We got our first flock of chicks in a couple of weeks ago now and we have fallen in love with our girls! Its been such a great experience watching them grow so quickly right before our eyes. It has also been such an excellent learning experience for my kiddos and it gives them a sense of responsibility. And I have found it also helps from them wanting to constantly hold them. While I do let the kids hold the chicks its normally during the chick brooder cleaning time and sometimes at the end of the day while we are winding down. You don't want to handle the chicks too much because they could possibly die and you don't want to hold the rooster at all. Since we don't know which chick is the rooster just yet we keep this at a minimum. If you hold the rooster often and he gets use to you then he will try to be more dominant and mean.
They have their specific jobs which include:
1. Being on chicken watch. This includes checking in on them through out today to make sure their water is clean & that they have fresh feed. Chicks go through a lot of food and water. That is when they aren't pooping in it so keeping watch on this is a full time job. You always want to keep it fresh so you dont get a case of coccidia in your flock. My 6 year old is also in charge of filling their feed up.
2. Watching for pasty butt. This isn't a big deal now as it was when we first got them, but pasty butt can actually kill your chicks if not cared for. Pasty butt is when their poop is dried onto their vent and feathers and it will need to be removed. To remove you can use a warm wash cloth to gently wipe off, but I found running their tush under warm water in the sink, dry as much as you can with a towel, and then apply petroleum jelly to their vent area helped the best. Although some sites will say to apply olive oil I would avoid this because it could sour.
Pasty butt is usually caused from the stress of shipping or even from being too hot. And of course, little boys are usually pretty gross so my son loves yelling about pasty butt when he spies a chick with that going on down there.
3. When Im cleaning out the brooder (we do this about every 3 days), then their job is to help make sure they do not jump out of the box we keep them in during this time. They love this job and find it loads of fun!
4. Giving them treats. Chickens love worms and my kids love dirt. When we go outside to garden they have a jar they keep with them and they dig up worms to give the chickens as treats. This also serves as a good laugh because as soon as the chicks get a hold of a few worms chaos breaks out in the brooder. Prepare for a good laugh.
5. Giving them love! The best part of raising chickens, apart from the eggs, is giving them lots of love!
We currently have 27 chicks and we purchased them from My Pet Chicken. We loved dealing with this company! Their customer service is wonderful and in the event that any of your chicks die on arrival or within the first 48 hours they will refund you. We actually lost 3. 1 of our black australorps were dead on arrival and then we lost a silkie and rhode island red at home.
We ordered golden comets, buff orphingons, rhode island reds, barred rocks, an olive egger, easter eggers, black australorps, white leghorns, silkies, and we got their surprise hatch eggs which included a blue polish, a phoenix, and one that is still unidentified. When ordering we picked our specific breeds and then added the surprise hatch special and brown egg layer special. Which is where its their pick on what you get. We love surprises and it has been a lot of fun trying to guess what chicks are what. I also knew I wanted a pretty egg basked every morning so we chose chickens that would lay a variety of colors such as different shades of brown, white, green, and shades of blue. Im hoping to add one more chick to our flock if I can find a maran which will lay a dark chocolate colored brown egg.
In an effort to live a more self sustainable lifestyle we have also been experimenting with making our own organic chicken feed so I will be sharing that recipe soon as well as where you can buy the ingredients in bulk.
I will be blogging about our coop, the design we chose, and how we are transferring them outdoors soon!
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