| CARE OF BABY POULTRY Chicks, 90 degrees for the first week, decrease by 5 degrees each week thereafter. Have the brooder area ready prior to bringing your birds home. You may use a large, heavy cardboard box and metal drop light with a 100 watt bulb or a 250 wt red bulb. The 250 watt will need to be, of course, farther away from the nesting area to prevent the chicks from getting too hot. To decrease the temperature week by week, simply change the bulb wattage. Most people leave the heat too high for too long. Watch your chicks closely. If they huddle they are cold, if they scatter out they are hot. Do not cover the top of the box with anything because it can cause suffocation in a hurry. Line the bottom of the box with newspaper, place white paper towels over the newspaper to give the chicks better traction. If newspaper only is used it can cause slipping and leg problems, called spraddled legs. The use of wood shavings can be started on the 2nd or 3rd day after you are sure they are eating good, otherwise they tend to eat the shavings instead of their food. Wood shavings are great to keep the floor dry and the odor down. As soon as their wings are feathered out they will be able withstand temperatures at night to about 60 or 70 degrees. Feed chick starter crumbles 'til they are 6-8 weeks old then switch to a layer pellet or layer crumble. Don't feed scratch until they are a couple of weeks old and then only as a treat. Scratch is high in sugar and low in protein and is not intended to be used as a complete feed for confined birds, whether they are chicks or adults. Use warm tap water mixed with 1 TBS of sugar to 1 quart of water. Dip the beak of each bird in the warm sugar water as soon as you get them home and watch throat to see that they swallow. Put food and water close for 1st day to insure they find it. Crumbles can be scattered out over the white paper towels to help them find their first meal a little better. Guinea Keet, Peafowl and Turkey Poults, same as above only they need to be fed a 28% turkey starter or 28% gamebird crumble till they are 6-8 weeks old then switch to a regular chicken layer pellet or if available in your area, use a 20% duck and goose pellet. They grow faster on the higher protein feed. If you have to raise chicks with guineas, peafowl or turkeys, you should feed them all chick starter because chickens have problems with high protein content feeds. It is really best not to raise them together if possible. Guinea, peafowl and turkeys can all be raised together though with no problems. Ducklings and Goslings, 85 degrees and decrease by 5 degrees each week. They tolerate the cold very well and can have their heat discontinued after about 3 or 4 weeks especially if the weather is nice. Ducklings and gooslings are forever playing in their drinking water. Do not give them swimming water until they are 4 or 5 weeks old because they don't have a mother to stimulate their oil glands and they may drown in deep water. Shallow water of about 3 or 4 inches can be given at any time, if the weather is warm. Splashing around in shallow water will help stimulate them to oil their own glands and is great fun for them! Feed ducklings a 28% protein gamebird crumble rather than chick starter because they grow faster on it and need the higher protein. Ducklings can choke on their food if they don't have water to wash it down. Be sure that they never run out of fresh drinking water. Caution: Do not raise ducklings or goslings with chicks, guineas, peafowl or turkeys in the same brooder because the ducks are too messy with water and can cause the chicks, guineas, peafowl and/or turkeys to get wet, chill and die. Note: Scratch grains are not intended to be the sole source of food intake for any type of confined poultry. It is not a complete feed and is very high in carbohydrate. Feeding excessive amounts of scratch grains with complete feeds will lower the overall protein content of intake. Scratch grains can mold easily too. If it smells fermented, please throw it out and buy a new sack. Scratch grains should only be used as a treat and sparingly. Additionally, at about 6-8 weeks of age you should add grit to all poultry’s diet. Grit aids in the grinding up of the grains and pellets in the gizzard. For all baby poultry, please sprinkle their crumbles with a little sand. This will help them grind their food and they love it! Not too much, just a little sprinkle. General Problems with Confined Poultry: Feather picking and toe picking can become a problem with any poultry. Chickens are worse than guineas, peafowl, turkeys and ducklings. The problem can be caused by any one of the following things; too much heat, too much light, not enough fresh air, not enough feed, imbalanced feed, air too cold or drafty, overcrowded conditions or just plain boredom. Usually it is overcrowding or too much heat. Some chicks are worse than others. Watch for signs such as red, swollen toes or feathers and fur missing from back of chick or around vent area. Remove battered chick and isolate it or you may put him with one other non-picker chick for company. Often times using a red bulb will cut down on feather picking because they can't see as well under the red lights. Try a few different things to see if it stops. For boredom you may want to change their litter more often or add sand or a little scratch to give them something else to pick at. Be sure to add fine grit or sand to their diet if you feed any grains as it aids in digestion by helping to grind up the grain in the gizzard. Toe picking, to me, is the most damaging because they actually pick another birds toe until it is maimed and the bird can become crippled so watch carefully for this. For toe picking it may be helpful to add hay or straw to their litter to camouflage the toes. In a desperate situation you may have to nip the tip of each chick’s beak with fingernail clippers to make it more difficult for them the get a hold of a feather or toe. As guineas mature, the males often times will vie for dominance. They will fight tirelessly and can be very cruel to each other. Rarely do they kill each other, but sometime it is necessary to remove the aggressive male. Peafowl are generally docile with each other and don’t seem to fight too much. Turkeys don’t feather pick as bad as chickens do. Ducks and geese rarely cause any problems being confined; however, they do need a shallow pan of water to get into as it preserves the pads of their feet, keeping them from cracking and tearing. So if you can’t give them a swimming pool, try to al least give them a pan of water to walk in. Please feel free to email me if you have a question, HandHPoultry HandHPoultry@aol.com |
Baby Poultry Information Page
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