CHICKEN MASTERS NEEDED!!!

[cam191919]

i want baby chicks but for some reason i just cant understand how to take care of them. i noticed alot of people have chickens round here.

i want to order them from murray mcmurray

i dont have a brooder, but im willing to make or buy one

i only want a few

i want ducks too

i have two chickens already but never chicks. they live in an 8 by 12 by 6 foot coop, is that big enough for like 6 more. can chickens and ducks live together in the brooder and/or coop. i really need help! please reply

[midnighttrain]

I got chicks for the first time this year so this may not be exactly right, but what I did. We kept them in a large dog crate, with a piece of newspaper on the floor. People say not to use newspaper but thats what we had. We gave them a shallow water dish with rocks in it to keep them from drowning themselves. And a food dish but they just dump it out. Keep em in a warm room or provide a heat lamp.
Thought I'd mention the mcmurray site says 25 is minimum order for chickies. :(

Poultry forum might be more helpful http://poultryone.com/forum/

[Mgamer20o0]

tenchi can help you she lives with some chickens......... i say deep fry them

[Lupin]

Mg!:eek: Bad!:nono:

Your coop should be able to accommodate 6 more chicks. Ducks are so messy if you ask me. My grandparents raise ducks and chickens together. I used to raise both myself but never together. Even turkeys and guinea fowls are included and my parents sometimes thought I was being too much spending a lot just for those.:rolleyes: I don't like the full-grown ducks in my backyard with all the mess they make.

Raising them is easy enough for me. I simply feed them and give them a dish of water to drink. Sometimes I release them to my lawn to graze for the whole day and put them back in their cages during sunset.

[The Zigman]

I prefer mine Extra Crispy!!

[Malbri]

I started mine in a rubbermaid. For the first few days, they are on strait paper towels, then onto shedded paper, then shavings. They sell chick feeders, but I just went to using paper plates, because the feeders were hard to scrub with the caked on poop. I put marbles in the waterer for the first week or so, to keep them from getting wet and chilled. Im using a red heat lamp, a white one may cause them to get irritated and peck. 95 degrees for the first week, then down 5 degrees each week. I think mine may be a bit cooler than that, but the chicks will tell you if they are uncomfortable. If they huddle, warm it up, if they are avoiding the heat lamp, cool it down( change the temp by changing the height of the heat lamp) The cooler it is, the quicker they will feather. Mine are in my room right now, but if you are a neat freak that may not be the best idea. They create a ton of dust, and at about a week old, they will learn that they have wings, and they will escape if at all possible.
6 more chickens will be fine. When you get your chickens, take special precautions as to washing your hands in between handling the ones you have now and the ones you just got, in case of disease.
Thats all I can think of at the moment, but ill be back probably to add more. Any idea what breed you are getting?

[dixienut]

i'm a farmer and have raised all types of everything,
first of all use a heat lamp but don't put it too close to the bottom use your hand to test temp should feel like sun on your skin but not real hot, keep it to the side of your area so if the get hot they can move away from it to cool off, if you see them huddled under it all of them at once and never leave it then lower it a little if opposite is true then raise it just make sure the are kept dry and clean, bedding too.. it makes amonia and fowel are very suseptable to lung issues,.. ducks and chicks can be housed together for a little while but duck need to have plenty of water which is different than chicks, ducklings can choke if they can't get their whole bills in the water,.. they take a bite and then carry it to water so they can slosh it in water to swallow it better, so make sure its not real far away from food,.. so for a few weeks old they can be together but it should have seperate places so the chicks can't get into the deeper water just a partition, and ducks after a little while don't need much heat,.. where chicks do,. after no time at all when their pin feather start to come out then they can be put back together but you'll need to keep the duck water clean plus they need a pool like a litterpan withwater in it to swim, with a ramp in and out to help them plus a seperate water trough, tsc stores will have them (tractor supply stores)

also make sure the bedding you use isn't slippery or long and tangled(straw) as very young fowel are prone to breaking and disfiguring there legs, and be crippled for life or worse die because of inability to feed, i have had this happen even with the mom caring for them if they live their adult weight is more than the weak leg can hold,..
also careful when handling them also, i have taken in many of former easter chicks/ducks when they get ugly (grow) and have had leggs broken or wrenched for life,
just go to proper store and get chick starter and tell them you have ducklings together they should be ok with the starter but after they grow a bit then you will need seperate food for the chickens need extra calcium ducks don't need that much..then enjoy the fruits of your labor, as i always did,..you'll want to order chickens that are sexed for if not then you'll will end up with a bunch of roosters that depending on breed can be very dangerous when grown, stay away from rhode island red roosters or any laying breed rooster, comercial breeds,.. banty are fine they are very sweet i had a banty chochins, blacks, very beautiful roosters he would sit on my lap and liked to be petted, sweet, i also had call ducks they are banty sized small about3 lbs at the most very fun but they do fly because they are light but larger ducks can't because of weight, except muscoveys they fly like a wild goose,.. kinda dangerous when they go accross the road in front of a car.. so do some reserch on the breeds and get chicks pullets only for comercial layers to be safe from roosters unless you have an outlet or auction for them when you see that they are males, some get reallt nasty other breeds are like puppies,.. research..research...research..

[Malbri]

stay away from rhode island red roosters or any laying breed rooster, comercial breeds,.. banty are fine they are very sweet i had a banty chochins, blacks, very beautiful roosters he would sit on my lap and liked to be petted, sweet, i also had call ducks they are banty sized small about3 lbs at the most very fun but they do fly because they are light but larger ducks can't because of weight, except muscoveys they fly like a wild goose,.. kinda dangerous when they go accross the road in front of a car.. so do some reserch on the breeds and get chicks pullets only for comercial layers to be safe from roosters unless you have an outlet or auction for them when you see that they are males, some get reallt nasty other breeds are like puppies,.. research..research...research..
Oh how I love my 9 little RIR boys.....:grinyes:
I think boys poop more too:headshake2:

[dixienut]

Oh how I love my 9 little RIR boys.....:grinyes:
I think boys poop more too:headshake2:

you had good luck then the 6 i had would fly at you trying to spur at you and where i come from take a strike at me your gone,.. so i penned them up to fatten them up and to the auction they went, but until then they would slam themselves into the wire coop trying to get a you,
maybe they were africanized roosters:grinyes::grinyes:like the bees...:eek:

[Malbri]

Haha- that was sarcastic
They are only two weeks old, but they are already freaks
They are the ones that come up to you, but they need to learn-fingers are not food.
Most of them are gonna be, well...dinner for someone(not me, im a veg.)
I wanna keep one, but I doubt it will happen
The only rooster im for sure keeping is my banty show chicken that I got in my pair. Hes quiet, friendly, and my dad didnt know he was a rooster until I told him last night :D

[cam191919]

the breeds im getting are not the main stream ( if you dont follow then order the catalog. its free and it has lots of chickies:grinyes:)

1 Egyptian Fayoumis, female
1 Aruacana/americana female
2 golden campines, male/ female
1 lakenvelder female
1 white langston
and hopefully pair of khaki cambell ducks and pair of chocolate runners

based on my likes and needs

also how many more chickens could i put in there assuming i build a duckhouse of some sort

[Malbri]

Whats the length and width of the coop?

[wataugachicken]

well, i've ordered from mcmurray in the past. don't know about ducks, but the minimum order for chicks is 25, so you may want to either get a group buy together or look elsewhere.

-chick waterer
-chick feeder
-something to make a wall around their area
-newspaper on the floor for the first few days, and then switch to pine shavings when they learn how to eat properly (otherwise they may eat the pine shavings and starve)
-i used a simple clip-on halogen work light to keep them warm. basically you position it over the chicks and see how they react to it. if they all huddle underneath the light, they're too cold and you need to bring it closer. if they stay away from the light, they're hot and you need to raise it up. you want it so they wander freely all over their area because the temp is just right. it depends on how the birds react, but i think it's something like 90 degrees to start, and then lower it 5 degrees a week until they can handle normal outside temperatures.

i just started my chicks in the basement and used some random wood boards to make an area for them.

don't give the ducklings access to swimming water until their adult feathers have grown in, because otherwise without a momma duck to preen them, they'll get too cold and aren't able to dry themselves off properly.

[dixienut]

don't give the ducklings access to swimming water until their adult feathers have grown in, because otherwise without a momma duck to preen them, they'll get too cold and aren't able to dry themselves off properly.[/QUOTE]

i have raised ducks for years and moma ducks don't preen them just sit on them.. that is what a heater is for and the babies do preen them selves at that age, they might not be good at it but they do it just keep them contained around the heat source..

at first week or so they don't need water to swim in just to get food down good

after a few weeks you'll see them trying to get in the water, then you give them just enough water to reach their bellies when standing, after a few moreweeks they need to float and bathe,..which they need water deep enough to splash water up above their backs to keep clean and healthy or they will start to mat with poo and get cold that way..

[wataugachicken]

my mistake. i thought it was a matter of not having the adult feathers/oil production to waterproof themselves against the water. but as long as they're warm it doesn't matter if they're wet. good to know.

i looked again at the hatchery page (because i could have sworn i read about the duckling/water thing there - i guess it's in the print version) but the minimum for ducks is 10, and you can't mix them with chicks for shipping purposes.

if i were you, i would either put out a classified ad (free ones are everywhere) or just put up a notice at your local feed store to see if anyone is interested in doing a group buy on the chickens. the only problem i can see is accurately identifying the chicks when you get them. some of them are tough to tell apart, but maybe the company can help you with that somehow if you let them know beforehand.

[dixienut]

the babies have a oil gland at the base of their tails and it works even for the downy stuff, the turn their heads and rub their bills in it then rub it everywhere, if you watch closely you'll see them doing it when their are comfy.. that is the only source of oil that all ducks have..

[cam191919]

the length is 12 feet and the width is 8. height is 6

[Malbri]

Well the common space/bird used is 4 sq foot per bird. That means 24 at the most, but trust me, it would be very hard to clean

[Malbri]

And- NO NEWSPAPER FOR BABIES!
It's slippery and can damage thier legs
Use paper towel, then PINE(no cedar) shavings

[cam191919]

whats the chicken limit for ideal poultry?

[Malbri]

whats the chicken limit for ideal poultry?

They dont have a number limit but your order has to be at least 20 dollars. Be warned-if you are getting a small number, they will send extras, like pycho rooster extras

[cam191919]

they should just put a fat rats in the box to keep them warm............... can i just order other stuff from them to make up 20 $, and could i include ducks?

[cam191919]

help?

[wataugachicken]

https://secuservices.com/ideal/faq.htm