How old do chicks have to be to...

[Bantamphantom]

How old do chicks have to get to be able to do the following:

• perch
• eat vegetables and fruits like lettuce, corn, grapes, etc.
• forage outside for the first time
• fly several feet
• be trained (I'll go into detail on this later)
• stay in an outdoor coop (warm climate)
• eat dried corn, not cracked
• eat sunflower seeds, not shelled

Also, how do they eat sunflower seeds? Do they shell them, like a parrot? Do they eat the shell? Is that bad for them?

Ok, for training my chicks, I was thinking of teaching them their names, to perch on my finger, arm, and shoulder, and to come when I call them (fun fact, rolling your tongue makes them freeze and be silent. I don't do it much because it has no purpose for now and it looks like it scares them). A lot of people have told me that training chickens is impossible because they are too stupid. None of those people actually has chickens, which I find funny, and I will try anyway.

 

[Purechick]

Perch- Chicks can perch when they are about a week old depending on how low the roost is. Place the pole or branch low at first and then gradually move it up higher. They may be afraid of it at first but soon they will be jumping on it all day.

Eat vegetables and fruits- when they are about 2 months old because when they are young it is hard for them to digest it without grit and they are already getting all the nutrients they need from the starter feed.

Forage outside- When they are about 1-2 months old you can let them out for a little while and then put them back in their cage but you must watch them the whole time they are out since they are so small.

Fly several feet- When they are about 3 or 4 months old. Certain breeds fly higher and more often than others though.

Be trained- you can start training them now since they are young and so they can get used to you.

Stay in an outdoor coop- When they are about 4 months old you can let them out. Be careful that other animals can't get to them though.

Eat dried corn- 4 or 5 months old but make sure they have grit.

Eat sunflower seeds- 4 or 5 months old with grit. They eat them with the shell and sunflower seeds are good for them. They help them lay eggs and grow healthy feathers.

Hope this helps!

 

[Bantamphantom]

Yeep it does! Thank you

 

[Purechick]

You're welcome! Glad I could help!

 

[CAjerseychick]

Perch- Chicks can perch when they are about a week old depending on how low the roost is. Place the pole or branch low at first and then gradually move it up higher. They may be afraid of it at first but soon they will be jumping on it all day.

Eat vegetables and fruits- when they are about 2 months old because when they are young it is hard for them to digest it without grit and they are already getting all the nutrients they need from the starter feed.

Forage outside- When they are about 1-2 months old you can let them out for a little while and then put them back in their cage but you must watch them the whole time they are out since they are so small.

Fly several feet- When they are about 3 or 4 months old. Certain breeds fly higher and more often than others though.

Be trained- you can start training them now since they are young and so they can get used to you.

Stay in an outdoor coop- When they are about 4 months old you can let them out. Be careful that other animals can't get to them though.

Eat dried corn- 4 or 5 months old but make sure they have grit.

Eat sunflower seeds- 4 or 5 months old with grit. They eat them with the shell and sunflower seeds are good for them. They help them lay eggs and grow healthy feathers.

Hope this helps!

Oh we got our 3 week old chicks a few days ago and my daughter put an ear of corn in there --- they had a great time picking it clean-- was that wrong ( it was a whole ear of freshly shucked raw corn)-- it was 2 days ago-- no diahrea and they seem ok...

Also how old can you leave the lamp off at night?-- I am using it only at night these days (we are up in the sierras and it still is 49 degrees at night here- hopefully that will change in the next couple of weeks )....

 

[Purechick]

That's ok, just make sure they have access to some grit to help them digest it.

Once they start getting most of their feathers you can gradually start reducing the amount of time you use the lamp.

 

[Presidential]

You can train your chicken! It is all about the reward. Check out YouTube for some ideas. My chickens are trained to enter their coop when I ring a bell that hangs near the door. We take our chickens to nursing homes for Animal Assisted Therapy visits. Residents/Patients LOVE them. Chickens are trained to sit on their mat and allow all kinds of touching and petting. We've worked our dogs for years - I was surprised at how easy the chickens could be trained and how responsive people were to them! We visit schools, too.

I gasped when I read the advice to keep chicks indoors for 4 months! LOL!!
An old farmer told me to, "Get them chickens out of your house". He explained that outside they can build immunities, strength, and overall health. He believes people insulating their birds from the weather and nature, actually make their birds sick by making them more succeptable to disease and frail to climate change. He told me that, "Yup, you might lose a few, but the strong will survive and that will give you a stronger, healthier flock overall". I am a beginner to chickens, but it made sense to me!

 

[Sweetlilbaby]

Chicks all perch at different ages. I have some that cannot perch still at almost 3 weeks old, and others were perching at just says old.
Being outside depends on the weather. If you have hot weather I'd take the chicks out to roam around and forage as soon as the weather is nice. A momma hen would have her babies out after everyone has hatched to forage for food.
Some of mine were flying out of 3 ft tall walls at 2 weeks old. I think that depends on the breed. These are bantams that were flying out.
Stay in an outdoor coop- I have 7 of my 3 week olds in the coop with my one pullet that i believe is 7 weeks old now. They do great.

 

[Ridgerunner]

•perch
There is a difference in perching and roosting. Chicks can perch (sit on a small branch or such) almost immediately. They will really enjoy doing this in a brooder, but broody raised chicks do it too.

Roosting is sleeping on the roost at night. It is not the same thing as perching. I’ve seen a broody take her chicks to roost at two weeks old and not all of them could fit under her at night. I’ve had brooder-raised chicks not start roosting (though they play on the roosts during the day) until they are 3 or more months old. I’ve also had brooder raised chicks roost at 5 weeks. They are not consistent.

•eat vegetables and fruits like lettuce, corn, grapes, etc.

A broody would feed those things to her chicks at Day 1, depending in size of the pieces and such. They can eat that stuff but they really need grit to digest it and keep it from plugging up their system. So if they have grit they can eat that stuff, but I’d make sure it was in sized suited to their size.

•forage outside for the first time

A broody takes them out to forage as soon as she takes them off the nest. For brooder raised chicks, it would depend on weather and protection.

•fly several feet

I’ve seen two week old chicks fly up vertically 2 feet and over horizontally 3 feet. I have no doubt that chick could have gone a lot further if the broody had told it to. So my answer is well before two weeks.

•stay in an outdoor coop (warm climate)

My brooder is in my coop, so with proper heat, draft protection, and predator protection, from Day 1. This year with the heat we are having, I turned my daytime heat off at 2 days and my overnight heat off at 6 days. In winter, I often keep the overnight heat on until 4 weeks and sometimes leave the daytime heat on that long too. So it depends on your temperatures, how your coop is built, how many there are to keep each other warm (I had 17 but they did not sleep together. They stayed spread out. It was warm even at night), and who knows how many other factors. They can manage a lot sooner than most people think.

•eat dried corn, not cracked

I hesitate to guess. A lot sooner than you might expect. I’ve seen a plum pit in the gizzard of a 20 week old I processed. If you are familiar with the size of plum pits, you can appreciate they can handle things that you would not expect.

•eat sunflower seeds, not shelled
Also, how do they eat sunflower seeds? Do they shell them, like a parrot? Do they eat the shell? Is that bad for them?

Again, I’m not going to guess age. If it is too big, they probably won’t eat it. They’ll probably eat the whole thing, though they tend to peck at bigger things to try to break them down into smaller pieces or to soften them up. As long as they have grit, their gizzard will grind it up. The hulls won’t harm them.

 

[CAjerseychick]

Thanks you guys that was really helpful info...