How long do I have to worry about chicks drowning in waterer?

[ChickenLittle5]

I’m currently using a small quart size waterer for the chicks. At what age can I upgrade to a larger waterer? I’d like to use 2 of the quart size waterers with the younger chicks so I can give probiotics in one and fresh water in the other. They are a about 10 days old and we lost 2 last Sunday....not sure why....I think it was shipping stress. They only sent 11 of the 15 chicks I ordered and didn’t include any extra heat in the box. The older chicks are 12 days old and a lot bigger. Are they big enough to use a gallon waterer without gravel? I don’t have small gravel or marbles to use & don‘t really want to buy any if I don’t have to.

 

[hysop]

Oh no did they refund you for the ones they didn’t send?

Hmm mine are exactly 4 weeks today and I started using the big jug when they were 3 weeks. Hmm I would think they would be fine. I want to say they only drown when they’re young and sleep a lot and fall asleep wherever. But at 2 weeks they start being active and conscious of where they sleep.

If anyone else has other advice I’d love to hear it

 

[ChickenLittle5]

Oh no did they refund you for the ones they didn’t send?

Hmm mine are exactly 4 weeks today and I started using the big jug when they were 3 weeks. Hmm I would think they would be fine. I want to say they only drown when they’re young and sleep a lot and fall asleep wherever. But at 2 weeks they start being active and conscious of where they sleep.

If anyone else has other advice I’d love to hear it

Thanks. Cackle did give us a refund for the missing chicks. I wanted them to send replacements, but they said the earliest ship date was the end of June. Personally, I think when they make a mistake they should fix it with the next hatching and push the other orders and not make me go to the end of the line as if I’m placing a new order, but they make the rules. I don’t want the headache of starting in 2 month, so I took the refund.

Our bigger chicks appear big enough...they don’t seem to fall asleep just anywhere. The smaller chicks still seem sporadic when choosing their nap locations. I tried combining them for a few hours, but one of the EE was bullying the smaller Bielefelders so I separated them again. After I took the EE out of the brooder all the Bielefelders ran to the water, so I think there was even more bullying than I saw. There is only a 2 day age difference, but the EE seem to be growing faster. This is why I thought I’d add probiotics & vitamins in with the Bielefelders.

 

[chickens really]

To be honest they can drink from anything and will not drown to easy. I use large fonts and rubber livestock bowls for water.

 

[mlh328]

Glad you asked this, i was just wondering the same thing this morning! Mine are only a week right now so I'll wait a couple more to switch it out.

 

[hysop]

Thanks. Cackle did give us a refund for the missing chicks. I wanted them to send replacements, but they said the earliest ship date was the end of June. Personally, I think when they make a mistake they should fix it with the next hatching and push the other orders and not make me go to the end of the line as if I’m placing a new order, but they make the rules. I don’t want the headache of starting in 2 month, so I took the refund.

Our bigger chicks appear big enough...they don’t seem to fall asleep just anywhere. The smaller chicks still seem sporadic when choosing their nap locations. I tried combining them for a few hours, but one of the EE was bullying the smaller Bielefelders so I separated them again. After I took the EE out of the brooder all the Bielefelders ran to the water, so I think there was even more bullying than I saw. There is only a 2 day age difference, but the EE seem to be growing faster. This is why I thought I’d add probiotics & vitamins in with the Bielefelders.

Oh wow Cackle is usually good about that but I guess with the influx of orders they’re slacking and they didn’t send extras. Usually they send a few extras.

Yeah two months is too long between chicks especially since they made the mistake. But glad they at least refunded you, but I’d still be a bit disappointed.

 

[quailmaniac]

I would think they you could remove the pebbles now, I have a few chicks and just to be safe i removed the stones after I moved them from the brooder and into their coop. Hope this helps!

 

[ChickenLittle5]

Oh wow Cackle is usually good about that but I guess with the influx of orders they’re slacking and they didn’t send extras. Usually they send a few extras.

Yeah two months is too long between chicks especially since they made the mistake. But glad they at least refunded you, but I’d still be a bit disappointed.

They did send 1 extra Bielefelder, but I ordered 10 Bielelfelders & 5 Wyandottes. They didn’t send any Wyandottes. I’m disappointed they couldn‘t send some quickly, but with everything going on in this world, not getting all my chicks is a minor inconvenience. I called them close to closing time on the ship day to see if they would be shipping. They were really busy and the lady said they would be shipping chicks until 9-10 PM that night. When they’re that busy, mistakes are bound to happen. At least they refunded my $ with out much trouble. They just asked for a picture of the chicks, but even that might have been because I wasn’t certain which were missing.

 

[LinzeeBrie]

I found an 18 day old chick drowned in the water bowl this morning It was only a 5 inch bowl, with maybe 2 inches of water in it. I'm so sad/surprised - they've been running and flying around like crazy... They hop up on 3 foot high branches with their mama.... I guess once their feathers are wet though?!

 

[hysop]

I found an 18 day old chick drowned in the water bowl this morning It was only a 5 inch bowl, with maybe 2 inches of water in it. I'm so sad/surprised - they've been running and flying around like crazy... They hop up on 3 foot high branches with their mama.... I guess once their feathers are wet though?!

Oh no I’m sorry to hear that. I hang my waterers when I switch to the larger ones. The littles ones I leave on the floor on top of a piece of wood.

2 inches deep? That seems a bit deep, I think my large waterer has a “bowl” that is only 1 inch deep or less.

Was the bowl made to be a chicken waterer or was it your own bowl?