[Colernehens]

You may remember that I posted on here about a month ago about a very shy new Splash Orpington hen (Dusty).

You may also remember that about 10 days after that I posted to say that she had perked up and all seemed to be well.

Sadly on Wednesday this week she seem to go back to how she had been, not eating properly and staying away from the other hens. We took her to the vet on Thursday and they could find nothing obvious wrong. The vet gave her some antibiotics and enough to treat the rest of the flock just in case, but on Thursday afternoon, she sadly succumbed to what ever it was and died. 

My 9 year old son, was holding her and the time and I am so proud of him, he was a hero. He has been greatly saddened by what has happened and we all have. We may have only had her 4 weeks, but she had already found a place in our hearts.

My son was desperate to get another chicken today, but we were unsure about rushing as it maybe that the others have all got a problem too, just fighting it better as they are healthy and strong.

We decided to phone a couple of breeders and put our name down for some POL Orpingtons in a month or so. No one had any Orpingtons other than one breeder who had some week old chicks. She invited us to come and take a look - which we did and wrongly or otherwise we came home with 6, 1 week old chicks 

At least by the time they are old enough to meet the other girls we should be certain that poor Dusty was a one off.

So any advice on chicks very much appreciated, still questioning my sanity, but it seems to have cheered up my little boy. 

This is tough stuff looking after hens - never thought I would get so attached. 

[hillfooter]

Sorry to hear of poor Dusty's sad end.

I can't say that getting 6, day old chicks was the wisest course for inexperienced keepers who really just want a few hens.  I'm a little surprised that a responsible breeder would sell novices day olds particularly as you don't appear to have the knowledge or resources in place to raise them.

For a start you will have some cockerels which you can't keep in a back garden environment unless you have some extrordinarily tollerant neighbours.  It's very difficult to rehome unwanted cockerels and you will probably have to cull them.  Secondly chicks require special care and for the first 4 weeks will require a heated brooder and can't be kept outside until they are 6 weeks old minimum.  They will not be possible to integrate with older mature birds until they are 14 -16 weeks or so and the integration will need to be done gradually.

However you have them now so you will need to set up a brooder quickly which needs to be an indoor ring fenced area with a NON SLIP litter floor which will need to be heated with an infra red heat bulb or similar.  With 6 L/F chicks a suitable brooder would be a 1 metre diameter ring of 40 - 50 cm height wall with a suspended heat lamp above it.  You can use a large box initially but they will soon need a bit more room.  Brooders with which can be stotted together into an octagon shape with plastic or fibre board panels are cheaply available.

You need to start off with the temperature about 35 degC directly under the lamp.  You can slowly reduce the temperature by raising the lamp over the next 4 weeks until they are off heat and can be hardened off to outside temperatures.  They need to be provided with chick crumbs for about 6 weeks and then gradually weened over to growers pellets so they are exclusively on growers after about 8 weeks.  They will need fresh water ad lib each day, specialist drinkers are best as they the chicks won't be in danger of drownding or getting wet and chilling.  You maybe able to sex them from 8 weeks though orps are difficult to sex until latter.  You need to remove the cockerels by culling or rehoming by about 16 weeks or they will be starting to find their voices. They should be weened over to layers exclusively by 18 weeks.

Introducing them to mature chickens once they are large enough to take care of themselves.  This is a topic in itself and there's lots of advice in earlier posts you can search for on the site.







Note the mesh covered board which they can walk on without fear of slipping and injurying themselves.  Splayed legs are common with chicks kept on inapppropriate flooring and is often a fatal condition.  You can feed them initially by spreading chick crumbs on the board but after a couple of days they will need a feeder to hold the crumbs.  Feed and water needs to be raised slowly as they grow so it is always slightly above vent height and can't be walked on otherwise they will soil it with droppings or litter.  Litter must be kept clean and changed regularly.

Best of luck
HF

[LittleRedHen]

You have really had a time of it and I am so very sorry for your family's loss of that lovely chicken.  We lost our first hen several weeks ago, and it is still heartbreaking.  Your young son was a very brave lad indeed! 

Smiling to myself about your new chicks though.  I've only had chicks once and a mother hen to do all the bits for them! So I can't help you on this one, only to wish you the very best in this new adventure!

[joyfull]

sorry you lost you blue splash orp Dusty and how proud you must be of your son - he has learnt a vluble lesson about life (albeit the sad part). Chickens seem to have a wonderful way of worming themselves into our affections very quickly without us realising it - cunning little devils  .
I am going to pop this over to the hen house so that people with incubator experience. Llike little red hen I only use broodies - have 5 on eggs at the moment 3 by choice the other 2 in the undergrowth and 1 with 4 weekold chicks - so not able to help with temps, humidity etc.
Good luck and fingers crossed for more girls than boys (will the breeder take back any that turn out to be boys?).

[Lindeggs]

Sorry to hear about Dusty - I do remember you posting about her earlier and was hoping she had recovered from whatever it was she had.

It sounds like you have your hands full with the chicks!  Your boy sounds like a responsible lad though, so hopefully he will take on some of the cleaning and caring duties.  Chicks really do tug on your heart strings and I'm sure you will love having them.

[Colernehens]

Thank you all for your kind comments.

The breeder did provide a brooder, heat lamp and chick crumb, so they are ok so far. They will need something bigger eventually, but we have a couple of weeks to sort out a larger set up.
The breeder has agreed to take back any cockerels, that was something I had to have in place as we didn't want to keep more than one. She has assured me that none of them will be culled as she has a crockerel rescue scheme.

We have space and will be moving to an even bigger space in a few weeks so keeping at least one cockerel will be possible. (its down a nice quiet country lane  )

Thank you Hillfooter for all the advice, the breeder told us much the same and has said we can call her at anytime if we have questions.

We will keep you posted on how it goes and of course we will add pictures 

[GrannieAnnie]

Good luck with the chicks.  At least you are being sensible about looking after them!

You'd be surprised what people ask me on the phone!  I used to get a lot of calls from people who wanted Easter Chicks, for the children with no idea what to do with these little bundles of yellow down afterwards!  And the other lady recently who wanted some chicks she could keep in a cardboard box in her home office, as after all the 2 dogs and the 2 rabbits sleep in there!!!  :blink: :blink: :blink:

[hillfooter]

Thank you all for your kind comments.

The breeder did provide a brooder, heat lamp and chick crumb, so they are ok so far. They will need something bigger eventually, but we have a couple of weeks to sort out a larger set up.
The breeder has agreed to take back any cockerels, that was something I had to have in place as we didn't want to keep more than one. She has assured me that none of them will be culled as she has a crockerel rescue scheme.

We have space and will be moving to an even bigger space in a few weeks so keeping at least one cockerel will be possible. (its down a nice quiet country lane  )

Thank you Hillfooter for all the advice, the breeder told us much the same and has said we can call her at anytime if we have questions.

We will keep you posted on how it goes and of course we will add pictures  

Oh good you seem to be a little more equiped to raise them than your first post suggested so hopefully you don't need too much further advice.  If you have covered the basics with the brooder the rest is pretty much common sence.  To get them to drink and feed tap your finger on the food like a pecking motion and in the water (dip their beaks to get them started) and they will soon imitate your actions and feed themselves.
HF

[Colernehens]

Well I have ordered some no slip flooring and a brooder that can be adjusted in size up to 3 meter in diameter, so that should be plenty big enough even for Orps 

So hopefully we are sorted now for the next few weeks until they are ready to venture out. but we'll just take one day at a time.

Thank you again for all your support.