The Poultry Keeper

chickadee66 · Joined: 29 Jun 2008 Posts: 23

Thank you! What a relief! Very Happy

CP · Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:46 pm Post subject:

We have only ever used normal light bulbs in our brooder. Wink

casatinto · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 3:30 pm Post subject:

Hello, I am new to the forum, in fact this is my first posting, but i have been reading it for quite some time to gain information about my chickens as i live in rural Andalusia and things are very different here. I was quite surprised that chickadee66 was told off for not knowing what to do about her new little rescue chicks as that was what i thought the forum was all about, to get help. I felt sorry for her and needed help myself but now ive changed my mind.....!

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 7154 Location: isle of lewis

i think some people were a little worried that the chicks might get hurt and then she might feel bad ,we do try to help if we can
sometimes things come across badly on the net ,i know i do Embarassed

ps my grandmother was brought up there Cool

casatinto · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 6:16 pm Post subject:

Sorry, i feel a cow now. Its just that i've had a hell of a morning. My friends' dog that i have been looking after for 2 weeks and is normally very good with the chickens, decided that he wanted to chase and indeed kill my black rock chicken who has 4 x 5 week old chicks. By the time i had heard her squarking and got to her, the damage was done. She managed to escape when i screamed at him and he let go but was found a few yards away dying and frothing/bleeding from the mouth. As you can imagine i am very upset and needed to know if my other chickens would accept the 4 chicks. They tolorated them well enough before but the mother was guarding them then. Here in Spain its 40 degrees heat in the day and 25 during the night so no heat lamp is necessary. The other chickens & cockrel sleep in a brick built bread oven, yes you read correctly, a bread oven with a brick dome roof and its 3 feet off the ground. They all jump up inside it with no effort but with no mother to snuggle up to tonight where do i put the chicks? They normally sleep in a purpose built box in the pen with their mother. One of the chickens has pecked one of them already, maybe to establish its pecking order. Its pitying to hear them calling for her. Perhaps i should bring them in tonight in a box. They may be ok in their box and maybe i'm worrying too much as here nobody bothers much about chickens. They just throw maize on the ground and they look after themselves. A lesson to be learnt though, don't trust your dog as they too can be very unpredictable. She chased him down the garden path a few days ago because he got too close to her chicks so maybe he was getting his own back!

CP · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 6:45 pm Post subject:

Thats so sad casatinto. Crying or Very sad

I'm so sorry you've lost your mummy hen but it's unlikely (but not unknown) that any of the others will adopt the chicks. You will have to take over the role yourself. (no, not that way! Laughing

)

You'll need to keep them separated from the 'biguns' at least until they're around 12 weeks old. A small run inside the area you normally keep the others will do. Something like a rabbit hutch & run?

It's possible that the adults could attack & kill chicks that are not theirs so you really need to protect them.

I'm sorry you felt we were unduly harsh to chickadee but as milkmaid said, the written word is sometimes difficult to interpret. That's why we use smilies a lot. Wink

We all want our birds to be kept as well & as safe as possible that's all. Wink

Ask all the questions you need to. We all have to start somewhere. Wink

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 7154 Location: isle of lewis

we all have them:wink: ,and it does sound like you've had a bad day Crying or Very sad

my grandmother ,in italy not the one from Andalusia used to just put them in a box for a few days ,and feed them ,what ever she had around normally polenta meal and then they used to go in with the others at 10 weeks if they were totally freerange and just get on with life ,scatch around the vin yard ,same way of keeping just maize and scratching around ,like they do it spain /italy
here it would traditionally be oat meal ,
i love the idea of them sleeping in the bread oven ,my grandma's used to sleep in the old pig sty

chickadee66 · Joined: 29 Jun 2008 Posts: 23

Thank you so much for all your replys. I am so sorry to hear about your chicken casatinto Sad

and thank you very much for posting a reply on my behalf! Things do come across worse than they are on the internet, it initially hurt my feelings but once recieved the reply it was ok! I know how stressful it is when you care about animals and then worry about their welfare. I will just let you all know that Poppy and Daisy are doing really well and loving their lamp! Poppy had grown a lot more than Daisy but amazed to see how much they are growing everyday Smile

Thanks again for all your replys and if I need to know anything else will know where to come Smile

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 7154 Location: isle of lewis

lovely to hear Very Happy