Newbie: Chick Questions! UPDATE: MORE Q'S ADDED

[Chick_a_dee]

I probably should just post all my questions in one post, so here is a bunch of questions, and when you answer please post the number you are replying to!

1. I live in CANADA, and I've ordered my chicks from FREY'S HATCHERY, through the FARM SUPPLY CO-OP, they DO NOT get mailed to me, and I have to pick-up from the CO-OP STORE. My question is, WILL I GET PACKING PEANUT ROOS? or not since I'm ordering through a co-op store which brings in a bunch of chicks on a certain day, plus we have to pick them up the moment they get to the store, at 8AM!

2. Is it okay for me to put linoleum tiles on the floor of my brooder box? I'll cover it thickly with peat moss, or shavings, plus papertowels, but I want something very cleanable other than just plain wood.

3. WHAT KIND OF FEED DO I USE?! I went to our TSC store and they only sell Start and Grow for BROILER CHICKS, well... I'm raising Rhode Island Red X Columbian Rock babies, they're dual-purpose, but will be used as layers! ... What kind of food do I use?!

4. When do I introduce layer feed?

5. DO YOU HAVE EXPERIENCE WITH THIS PARTICULAR CROSS, RHODE ISLAND RED X COLUMBIAN ROCK, I have 15 coming in July.

6. I live in the GTA but am moving to a 9 acre farm north of BELLEVILLE, I'm looking for a store that specilizes in poultry supplies! ST. THOMAS IS JUST TOO FAR TO DRIVE, 3 HOURS!, I need to buy several things that I CANNOT find in my local Farm Supply store (CO-OP OR MASTER FEEDS STORE).

7. HOW MANY NESTING BOXES WILL I NEED, I will have 15 girls, how many boxes will I need when they start to lay, 15?

8. If you have experience with my kind of chick, R.I. Red X Columbian Rock, what are the eggs like? can you post a photo? Large? Medium?... Laying frequency?

9. What do I do if I DO get some packing peanut Roos? ... I will be living near some mennonite farms, but I'm not certain they'd take them, and I certainly can't have them!

10. On the property we bought, there is a huge chicken coop already there, as far as I have calculated it could hold 96 chickens! However, we're only putting our 15 in there when old enough, It hasn't been used in something like 10 years, but it's filthy! there is still old bedding in it too! WHAT PRODUCT IS BEST FOR CLEANING MY OLD COOP?

11. How high up should be roosts be? from the floor of the coop, assuming that my coop's ceilings are 8-9ft high.

12. I'm putting little, low roosts in my brooder, I plan to use dowling that you can buy from home depot, what thickness should I use? Would 1 inch be good? or bigger?

13. How do I "work," the lighting thing? How much light should my chicks get, etc. How much light should they start to get. JUST HOW MUCH LIGHT?!

14. WHAT'S THIS about beak trimming?

Any other information you care to share would be awesome

I need all the help and information I can get!

 

[Linda in San Diego]

Wow, you do have a ton of questions! I am a newbie too, just a Delightful Dozen hens that are 5 weeks old. I will look forward to reading the answers that you get for my own knowledge base.

The cleaning question, I think a shovel and a dose of water with bleach will be your answer there.

I believe you have found the best board and group of people to help answer your questions. Just ask and they will come!

Best of luck!

 

[tygab]

I am a fairly newbie so I'll take the easier ones

#2 - yes, you can put lino down. We're putting down vinyl for the same reason. Do a search here and you'll find lots of information from people who've done it.

#3 - I *think* starter feed is usually the same for meat and layers but, that's odd that yours said for broiler chicks. After a month I believe meat birds are often switched to something else to get the growth over the last weeks. Anyway you want chick starter.

#4 - roughly around the time they'd start laying, which is 20 weeks.

#7 - 1 box per 3-4 hens seems to be the common ratio. So for 15, you could figure 5 boxes.

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

9...what can you do with your roo? Put it up for adoption here

thats how I found a home for mine

 

[BantyHugger]

1- No the store should be able to sort out your ordered babies from the extras. Sexed birds are hardly ever 100% correct. you may end up with a roo any way.

 

[Chick_a_dee]

Quote:
I thought it was a good idea to contact them, anddd it prooved to be, settled my mind at least, that they almost never do the packing peanut thing, apparently they have a specific size box for how many chicks you have, which makes sense, I mean if the chicks are in a smaller space...the body heat will be easier to keep without adding any filler chicks.

One roo we could deal with, a bunch...would be....ack!

