You may not think of baby chicks at the dead of winter, although the ground is frozen over and icicles are hanging out of the eaves. Cold as it may be, winter is time for ordering chicks, particularly if you’re likely to order rare-breed chicks online. If you’re likely to purchase basic White Leghorns or Rhode Island Reds from the local farm supply store, feel free to wait until spring, but for the rest of us, the time is now!
After your chicks arrive, you’ll need to have an interim place for them to stay; you can’t throw them straight into the coop. Here’s the way to take care of your infant chicks in their infancy,”teenage” months and maturity.
Designs to the hens: Chicken Coops Rule the Roost
Amy Renea
When you buy chicks online, you’re most likely buying a rare breed that cannot be found locally. You need to place your order today since the inventory begins to run out on the many gorgeous breeds the nearer we get to spring up. Obtaining your order in early ensures that you will find the strains you desire. The chicks will arrive in spring, and they will be literally a day old.
Before ordering chicks, first make sure that your neighborhood statutes and town zoning laws allow you to raise cows. Asking your neighbors about their own tastes is also a nice gesture when considering raising a flock.
Amy Renea
Chicks are sent in cardboard boxes throughout the country whenever they’re hatched. As crazy as that sounds, the chicks arrive happy and healthy.
When intending a temporary home for chicks, note the industrial shipping boxes used. Made from cardboard, the boxes give little chick feet something to hold onto. You do not want to place chicks in a slick plastic or metal container, since their feet and feet will not develop correctly. You’ll also require a simple heat lamp or quite warm room for those chicks in the beginning.
Amy Renea
Take a peek in the shipping box and then notice the thin and soft bedding material. When designing your chicks’ first home, choose the smallest pine shavings or perhaps hamster bedding in the beginning. Avoid cedar chips, as these can damage the chicks’ lungs.
While chicks will gradually go outdoors to open grazing, it is a bad place for them initially. Although chicks survive just fine outdoors with their mom in nature,”orphan” chicks will not survive out in the open by themselves, without heat and security.
Lindsay von Hagel
The second worst place for the chicks is your coop, with its mature chickens, thick bedding and spacious water pans. They can drown in the water and become trapped under bed. Mature cows will even peck in the babies.
Amy Renea
Baby chicks may also start pecking at one another. If it comes to pass, it is vital to separate the injured chick. So be prepared to have a lot of spaces inside and then outdoors to house the chicks.
Williams-Sonoma
Alexandria Chicken Coop and Run – $1,499.95
A moveable chicken tractor is the best set up for integrating chicks to the outdoors. After they sleep inside at night, you can let them to the guarded part of the tractor each day. The mature cows can roam around in the grass surrounding the tractor, permitting both flocks to get used to one another.
A triangular design functions well with this adjustment period as well. If you’ll be raising new chicks each year, you may want to consider this design.
If you’ve got a small coop, consider letting the adult chickens out in the early hours, putting the chicks indoors, and then shifting through the nighttime. Chicks can get accustomed to the coop without being at risk in the adults.
Amy Renea
Once chicks can jump to nesting boxes and up a small scale or ladder, they can start seeing the”grown-up” coop through the day.
Amy Renea
Placing nesting boxes levels allows the smaller cows to become accustomed to flying into the boxes, while leaving space for the adults to lay their eggs at the higher boxes.
eric marcus studio
Straightforward ramps can allow”teenager” cows to go just about everywhere. A simple plank design with small cross pieces can allow small cows to get to and from the coop, feeding areas and nesting areas.
Avant Garden
A fenced-in area with a enclosed coop also functions well to integrate younger and mature chickens. Since the chickens become used to one another, they have different space to move in, and fighting is kept to a minimal.
eric marcus studio
In your roosting setup, make sure there is more than enough space for both mature and younger chickens. When there’s limited space, the adults will strike the smaller cows when they try to roost. Multiples bars or multiple roosting spaces solve this problem.
While natural predators and mature chickens are often the best threat to your chicks, a housecat can cause difficulties as well. Housecats are usually uninterested in chicks and are intimidated by full-grown chickens, but teenage cows would be the ideal age for them to pursue. Make sure housecats are introduced to the chickens early, so that they can get used to them, but do not expect them about chicks between 6 and 3 months old.
Janiczek Homes
To recap, while purchasing buying chicks in the farm store or online may be a simple endeavor, their care once they arrive at your doorstep is more involved. Make sure you have an easy, warm setup when they arrive. If you’ve got adult chickens and other animals, make different spaces for the new chicks. Be cautious of dangers like open water utensils, heavy bedding and housecats. Nip any poultry bullying in the bud immediately. While raising chicks is much more work than purchasing pullets, it is definitely enjoyable and well worth the effort.
More:
Chicken Coops Rule the Roost
The Twist on Chicken Coops