• Raising Baby Chickens: A Love Story
    61 replies, posted
[B]Update: 05/14: [/B]The baby chicks have gotten a lot larger. [t]http://i.imgur.com/CqxCnd7.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/LPXvmQN.jpg[/t][B] Update 04/29: [/B]One of our 4 original chicks died sometime last night, likely due to gas fumes congesting the air. The heat lamp was also unplugged somehow, so it may have not been warm enough to survive the night. [B]​OP:[/B] Although RR_Raptor65 has rights to the coolest birds under the sun, I've decided to chronologue the lives of my new chicks that I recently started raising. First, a little background. I live in an arid Nevada town with horribly unpredictable weather, so I'm not sure how well temperature regulation is going to work. Maintaining appropriate temperature is incredibly conducive to a baby chick's health, and I'd consider this my #1 challenge for the first 3-4 weeks. As I also mentioned, I live in a town, so I have resorted to brooding them in my backyard garden shed, which works quite well. Now, the brood: [t]http://i.imgur.com/oi7hnxv.jpg[/t] The two black chicks and one brown chick are pet bantam hens. The yellow chick is what is known as a Cornish Rook, a type of meat hen. Unfortunately for me, I did not thoroughly research meat hens before making my purchase (it was pretty spur of the moment really; my girl friend thought it'd be neat to raise chickens, and I bought some the same day she mentioned it). Turns out, these huge guys grow too fast for their legs to keep up, and they general die of either dehydration as a result of broken legs or heart failure after a few months. As a result, I will have to 'harvest' him after a month or two. They are currently contained in a open top box under a heat lamp. It's surprising how much you have to baby these guys, really. They have to be at a constant 95 degrees for the first week of their life, with a decrease of 5 degrees per week for 1 month. After this month, I will put them out in a chicken coop that I'm planning on building in an old sand box in my yard. In addition to heat, they must constantly have food and water, which requires me to check their stores every few hours or so. Ever heard the saying "eating like a bird"? Well, it turns out birds eat a lot. They also poop [I]a lot[/I]. Their feces doesn't really smell, but gets all over everything. Because of this, I had to buy a specialized feeder and waterer that prevents them from soiling their food and drowning. On the upside, their bedding is very cheap. I got around 4 cubic feet (a huge, heavy bag) of pine bedding for $10. As a matter of fact, startup costs are very reasonable for chickens. You can get a brood of 12-15 chicks with a brooder, lamp, food with holder, waterer, and water mineral additives for somewhere around $110. From scratch, I got my entire setup for $77. Interesting tidbits: The bantam hens will begin laying very small eggs after a month or so. I may get a male bantam to fertilize and replenish my brood. They make pretty awesome pets. While skittish at first, they are fairly docile if you get the right breed and are downright adorable. They chase each other around, pecking everything like idiots. I have to check their vents (poop chutes) frequently, so they don't "paste up". If you're not careful, their vents can get clogged and they die, as they cannot pass excrement. Aside from the Rook, the hens will live up to 10 years, laying progressively larger eggs as they mature. Well, that's about it for now. I only have the one picture, but I will update with several more tomorrow, including the new setup and surroundings. Maybe I'll get lucky and catch them playing again. Eventually I'll add a week by week log.
Cool. I've raised three Rhode Island Brown hens from chicks. Currently getting 3 eggs per day. [t]https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/406988_3150611879719_329027142_n.jpg[/t] Started them off in a fishtank with a lamp. [t]http://i.imgur.com/YoubWbx.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/XBr9O2g.jpg[/t] Most recent pictures, they're more than a year old now. I can also confirm that they poop a lot. I also have a rooster that wandered onto our property as a lost chick. [t]https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/318496_2378124168009_237260653_n.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/m4sWCh2.jpg[/t] About two years old now. Pretty noisy with the crowing in the morning and evening, but here we have wild chickens all over the place so everyone gets used to it.
I've got a flock of Barred Rocks. I'll post some "before and after" pictures tomorrow, hopefully that won't steal your thunder too much :v:
I didn't realize there was such a following on this sort of thing. Maybe we can get it turned into the Chicken Growing megathread or something. My goal is to have a set up with 4-5 layers so we get eggs for free. Do free range eggs taste better?
The eggs we (my family) get from the hens definitely taste a lot better than the ones we used to buy from stores. With three eggs consistently every day, we can never finish them and sometimes just give a bunch of them to our neighbors.
I kinda cheated and never raised my chickens from a young age; I bought a couple ex-battery hens (half of them Rhode Island Reds, the other half New Hampshire Reds). I would like to though, they're brilliant things to have.
[QUOTE=TerrorShield;40353682]The eggs we (my family) get from the hens definitely taste a lot better than the ones we used to buy from stores. With three eggs consistently every day, we can never finish them and sometimes just give a bunch of them to our neighbors.[/QUOTE] How small is your family? It would have taken us half a breakfasts to use up all the three eggs because every time some were available, everyone took at least one. And there were 6 of us living together for some time, until me and my sister moved out. I just love boiled eggs. Everybody did/does.
