OK – I’m cheating a bit, cos the chicks were hatched between the 26th – 28th of March – see my earlier post – Easter is coming and – my chicks have just hatched!
I thought you might like to know how they are doing, and what they look like now, 10 days later, on Easter Monday. Rather than make you go back and forth between the posts – these are them at between 1 and 3 days old:-
They are out of the incubator and into a very large cardboard box, courtesy of one of my suppliers – I think it had a large yarn order in it, and I kept it knowing it would come in useful!
the brooding pen
This is the set up – I had intended to use an old brooder I have used for years which is a metal box with an electric element inside which keeps the chicks warm – but it blew the fuses all over the house when I turned it on! I’m sure it was a loose wire and just needed a simple re-connection, but it would have meant dismantling the whole box to get to it, so once again, I found myself deciding not to bother to try and fix it, and ordered a new one thro ebay……which meant I had to keep the incubator going inside the box – propped open so the chicks could go in and out.
They “jumped with joy” when they found they had room to run around in, and have been speeding around it so fast, that it’s almost impossible to get a properly focussed picture of them!
So the incubator has stayed in the box, and the odd thing on stilts is the new brooder – which they can return to any time to benefit from the warmth of the top platform. The brooder was only just put in the box in this picture and they were a bit scared of it, so they bunched up in their ‘safe corner’.
The box has been lined with thick wads of old newspaper, which I can peel off to keep it clean – tho’ its not very pretty – and the white blob in the foreground is a drinker, which is an upside down ‘bulb’ shape, that allows the water to be dispensed into a low channel at the bottom, so its kept clean. The dish is full of chick crumbs – a commercial produced feed for chicks that has all they need for growth – but I also feed them with scrambled eggs on wetted brown bread – after all, they hatched from eggs, which are what they fed on whilst growing inside the shell, and its the best food they can get!
So at approx 10 days old, they have grown, and their wing feathers are beginning to develop. They are very active, and in fact I am going to have to shore up the sides of the box, because I just found one had jumped out and was cheeping loudly for me to come and put it back in with its ‘family’.
Linked to Clare & Deans photo of the week event:
http://clare-n-dean.com/category/photo-of-the-week/
chose any of these photos for the photo of the week!
and
https://foodtouristconfessions.wordpress.com/i-made-it-monday/
This week’s achievement was to manage to post a daily post for the A-Z challenge and to visit some of the other sites – as well, of course, looking after these little ones – smile!
the spare 
They are so cute 🙂
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as with all babies, they grow up – will keep posting pics of these cos I think its a nice idea anyway – the “teenage stage” can look very straggley!
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I always loved the day that our day-old chicks arrived and still miss seeing them grow. Never had an incubator, so missed out on that part. My favorites were Rhode Island reds, isa brown, and aracauna(spelling?)-they lay the blue and green colored eggs:) Your maran and barnevelder look interesting, will be interesting to see them as they grow. I’ll keep looking for new pictures.
We gave up raising them when work schedules didn’t allow us to be home at the proper times to shut them in for the night/let them out for the morning,etc. Our brooder was a wooden sandbox in the basement, with a screen on the top, to keep them in and the cat out:), then a trailer in the garage with the heat light, until it warmed enough to put them in their own house. We did find that for the hens we kept through the winter, that giving them a light for about 12 hours during the shorter daylight hours kept them producing eggs all winter.
Enjoy your brood!
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yes, there are all sorts of ways you can keep the chicks warm – I also used the infra red lamps at one time, but found the light being on all the time was a bit unsettling – for ME – if not the chicks.
Not sure about these new types of brooders, the chicks still don’t like using it, and it doesn’t seem to get warm enuf to make a difference.
Found them all huddled up together at the end of the box for the last couple of nights – I picked them up and put the under the brooder plate, but, altho they happily use it during the day, they prefer their own method or mutual heat for the night! Odd eh?
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What cute babies and they grow so fast, Which is natures way to ensure some make it. I hadn’t thought to feed ours anything but chick feed. We do introduce greens when they are a bit bigger. We are a bit behind this year in getting additions to our flock, It’s on the list of things to do before May…
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smile – I know the feeling, but this lot is special – I haven’t hatched any thing for 2 years – was left with two bantams after a fox invasion, and I didn’t have the heart to keep going – so – now I have got it back, and some nice chicks too – smile
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That three in a row pic – that middle one looks mean! I like the little gray ones best though you know my thoughts on chickens Julz!
Finally got the reblog pages up to date. Make sure I didn’t miss any of yours. Time has been scarce for a month! ~Elle
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who can tell what they’ll be like from a quick pic at 10 days old Elle – I’ll let you know in 6 months time if you were right – smile
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