How To Make Baby Chicks Like You Chicken Care Lessons Learned by admin - May 13, 2022May 13, 20220 Courtesy of Laurel The path to making your baby chicks like you is through their stomach. There are a whole host of reasons why your adorable little fuzzballs are scared of you. And as disappointing as it is for you to have them to chirp in heart-breaking alarm every time you hold them, or even reach for them, you should know that this is not unusual behavior. Point of fact, it should be viewed as a positive indicator of good health and potential longevity. This is not to say that your birds should be terrified of you forever. That’s no good for you or your flock. But a thorough understanding of all the dynamics can help you understand why your baby chicks are behaving the
How Do Baby Chicks Die? Chicken Care Lessons Learned by admin - January 24, 2022January 24, 20220 One thing that has always struck me about raising animals is that the smaller the critter, the more vulnerable they are to the variables. An adult chicken is a fairly hardy animal – one of the best livestock animals for a small hobbyist to raise. Baby chicks, however, can die fairly easily if you don’t watch out for three common hazards. Temperature ControlHydrationProtection Should you have the benefit of a mother hen to help with these three variables, then you can expect your workload to be a little less. But, understand that if there is no mother hen to care for them, then their survival depends 100% on you, as baby chicks do not have the means to care for themselves. Simply put, baby
Do Chickens Heal Quickly? Lessons Learned by admin - October 3, 2019October 2, 20200 Chicken - Missing Toe ### Warning – Some of these images might be disturbing ### Injuries in your flock are always a tough thing. It seems like you’re never really sure just how bad the bird might be feeling. This can cause you to be anxious – and for the record, I don’t like being anxious. But at the same time, you know that a vet bill can cost significantly more than the original purchase price of the entire flock. This leaves you asking yourself, ‘Can I really justify a vet bill for an animal I purchased to eat?’ Of course, asking this question leaves me feeling guilty and cheap. I can tell you that my grandparents generation was a lot better at dealing with this kind of situation than I am. Between a
What To Do If You Find A Duckling Lessons Learned by admin - July 27, 2019July 29, 20190 One thing about working with animals is the surprises. Some surprises are good, some not so much. And then other times, the surprise is...well, a doozy. In my case, this doozy was finding a mallard duckling hanging out in the brooder with my 5 week old chicks! When finding an orphaned duckling, the very first thing you should do is look for mama duck. Ducks can make their nests a long ways from water so it’s not hard to see how a little duckling could get separated. This is bad, not only for the physical needs of the baby bird – such as food, water and protection – but for long term development. Mallards in particular need other mallards to develop correctly. So the importance of having the proper bird to play mama
When To Put Your Chicken Down Lessons Learned by admin - July 20, 2019July 20, 20190 Anyone who has raised an animal knows the joy of seeing new life...and the heartache of watching it pass. I think of all the species living on this beautiful earth, we, as human beings, understand and appreciate this journey from birth to death the most. Maybe this is because of our higher level of intelligence, maybe it’s because of our length of life or maybe a little of both. That’s a philosophical question for better brains than mine. But what I do know is this; witnessing the death of a living being is absolutely gut-wrenching. And for the record, my heart goes out to anyone who finds themselves in the position where they have to make a decision – ‘should I let my friend go on or should I stop the suffering?’ And this