Rural Gardening: Pasting Up , 1 by Farming2008

Farming2008 wrote:
We have just gotten new chicks. We have never had chickens before so we're complete newbies. My 10 yo son is starting an egg business. We have some chicks that are pasting up. They are about 3 days old at this point. I have been cleaning their bottoms up but was wondering if there was more we could be doing. I saw at the feed store they were selling powdered electrolytes for their water, and that was supposed to help with paste up. It was rather expensive so we didn't buy it, but will if it's a good idea.

Do you do anything special other than just cleaning them once a day? (or twice)
How long does this pasting up last?

The first chick I cleaned really traumatized me. The poor thing. The poop was really stuck on. (This was the day we picked them up) It wouldn't budge. I soaked her bottom in warm water to try to loosen it up, then worked on it. It still wouldn't come off, eventually, there was some blood and I was afraid that I might have pulled some skin off her bottom (that was attached to the poop). I felt so bad for her.

This morning, there were 3 we cleaned and it wasn't bad at all. Hopefully, I didn't do too much damage to the first gal.

When do you start having fatalities? We have 15 meat birds (cornish cross, none of them have pasted up) and 25 layers (Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rock, Araucana and Bovan Brown). We haven't lost any yet, and I really hope we don't lose any.

I'm really glad to have found this site, it's really helpful.

Thanks!