Rural Gardening: Suggestions for chicken breeds please, 0 by TamaraFaye

TamaraFaye wrote:
a RED frizzled cochin BANTAM>>>???

again, may i ask where you ordered from? I am drooling with envy.

yes, it is a hard trip for them. they could have been the ones on the bottom of the pile they made to keep warm. 35 is a LOT in one box. or they could have hatched first [ a good thing if you are traveling], so they ran out of yolk sak and it weaked them.

you can also try elecrtolytes in their water. egg yolk is something most people have on hand. cook it and offer them the crumbles. if they are slow to their food and water, put them in a SMALL spearate box for the night, but leave the box in the brooder so they are still warm enough. that way they don't get trampled, disoriented, lose track of where food and water is.

another tip with a large bunch is to cover the floor of the brooder with their starter crumbles for the first few days. esp since you have different sizes in there. if the food is under foot, they can eat constantly and get strong. after about a week you can switch to wood chips or whatever and put their food in feeders. i like pie pans at first, there is plenty of room and they love to scratch in it. since mine free range i want them to learn to scartch. and they take dust baths in the left over food dust, so just pour that out onto their bedding when you change their feed.

those little tips from a breeder helped me grow some nice healthy chicks two years ago. here they are at just four weeks old. both breeds are known for being "slow growers".

have fun!
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