cluckingmad Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Right, ladies and gentlemen, are you sitting cvomfortably? Then I shall begin... After much thinking, oohing, ahhing and a massive amount of reading done (stickies, posts, books, publications...) we've decided we would like to try and hatch/raise some chicks using one of our lovely broody girls. We regularly have broodies so theres no rush tp buy eggs immediately but we want to be absolutely sure we get things as right as possible, however am suffering from info overload and I am now totally lost! We've spoken to friends in the farming community who are happy to take any boys for growing on, we plan to move our chosen broody over to her own eglu and run to incubate the eggs so shes away from the other girls, but the run will be within sight of the other hens. Will she be ok in there or would it be better to move her to an indoor rabbit cage, kept safely in our shed? Most of the confusion comes when we start to prepare for the new chicks; 1. does anyone routinely vaccinate against Marecks, cocci, etc in the drinking water? If so, would it matter if the mother hen drank it too? 2. chick crumb - is the version with anti-cocci medication added preferred/unnecessary? 3. if we assume that at least one chick will have a problem at some point with infection, what medications should be bought in readiness? I'm not afraid to do the kindest thing for a chick who is suffering, although I am a little bothered about how I might feel with a disabled chick (my son has special needs, so rather concerned I might want to try and help the chick too much..!). Finally, does anyone experienced in hatching have any advice to help us prepare for our first attempt? xx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cluckingmad Posted June 12, 2012 Author Share Posted June 12, 2012 ps meant to add - there are a few autosexing/easily sexed breeds/hybrids that I'm aware of (notable cream legbar) but are there any others? I've tried searching online and in books but not having much luck... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dance in the dark Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 As far as I know, cream legbar is the only autosexing breed you will have a chance of getting eggs for. I know that theoretically there are a few more breeds but they are very rare. The only other one I know off the top of my head is the Welbar. As for sex linking, if I remember correctly, it comes from cross-breeding colour geners to produces different coloured chicks at hatching, so it is a difference process to autosexing, but has similar concequences. It has to be done properly though, I think if you take a cock with the gold gene and a hen with the silver gene they will produce yellow boys and buff girls, but the other way around (ie silver cock and gold hen0 doesn't work. I would say if you have homes for the boys don't limit yourself to sexable breeds, most breeder can be sexed by about 6 weeks, some earlier, some a little later. I know some breeds like araucanas you might have to end up waiting for a crow or an egg, so they wouldn't be a good idea, but if you are having trouble sexing, there are always people on here who can look at photos. As for raising, I have hatched in an eglu classic, just piled it high with auboise so that pretty much all plastic that they could walk on was covered, and removed the roosting bars. My hen sat happily for three weeks, and brought the babies out about two days after they hatched. The omlet run is good protection from predators for the little ones, but I put a little wall of cardboard around the bottom 6-8" of the run so that the chicks could not escape (they are so small when they first hatch) and kept the elgu run in my main chicken area where my girls fr all day. They were interested in the chicks, but have never been aggressive, if one got to close the mother used to panic but once she realized it was safe she was fine. When she was broody she never willingingly got off the nest so I would push her into the run for 15 minutes every evening, fed her mostly corn and water, as she needs high energy food, given that she was eating so little, until she would clamour to be let back in to the eglu, and would promptly sit back on her eggs. Eglus are a fine enviroment for chicks, and I have been fully emptying mine once a week and spraying it with virkon s, which is a disinfectant safe for poultry, to stave off cocci. I have fed my chicks the medicated feed on the advice of redwing, who basically said, I think, that it makes good sense to use it, as it can't hurt and might help. It is fine for the mother to eat this feed too, and she will happily lead her chicks to it, when she comes into mother mode. Sorry for such a huge reply! Good luck!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cluckingmad Posted June 12, 2012 Author Share Posted June 12, 2012 Fab, thanks I was surprised to find Virkon on here, we use it in the labs I used to work in to clean EVERYTHING but would never have thought of using it to clean the eglu! Good point about photos and folk helping with sexing on here, hadn't thought of that... as we live in the suburbs I really can't risk making a mistake sexing and ending up with a load of boys all practicing crowing at once!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dance in the dark Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 I know, I have neighbour whos actual house is about 10 feet from the edge of my chicken area, they have noisy dogs though so I don't worry about my girls. IO have hatched some silver laced wyandottes and they won't be sexable for a few more weeks, but from my basic lack of knowledge I think I may have two of each...the waiting for sexing element is nerve wracking, but so is hatching eggs in general. As for Virkon, it's amazing, I put is in a garden sprayer (like you use for rose feed and stuff) and spray all the plastic and wooden coops, even on the ground in the run (just in case), it doesn't hurt the girls either, you can even spray them in theory, but I choose not too... It's not the cheapest of things for chickens but it's effective and last a long time. also, when you do decide on a breed to hatch, let us know won't you? then we can all be super jealous! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daphne Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 To add to DintheD's post and to answer your specific Qs: 1) You have to vaccinate rather than put something in the water and as far as I know vaccines are only available in huge quantities so it is very expensive. It is very unusual for hobby breeders to do it. 2) In my view its best to use crumb with ACS added, but be aware that this is no guarantee against cocci. Eternal vigilance in terms of cleanliness/prevention (Virkon S or similar), keeping litter dry and monitoring of chicks is essential as its such a quick killer. 3) My advice is to buy in some coxoid which you can get OTC, so if you do get cocci you can use immediately. However, although it works fine for some people, there are many strains of cocci and coxoid won't deal with them all. Baycox is better in my view, but it is costly and has to be prescribed. Its a fine balancing act between using coxoid, waiting to see if it works and then requesting baycox - as unfortunately it may be too late by then. The broody will be fine in the eglu for her brooding period. You can buy rhodebar eggs (not sure how easily though!) as another autosexing breed, or do a sex-linked pairing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
