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We currently have 26 five day old chicks in a cardboard box in our mud room. We are raising them to lay and, eventually, brood so hopefully I'll be able to answ

We currently have 26 five day old chicks in a cardboard box in our mud room. We are raising them to lay and, eventually, brood so hopefully I'll be able to answer this question in about 9-12 months or so. This is the first time I've ever raised layers though 20 years ago as a teenager, my brother and I raised 100 birds every spring for the family freezer. An interesting thing about the young chicks, even at 3 days old they were acting exactly like adult birds- making dust baths, establishing a pecking order and even attempting to roost though the only thing elevated in their box is their feeder.

kbutler 9y ago
We've done this a few times - both incubating from eggs and receiving chicks mail order. Incubating and seeing the eggs hatch is awesome, but it's also pretty fun to pick up a cheeping box at the post office! However, it won't be very long until you want them OUT of the mudroom ASAP. The dust and smell from poo and feathers and whatever else gets bad quickly. Not a nice addition to breakfast. Note that I do seem to be more irritated by it than other family members who like pets more.
- Diederich 9y ago
  > ... but it's also pretty fun to pick up a cheeping box at the post office! One of the highlights of the years we lived in an extremely rural county in the midwest was the yearly call from our rural post office. This is exactly what was said when we picked up the phone: "Diederich? Postmaster here. Your birds are at the post office. Thanks, bye."
- iamthepieman 9y ago
  Picking up a madly chirping box at 7A.M. from the post office is certainly a magical experience. And yes, as soon as I juggle my cats out of the basement, the chicks are moving down there.
caio1982 9y ago
I don't understand why you were being downvoted but please write a report somewhere and post it here next year, and good luck with the chicks! Just remember to take good care of them, and provide a decent, clean, natural environment for the animals while they live.
- iamthepieman 9y ago
  We have two acres (1 acre cleared) and don't use any pesticide or herbicide in our yard so I'm sure they will have plenty of natural forage to supplement their grain and room to stretch their legs. Our biggest concern is the local wildlife which includes mink, weasel, raccoon, skunk and fisher cat. We've seen every one of those creatures on and around our property so I'm trying to devise a critter proof chicken coop to put them in at night and wondering if I should get a dog as well.
  - cr0sh 9y ago
    I'd say yes to the dog, maybe 2 or 3 given the size of property you have. You'll probably still lose some, though. As far as the coop is concerned, can't answer much there; my parents raised chickens for eggs when I was a kid, and my dad made the coop (2 x 4 and plywood, then a larger outer "pen" using 4x4s and chicken wire). Provide plenty of shade and water, of course. Instead of chicken wire, you might try something more robust - thicker gauge hardware cloth with closer mesh. I recall my parent's coop was about a 20 x 30 foot area for the "outdoor" part, then an "indoor" area about 10 x 8 off the side. Fence of chicken wire on the outside was about 8 - 10 feet high, and the indoor part was 8 feet tall (standard plywood dimensions). There was a latched door to the outdoor portion, then an opening to the indoor part (no door). We didn't have any "critter" issues given where we lived (county island in the middle of a suburb neighborhood). Everything was sized so an adult could stand up anywhere, and we kept the chickens penned inside the coop area (we didn't let them run free). There was always a rooster around, too. Plus we had to trim the chickens wings (because sometimes they would try to fly out of the coop - sometimes successfully and get in the yard area - that was the signal to "clip the wings"). I wouldn't want to do such a thing myself, but my parents loved it. We had fresh eggs all the time, and the occasional fresh chicken (I know where and why the term "running around like a chicken with it's head cut off" comes from - and I helped my mom pluck the carcass, too). It was a messy and smelly thing to have in a backyard; at one time we had upwards of 60 chickens. Even so, it was a part of my growing up I wouldn't change even if I could.
gadders 9y ago
We incubated a bunch of chicks once, and they all died except one. Knowing they don't do well on their own, we had to buy another day old chick and put them together. Even at two days old, they started fighting. One chick would wait for the other to start to nod off, and then peck it in the eyeball. We had to put one under a colander for a while until they got used to each other.
- iamthepieman 9y ago
  my wife was afraid of killing them through some error or omission. We had one little runt (30% smaller than all the others) that we were sure was doing poorly. It refused to move and just sat uncomfortably under the heat lamp chirping like it's life depended on it. Then yesterday it started behaving normally and is doing great apart from being small. Inexplicably, the same day, I found one of the big healthy black orpington chicks lying unmoving next to the feeder and it perished an hour later.
  - egypturnash 9y ago
    Clearly the runt ate the orpington's soul.

