Living with Chickens by Jay Rossier

Author:Jay Rossier
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781493032303
Publisher: Lyons Press

HOW TO DEAL WITH VARIOUS TROUBLES

If just one or two chicks in a batch of twenty-five die before reaching maturity, you are doing well. If they start to drop off with more regularity, you might be looking at a problem. The first thing to watch for is that each chick drinks water, and after that, that they are all eating. If your chicks don’t eat or drink, they will die—there is no getting around it. Keep an eye out for a few of the other more common reasons that birds die in addition to coccidiosis: pasting up, picking, and runts.

Pasting Up

Occasionally the trip across the country in the airplane, or simply the stress of being new in the world, can cause the stool of the chick to be looser than it should be. Instead of dropping to the floor to be absorbed in the litter, it sticks to the down immediately surrounding the vent. If allowed to persist, the manure on the bird’s bum can harden and seal him up so that he will die of an inability to poop. There’s an image that should keep you up at night.

Pasting up can occur as a result of many kinds of stress. If not attributable to travel, pasting may be a sign that the birds are too cold. Pay attention again to their behavior under the brooder, and adjust it accordingly. If the birds show signs of it, clean the paste off with a paper towel or Q-tip moistened with warm water, then swab with a bit of vegetable oil. The bird will complain mightily, but you know it is for his own good.

Picking

When chicks peck at one another, it is called picking. Picking can happen at any time, but it doesn’t have to, and it is easier to avoid it starting than it is to stop it once they get going. The most common reasons for it are overcrowding, overheating, and insufficient air replacement. Chicks may begin to pick the toes or feathers of their mates as a result of these stressors, and once there is blood, it only gets worse. Chicks can literally peck each other to death. If you have adjusted for the three big problems above, try offering them some clumps of dirt and grass to distract them from the wounds of their neighbors. Clean the wounds of the victims, and put an antiseptic first aid ointment on them to promote healing. A red heat lamp will reduce the chance of picking because it makes it harder to see the toes and other spots that visually attract the pickers.

Runts

Many batches will have a runt or two. These are birds that can’t compete and that get shoved aside whenever they approach the feeder. They stay small as the rest of the flock grows. As you raise the feeders farther and farther off the floor in order to keep them at the level of the birds’ backs, you may make it harder for the runts to reach the feed. Farming can be a cruel business at times, and this is one of those times.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.