24 chicks and 2 five y.o. twin boy's??

[chucker]

ordered 24 chicks an 3 roosters for the twin 5 y.old grandsons to raise this year. should be fun to watch what happens. fixed the old 4x8 fish house for a brooder house set up with a red heat lamp. water'ers and feed troughs along with the first 50# bag of medicated chick starter ready to grow! will need to keep the chick in the heated porch for the first two weeks till they get their whites coming on instead of the yellow down...... wow? 95 to 100* for the first week and down by 5* every week there after! sure glad im not a chick(en)! lol more to come later with pics !

 

[hedge hog]

they should have a blast with them!
few years ago my daughter wanted her own chicks so I let her pick any breed she wanted .
she pick black giants and she had them so tame that they come set on your lap just to get some attention when I was outside in a lawn chair.

be careful with cold temps you still up there ,drafts can be a problem too.
when it's this cold I run two heat lamps at different heights so they don't bunch up and smash the ones that get on bottom.
good luck

 

[mdavlee]

We just got 10 this past week. The 4 year old wanted them and won't handle them. Said they're too pokey on their feet. I hope she'll help feed and water them still.

 

[hedge hog]

We just got 10 this past week. The 4 year old wanted them and won't handle them. Said they're too pokey on their feet

both are cute at that age!

 

[mdavlee]

Yep. The 11 month old wants to hold them. Not sure either one is ready for tat.

 

[hedge hog]

they put a pretty good squeeze on them !
year ago I let some one year olds hold them and I got a crippled hen out of it.
not a big deal at all though and it made a good picture for the parents

 

[chucker]

true that! the cold just don't seem to let loose....my 3 kids had a blast raising chicks till the dreaded time came to feed the other side of the equation! in the end of things were planning to winter with 12 hens an a single rooster. hoping to average 6/8 eggs daily.

 

[mdavlee]

We're hoping for about 3 dozen a week. Anything over that and I don't know what we'll do with them.

 

[chucker]

I have an offer to do a trade of eggs for feed... so this is a win/win and no money changing hands... we would probably use 2 doz. a week ourselves.

 

[hedge hog]

I had 80 head at one time and when winter hit they really like stop laying so I put some lights on a timer so it would keep them with 14 hour of light and the laying picked back up to normal and kept my 13 dozen a week to a church all winter long.
got a dollar a dozen and going to people that didn't have a lot to begin with .
don't think I would try it again at a 1$/dozen with the grain prices like they are now

 

[chucker]

I lucked out! a friend works at a grain mill and has all that he can sweep up at the end of his mixing run... lot of # 2 feed....

 

[tbow388]

I started out with 4 hens and a rooster. One hen had a sex change and so did his name. Bought another hen so we would have 4.

I cant keep eggs at home. Sell a couple dozen a week at $2.50. Bought another hen last week and am looking for another hen.

My hens are 1-RIR, 1- light brama, 1-Barred Rock, 1 black hen & 1 tan hen.

My Roosters are the sex change RIR and the multi colored mutt we call Templeton.

 

[chucker]

Thursday am is "C-DAY" the brooder house is ready for the extended family members .. after the first two weeks beside the wood stove in the porch to mother them in till they get their whites an hopefully warmer temps outside... having raised some 300 chicks/rabbits as a kid, I am not remembering it with so much extra work? lol but now with just the 24/3 it should not be so bad ? seems like I have forgot more then I care to remember! "OH WELL" it will be fun to watch the grand kids with the chicks...... pics to follow!

 

[chucker]

picked up the package of peep's at 8:30 this morning and their set to grow!

 

[chucker]

update on the brood! chicks are a week old today growing an the feathers are showing up so hopefully they will be able to be moved to the coop at the end of next week ? before.....

now.

 

[mdavlee]

We are dropping the temperature on them to 80 this week. Hopefully next week they can go to our coop with a heat lamp inside for night time.

 

[hedge hog]

the warmer you can keep them the faster they will grow, keep that in mind.
I still don't think winter is over yet ?
be sure to run 2 heat lamps when outside in a coop,, never failed for me to have a bulb go out in one of them.
set them a little lower too.
I see there growing fast by the pictures !

 

[chucker]

came home tonight at 6 pm to find the little buggers sitting on the edge of their box!! so I guess its time to move them to the hen house...... don't need chicks running all over the porch. lol the wife wasn't to keen on having the fuzzy little critters anywhere near the house? lol so its the chicks ?? or the dog house for me!!

 

[chucker]

sent the chickies to the new coop, see if they make it through the night with the heat lamp running at 75 degs. still a few yellow down spots left on the little critters....two more weeks inside the coop and they should be able to head outside for the rest of the warmer months. next project for the coop- will be the run set up to a 8'x10' with one side entrance. hope this will work for 29 pullets not sure of how much scratch room they need? fashioned 3 nest boxes out of some 12 gallon barrels and still need to finish 2 more for 5 nests ... I will post a few pics tomorrow evening after work.... pics added....

 

[chucker]

update... chicks are a month old an doing well... feathers are white and eating better than a gallon of feed a day.