Care Sheet for Chicks & Ducklings!
Chicks
- When bringing home day old chicks you will need to have a brooder prepared for them. This can be inside or outside. This can be an old fish tank, kiddie pool or a pen you have built or purchased.
- We recommend keeping your brooder be at 95*F at floor level for day old chicks. You can use a heat lamp but make sure IT IS SAFELY SECURED! It is VERY important to watch for fire hazards. You will want to lower the temp about 5 degrees per week until you reach 70°F - 75°F.
- We recommend pine shavings over newspaper for bedding. It's your birds so it's your choice ;) We do not suggest paper towels, or newspapers alone, because they can become too slick for the chicks.
- Water is very important to your chick's health. Always have water out for them. At first we place marbles in the waterer or dish to prevent drowning. When placing chicks in the brooder dip each chick's beak in the water.
- You will want to start your chicks out on starter/grower crumbles. We keep food in the brooder at all times for our chicks. We buy all our feed locally at Bob's Feed. If you stop in there make sure to let them know Chicks -N- Giggles Farm sent ya :) Here on the farm we use the Tucker Milling brand. We have found it to contain less dust than other brands we have used. After a few weeks we introduce warm oatmeal, yogurt, buttermilk, garlic, raw apple cider vinegar (ACV), fresh herbs and veggies. We feed our chickens Tucker Milling 16% Layer Pellets and in the winter time we add Homestead 7 Grain Scratch (cracked corn, whole milo, whole wheat, sunflower, oats,grit, protein pellet & vegetable oil) from Bob's Feed. You may find some helpful information on our LINKS page!
- Always remember when moving your chicks outside to be aware of predators (inside with house pets as well)!
Ducklings
- You will basically follow the above guidelines for the chicks for your ducklings as well. At about 3 weeks, you can turn the heat lamp off during the day.
- Ducklings grow at a much more rapid rate. You will need to plan on expanding their brooder much faster.
- Keep in mind they are MUCH messier than chicks with feed and water.
- You will be able to move them outside much quicker though.
- Baby ducklings CAN NOT swim! You may introduce them to water at about a week old but YOU MUST WATCH THEM AND STAY WITH THEM AT ALL TIMES. While in water they must have a place to get onto to rest because they tire easily. After a quick swim it is important that they get dry and warm. They will be able to swim freely at about 6 weeks.
***De-Worming Method Used: Safe-Guard® Goat Dewormer, 125 ml. Use a syringe without a needle to administer wormer orally undiluted. Dosage for wormer is 1/2cc for standard size birds, 1/4cc for smaller birds. Redose again in 10 days. We sometimes use Wazine the first time and 10 days later we use the Safeguard. We see no need to de-worm birds under 8 weeks old ;) We also use Diatomaceous Earth in the coops and feed year round.
You can go to our Pinterest page and go to the Beaks & Bills board to see some items we use on our beaks & bills/suggest. Just follow the link on the top of the page :)
If at any time you have questions please feel free to contact us and we will help you all we can!
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~Chicks -N- Giggles Farm 2013 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED~
~Chicks -N- Giggles Farm 2013 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED~