[diddly74]

Hi there guys

I hope someone can help me. It may be a long story.

A couple of years ago we started keeping hens for eggs, did very well.  We had 8, one got egg bound and attacked by the others and had to go to the coop in the sky, so then we had 7 (Sally, Betty, Margot, Carly, Henny, Penny and Jenny) but they did well and some weeks we had 49 eggs out of them!!!! :blink: They more than kept us supplied. And we loved them, even the dogs and the cats loved them.  Anyway - times became hard and hubby lost his job and  and we lost our house and we had to move to rented accommodation and the chucks went to live in Cluckingham Palace with my SIL and BIL.  They are very happy there still.

But now we want some more chucks as I miss their company in the garden and shop bought eggs no way reach the standards that my ladies did.  Landlords have agreed that this will be fine, and I know the council are happy (as I checked last time).  But this time I would like chicks instead of pullets.  I know that they have to have a lot of care taken of them at first, but like the idea that I am their Mama!

I do have questions tho on their vacinations.  When you buy pullets they always have had their innoculations - what do I do about chicks I am bringing up myself (I would buy them as day/week olds as I haven't got the ability to hatch them)

So if I am getting chicks:

a) how do I get them innoculated?
b) I don't want cocks so how to I get them sexed?
c) I like the idea of also raising meat birds - do I have to keep everyone separate?

I have taken a few books from the library - but they go more on what breeds there are and how I should house the birds.  These questions don't seem to have been included.
Your help would be really appreciated.

Thanks!

Donna

[themagicaltoad1]

Hi Donna & welcome
There are some breeds which can be sexed from hatching such as cream legbars, or you could ask the supplier if they will take back any that turn out to be cocks if you can't face culling them yourself, but if you're raising meat birds this is something you will have to do at some point. Most unwanted cocks end up in the pot.

They will need to be kept indoors for about 7-8 wks under a heat lamp within a fairly high sided box, some people I know have used an old kitchen cupboard, my hand reared chicks were very good at getting out of the box and I ended up putting mesh across the top. Their water dish would need to be very shallow so there's no risk of them accidentally drowning, and they will need feeding with chick crumbs until they are about 16 weeks.

Not all pullets are innoculated. Only those that have come from somewhere where there's a very large flock are usually done due to the cost of the vaccine and the fact that it's supplied in something like 1000 doses.

I don't think you would need to separate meat birds from others unless you have 2 very different sized breeds and the bigger ones pick on the smaller ones.

Hope this helps.

[Casey76]

For the backyard keeper chicks are not normally vaccinated.  It is a long, complicated and expensive process which takes up to 16 weeks to get all of the vaccinations, most of which are only available in 500 or 1000 single dose vials.

If you are going to have a closed flock (i.e. you pick your chicks, then don't get any new ones), then having an unvaccinated flock is OK.

It you only want pullets, then you will need either autosexing, or sex-linked chicks (cream legbars are auto sexing; production red and blacks are sex-linked), otherwise you will have to wait 6-10 weeks before you can tell if you have cockerels or pullets.

It is adviseab;e to keep table birds and laying birs separately as they require different husbandry and feeding schedules.

HTH

Casey

[themagicaltoad1]

Casey you and I were obviously typing at the same time lol. I didn't realise that about the different feeding for meat/ egg birds.

[diddly74]

Thanks people

So basically, if I get all the chicks I want, then as long as I don't add any more I don't have to innoculate. Good, I did worry about that and its cost - doing it wouldn't me a problem - good practice for me as a student nurse lol.

If we did decide to get the meat birds then we would probably keep them at our allotment rather than at home (once they came of size) But that is for the future really.

Again Thanks.

[themagicaltoad1]

You can add more later if you wanted, you just need to keep them separate for a couple of weeks to make sure they are healthy and don't infect your existing flock.