chick survival rate

I started putting in clover, lettuce and crickets in for the chicks to peck at and the number of chicks dying has dropped. I found a few more dead chicks first thing this morning and that was it for the day. They sure did make quick work of the 200 crickets I put in. It was neat to watch the chicks chase and snatch up those bugs. This has been a learning experience and I think things will go better next year. Thanks for the tips.
 
Hang in there buddy, you will figure out what works. Keep us posted.:thumbsup::cheers:
 
bauerline said:
I started putting in clover, lettuce and crickets in for the chicks to peck at and the number of chicks dying has dropped. I found a few more dead chicks first thing this morning and that was it for the day. They sure did make quick work of the 200 crickets I put in. It was neat to watch the chicks chase and snatch up those bugs. This has been a learning experience and I think things will go better next year. Thanks for the tips.
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As you can tell , we have all been through this!!!!! You will be a expert in no time!!!!!!!:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
Well just sanitized the incubator and fired her up. Realized I did not clean it out last time I was done. So I spent 2 hrs getting fuzzy feathers and chick dung off it. I hope it works or we will be doing a bunch of Tom Knapp episodes in the back yard. bauerline the good thing is after a couple weeks your starting to get in the clear. You can use a bigger room in a shed with a few lamps, but the temp can vary more. Room is now the factor to consider, as they will start to cannibalize if there is little room for them. Around 4 weeks you can start to mist them a little to get oils working. 5 weeks Is when I let mine venture in the out side pen, and continue misting them a couple times a day. I also round them up and keep them in at night. One bad storm and they are gone. They will pile in corners and exposure will kill them. So any rain coming and night put them back inside. eventually they figure out to go in and out for the most part. And slowly can handle weather. Once they start coloring, you can relax a bit as they are now young adults. And easier to care for. Just fresh water and food. Blinders should have been put on by then or they will still pick each other. Keep up on greens as well yet and you can turn off lights and feed out side and not worry about the weather. If you were getting a super cell storm I may put them in or some any way. Get some feeders ready in your area and let them go after all the shooting dies off. This is about the time line and way I go about it. It seems to work good. As you will see steady weather makes things go way easier. If you can keep them in a flight pen that helps as well. They can grow stronger with lift off practice and get flight conditioned as well as weather tough. If I let some go at home I feed them just out side the pen and leave the door open all day for them to go out on there own. I keep a few in the pen so they kind of keep the ones now free close by or coming back. They venture around and get wild in a short time. Year after year some show up at the pen and torment each other through the fence in the spring. This time I will color band them so I can take pictures of them returning in the spring proving this works. I raised few blond colored ones one year( roosters) And they hung around all winter, people were even seen taking pics of one off the highway one day because of the odd color. When you see one like that in the spring, you know it was yours, and when you only let a couple go, thats good odds there.
 
As an old, newbie to the concept of raising chicks...

I'm amazed at the work involved. Never gave it much thought, but lawd, you guys put in the effort (and $) to get from egg to bird.

Three hundred and eighty eggs? FCS? Wow. You may be my new hero.

I wish you all great success, and survival rate.

Does raising the chicks draw more-than-usual predator population?
 
Not really. A few, but if your pen is solid, you have little to worry about but a weasel, or an Owl. Everything I trap out when I see signs of them. Owls are the hardest to deal with. Basically don't have any perches close to the net, as they will grab them and just kill or eat a little and let them fall. And once they are there it won't stop till you do something to keep them from the ability to get your birds. A double net has been mentioned, but I think that the perch placed good is satisfactory. I nailed boards up where the support boards tie in and the net meets it. So a bird sitting there can't get nabbed. otherwise the net is plenty far from where a bird sits. I got another weasel the other day, but he did not get any birds. Coon are easy to trap, and fox can't get in if you do it right. The weasel is rare, but hard to defend, as they can crawl right through. So trap them off right away. If you keep up on them it won't be much of a problem. Just like a yard, constant maintenance.:D
 
The past few days have been pretty good. I have not lost any chicks in the last 3 days or so and the birds are starting to fly up to the ledge under the windows to look outside. I hope things continue to go well. Thanks for the advice.
 