I love owning chickens. I make omelettes all the time now.
Chickens are the bomb dude, I wish I could own them
Words cannot describe the d'awwwwwwww in this thread My family raised two quails many years back. Then my dad killed and ate them [img]http://i.somethingawful.com/forumsystem/emoticons/emot-saddowns.gif[/img]
Chickens are cool, cooler than Ducks. and ducks are pretty cool.
[QUOTE=SgtTupelo;40354833]How small is your family? It would have taken us half a breakfasts to use up all the three eggs because every time some were available, everyone took at least one. And there were 6 of us living together for some time, until me and my sister moved out. I just love boiled eggs. Everybody did/does.[/QUOTE]I only have one sister and she's off to college so it's just me and my parents. An egg for each of us I guess.
baby chickens are one of my favorite animals
[QUOTE=TerrorShield;40352750] [t]http://i.imgur.com/m4sWCh2.jpg[/t][/QUOTE] He looks like a very proud, robust chicken
My brother recently got into raising all sorts of chickens that our grandpa gave him along with some Guineas (who love to "crow" in the tree right outside my bedroom window at night) [editline]20th April 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=TerrorShield;40353682]The eggs we (my family) get from the hens definitely taste a lot better than the ones we used to buy from stores. With three eggs consistently every day, we can never finish them and sometimes just give a bunch of them to our neighbors.[/QUOTE] We have the same problem, except it's usually about 5+ eggs a day :v:
chickens are fucking horrible, they SHIT everywhere, make tons of fucking noise. Me and my cousin had to deal with his whole pen because he has 300 acres, his family decided to buy half the fucking animals in the world. Chickens are the fuckin worst.
My friend has quite a bit of land behind his house, he raises ducks. Although last time I went all but one had been eaten by fox's :(
[QUOTE=tommyc225;40361022]My friend has quite a bit of land behind his house, he raises ducks. Although last time I went all but one had been eaten by fox's :([/QUOTE] My grandpa used to have two ducks. But one was killed (I forget by what) and the other got all depressed, so they gave it to another guy who was starting to raise them.
[QUOTE=Zackin5;40361365]My grandpa used to have two ducks. But one was killed (I forget by what) and the other got all depressed, so they gave it to another guy who was starting to raise them.[/QUOTE] How does one tell if a duck is depressed?
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;40361762]How does one tell if a duck is depressed?[/QUOTE] Now that I think about it it probably just a case of him being lonely/us imaging it, but he didn't seem as energetic and quacky as he was with the other duck around.
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;40361762]How does one tell if a duck is depressed?[/QUOTE] it dyes its feathers black and exhibits mysterious peck marks on its wings
I had 3 baby chickens before, it was awesome taking care of them, although one day my nephew thought it was a good idea to wash the chicks, they drowned ;_;
Back in China, street vendors sells baby chicks for around $0.10 each. A lot of my friends including myself tried to raise them but very few of them can survive more than a week even with extensive care :(
I remember back when I used to have chickens; I forget their exact breed, but I recall their feathers were black and orange, and that they were a cross of two different breeds. They were called Ginger, Bermuda and Esmerelda, now I remember; it was SO many years back I can't remember much about them. I think Bermuda was the ballsiest of the bunch; one time I tried to outstare her and things happened. Long story short, I got pecked right in the eyeball. I know, trying to outstare a ballsy chicken is not the smartest thing to do by any standard.
I've helped raise chickens, geese and ducks. My favorite thing i've ever been around was our peacock, his name was George. He was a beautiful bastard, had a sister that died from some sickness when they were less than a few days hatched. Had a beautiful tail, too bad he got sick and died from eating bees or something. Raised an Embden goose from hatchling, he worked as a guard dog of sorts, would chase shit around, including me. We named him Beavis, and he was actually moderately trained, he'd come to my dad when called, and would jump on his lap. I don't have any pics or i'd share, but i really miss him. I also had an African goose(i have no idea the breed) named Max, he was pretty cool, was killed by wild animals a long time ago.
We grew chicks from egg when I was in kindergarten. It was awesome. I still remember how they smelled.
[QUOTE=matt000024;40363463]We grew chicks from egg when I was in kindergarten. It was awesome. I still remember how they smelled.[/QUOTE] We've done that before, i'd like to hatch my own sometime in the future. I don't have the patience to turn the eggs every so often though.
I had a coworker tell me about how she used to raise chickens all the time. She tried to again recently and they all died. She tried again and they all died again.
I miss my chickens! I live in a suburban area, and we tried to keep around eight chickens in a coop in my backyard. It took us a couple of months to realize that things were getting absolutely filthy, and that they didn't have enough room to run around. Eventually we gave them away to a friend that had enough space for laying hens.
All my chickens(12) were visciously killed and shaken to death by a wolf.... ;~; i came into the pen and saw a blood bath the next morning.
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