratch about in.

[Drawbar]

Just in case anyone is interested, the normal mortality rate for chicken is 4%. Obviously that is 4 out of 100 birds so on our 50,000 bird farm, that meant you could expect 2000 dead birds per batch.

The reason I mention this is that some people get upset when they have a bird that dies. It's actually pretty normal, but if you go beyond the 4% range I would start doing some calling as to find out why. With somenella, and the avian bird flu virus going around, even homesteaders are bound to get help from state and federal resources.

PS: Just a farmer that knows passing on some good information here.