bauerline said:
The past few days have been pretty good. I have not lost any chicks in the last 3 days or so and the birds are starting to fly up to the ledge under the windows to look outside. I hope things continue to go well. Thanks for the advice.
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Owls are a problem.. We are trying NIGHT GAURDS this year and will post results. Some folks set a tall post with a rubber jaw 1 1/2 jump trap on it with a lead running to the ground. Works really really good from what I hear :thumbsup:..;)
 
I tried the night guards, the ones with the blinking red light when we had wool sheep, ( wifes project, don't ask, now all gone), they work for everything for a while, alone, later needed to play a stereo, as well! You think birds draw predators, try sheep! everything wants to eat or at least maul a sheep. Your sure right about owls, when I was a kid before the international treaty on Hawks, and owls, every self respecting bird hunter had a hot wired perch in areas with quail, it was amazing how many raptors fell to that kind of rig. At the time it seemed sad and a waste to me, but we sure had a lot of quail, thing is we may have had a lot a quail anyway, but no way of knowing! Now that kind of "management" will get you a stretch as a guest of the government! Continue on Soldier, and Keep your own Counsel, Bob, there are now at least two to many of us who know!
 
oldandnew said:
I tried the night guards, the ones with the blinking red light when we had wool sheep, ( wifes project, don't ask, now all gone), they work for everything for a while, alone, later needed to play a stereo, as well! You think birds draw predators, try sheep! everything wants to eat or at least maul a sheep. Your sure right about owls, when I was a kid before the international treaty on Hawks, and owls, every self respecting bird hunter had a hot wired perch in areas with quail, it was amazing how many raptors fell to that kind of rig. At the time it seemed sad and a waste to me, but we sure had a lot of quail, thing is we may have had a lot a quail anyway, but no way of knowing! Now that kind of "management" will get you a stretch as a guest of the government! Continue on Soldier, and Keep your own Counsel, Bob, there are now at least two to many of us who know!
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Thats why we are using the the night guards. Guys I knew would take them and release in another part of the county. Every fence post on the place had a trap sitting on it. Right on the edge of the city limits.
 
Things have been going well and it has been a while since any chicks died, almost 2 weeks. They will soon be 4 weeks old and I was wondering when some of you let your birds outside. I can let them out in a small covered area (compared the the rest of the flight pen). Can I let them out next week and let the door open to the brooder house so they can go in on thier own? Or do I need to get them back inside for the night? Just curious what others have done.
 
I have freed them at 5 weeks. Depends on weather and cover.
Is your flight pen secure against unwanted critters?
 
The pen is fine as far as keeping other animals out. Or at least it will be when I get the net back on this weekend. Thanks.
 
If you free them that young they will most likely die off fast, in one stom. Guaranteed. Yes you can let them out to go in and out, but you must put them back in. They will not know how to go back in. It sucks, trust me. At night it is cool out and they pile and die out side. Do this for a couple more weeks. Then leave out a few at a time, not all at once. Start to light mist a little, to get oils working in a week or so. They have no defence against rain at 5 weeks at all. Not shed birds. You have to treat them like infants. Lots of care if you want it to work. The 4-6 week raise and toss theory will not work. Keep them till adult. At 6 weeks your dam near half way there, and the care got a whole lot easier any way, so why not.
 
Well, even after a 8 hr power outage, and not certain if all the eggs were fertile. I just pulled out 140 chicks from the sportsman incubator, with more coming, 20 at least still drying. So it looks like around 50% of the eggs I stuck in were good. I am happy with that. They are in the shed beginning life.:thumbsup: Even some all brown ones.
 
Good luck with your chicks and let us know how things go.

Things are going well with my birds so far and I think I should have about a 75% survival rate.
 
So far so good, only lost a few. Getting good wing development and growing fast.

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FCS, What do you think about the all brown chicks. I've not seen that.
Interesting, keep us posted please.
 
Well this grower has some and we use them training and they fly great. She gets a few, they are a dark brown. I spose just a certain breed mixed in. Not too many, I think I have about 10 in the whole batch. I got my eggs from her or her birds I bought. They have been a good hardy bird from her, powerful flights.
 
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