kbutler 9y ago

We've done this a few times - both incubating from eggs and receiving chicks mail order. Incubating and seeing the eggs hatch is awesome, but it's also pretty fun to pick up a cheeping box at the post office! However, it won't be very long until you want them OUT of the mudroom ASAP. The dust and smell from poo and feathers and whatever else gets bad quickly. Not a nice addition to breakfast. Note that I do seem to be more irritated by it than other family members who like pets more.

Diederich 9y ago
> ... but it's also pretty fun to pick up a cheeping box at the post office! One of the highlights of the years we lived in an extremely rural county in the midwest was the yearly call from our rural post office. This is exactly what was said when we picked up the phone: "Diederich? Postmaster here. Your birds are at the post office. Thanks, bye."
iamthepieman 9y ago
Picking up a madly chirping box at 7A.M. from the post office is certainly a magical experience. And yes, as soon as I juggle my cats out of the basement, the chicks are moving down there.

caio1982 9y ago

I don't understand why you were being downvoted but please write a report somewhere and post it here next year, and good luck with the chicks! Just remember to take good care of them, and provide a decent, clean, natural environment for the animals while they live.

iamthepieman 9y ago
We have two acres (1 acre cleared) and don't use any pesticide or herbicide in our yard so I'm sure they will have plenty of natural forage to supplement their grain and room to stretch their legs. Our biggest concern is the local wildlife which includes mink, weasel, raccoon, skunk and fisher cat. We've seen every one of those creatures on and around our property so I'm trying to devise a critter proof chicken coop to put them in at night and wondering if I should get a dog as well.
- cr0sh 9y ago
  I'd say yes to the dog, maybe 2 or 3 given the size of property you have. You'll probably still lose some, though. As far as the coop is concerned, can't answer much there; my parents raised chickens for eggs when I was a kid, and my dad made the coop (2 x 4 and plywood, then a larger outer "pen" using 4x4s and chicken wire). Provide plenty of shade and water, of course. Instead of chicken wire, you might try something more robust - thicker gauge hardware cloth with closer mesh. I recall my parent's coop was about a 20 x 30 foot area for the "outdoor" part, then an "indoor" area about 10 x 8 off the side. Fence of chicken wire on the outside was about 8 - 10 feet high, and the indoor part was 8 feet tall (standard plywood dimensions). There was a latched door to the outdoor portion, then an opening to the indoor part (no door). We didn't have any "critter" issues given where we lived (county island in the middle of a suburb neighborhood). Everything was sized so an adult could stand up anywhere, and we kept the chickens penned inside the coop area (we didn't let them run free). There was always a rooster around, too. Plus we had to trim the chickens wings (because sometimes they would try to fly out of the coop - sometimes successfully and get in the yard area - that was the signal to "clip the wings"). I wouldn't want to do such a thing myself, but my parents loved it. We had fresh eggs all the time, and the occasional fresh chicken (I know where and why the term "running around like a chicken with it's head cut off" comes from - and I helped my mom pluck the carcass, too). It was a messy and smelly thing to have in a backyard; at one time we had upwards of 60 chickens. Even so, it was a part of my growing up I wouldn't change even if I could.

gadders 9y ago

We incubated a bunch of chicks once, and they all died except one. Knowing they don't do well on their own, we had to buy another day old chick and put them together. Even at two days old, they started fighting. One chick would wait for the other to start to nod off, and then peck it in the eyeball. We had to put one under a colander for a while until they got used to each other.

iamthepieman 9y ago
my wife was afraid of killing them through some error or omission. We had one little runt (30% smaller than all the others) that we were sure was doing poorly. It refused to move and just sat uncomfortably under the heat lamp chirping like it's life depended on it. Then yesterday it started behaving normally and is doing great apart from being small. Inexplicably, the same day, I found one of the big healthy black orpington chicks lying unmoving next to the feeder and it perished an hour later.
- egypturnash 9y ago
  Clearly the runt ate the orpington's soul.