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
They're definitely ok on the *coop* floor (although sheet vinyl would be better). For the brooder you will need to be alert for any sign that the litter is about to get kicked out of an area and expose the slippery vinyl, but fwiw I used plexiglas on the floor of the box I brooded the 'kids' in for the first 2 wks, and that's as slippery as vinyl, and they were fine. I used about 3" (packed) of shavings, and made really sure it stayed levelled. As they get older I dunno what will happen - mine got kicked out to a pen after 2 wks.

3. WHAT KIND OF FEED DO I USE?! I went to our TSC store and they only sell Start and Grow for BROILER CHICKS, well... I'm raising Rhode Island Red X Columbian Rock babies, they're dual-purpose, but will be used as layers! ... What kind of food do I use?!

What about the co-op, they should have feed there too. Ask (it won't be on the shelves).

4. When do I introduce layer feed?

When they are about to start to lay. Like, 20 wks or so.

6. I live in the GTA but am moving to a 9 acre farm north of BELLEVILLE, I'm looking for a store that specilizes in poultry supplies! ST. THOMAS IS JUST TOO FAR TO DRIVE, 3 HOURS!, I need to buy several things that I CANNOT find in my local Farm Supply store (CO-OP OR MASTER FEEDS STORE).

Well, Jason Cain of Performance Poultry (www.performancepoultry.com) has a pretty good line of poultry equipment as well as chicks etc. Check out his website. He's just outside Carrying Place, which will not be very far from you. That is where my chicks came from btw and I highly recommend it

If you don't mind mailordering, Berry Hill (I forget the website, I *think* it's www.berryhillltd.com ?) also has a pretty good line of poultry supplies. Rochester Hatchery (www.rochesterhatchery) out in Alberta also carries some supplies but honestly their website seems to be semi-abandoned and I am not certain what the state of their business is right now...?

(e.t.a. - and your local feedstore or co-op can always special-order some items for you, as long as it's something their suppliers carry and it's not like a $4.95 item. I regularly buy a BUNCH of things from our local independant feedstore that they do not normally stock

)

7. HOW MANY NESTING BOXES WILL I NEED, I will have 15 girls, how many boxes will I need when they start to lay, 15?

four or five. make sure they're lower than the roosts.

10. On the property we bought, there is a huge chicken coop already there, as far as I have calculated it could hold 96 chickens! However, we're only putting our 15 in there when old enough, It hasn't been used in something like 10 years, but it's filthy! there is still old bedding in it too! WHAT PRODUCT IS BEST FOR CLEANING MY OLD COOP?

First, a very well-fitting good quality dust mask (seriously - don't give yourself pneumonia) and a shovel and rake and wheelbarrow

Pile the poo and old bedding somewhere else (outdoors, away from coop) to compost down.

Then, use a pressure-washer, assuming the wood is in good enough shape to withstand pressure-washing. (If it's not, consider replacing or covering it, since it probalby won't withstand a raccoon either). This is a good time to fix any things that need it, and re-predator-proof the structure.

You could consider Virkon after that, if you are worried about lingering germs, although I am not sure I'd bother. Then personally I would dust some DE (or sevin dust, if I didn't mind using it) around all the cracks, crevices, etcetera.

Let it air for a few days, rebed, and voila

Have fun,

Pat​

 

[Chick_a_dee]

Thanks, I'm not certain on the condition of the floor in the coop... we didn't go in because well, I wasn't keen on getting sick

plus, we were on the property without being told we could be bahahaha. The floor might be concrete, I'm not sure though... in the barn it's concerete and dirt (dirt for the stall floors), and since the building looks to have been built either around the time the barn was built (would have been late 1800's) or sometime in the 30's or 40's, and then fixed up later in the 90's, since someone has put a newer storm door on the entrance to it (is going to be replaced with a heavy duty steel door). We're insulating it, and fixing the roofing where it's coming away (it has steel roofing, which is going to be painted the same colour as the houses roofing), we're using a sound killer and great insulator that has fire protection which we used in our own home, I can't remember it's name, but it's green! and then vapour barrier-ing it, for extra comfort for our chickies. If the floor IS concrete, or even soil, we're going to build a floor for it, with nice new plywood, and then I think we're getting the lino tile, since you can't buy lino by the sheet near us, without it being super slippery.

I know the feed won't be on the shelf, I get my horse feed from our co-op, I just thought it was weird that our start n grow we can get at the tsc says broiler on it, and not broiler-layer or just chicks, so i'm going to ask the feed-store guy where i'm ordering my chicks. I emailed Frey's, and got an amazingly quick response about packing peanut roos, they don't do it

Plus, as I am to understand... the crossbreed we chose has a clearly defined roo, they're either white, or they grow up white... so when they start to get their feathers, it'll be white.



I can live with 1 rooster

10 would be insane.

 

[Cetawin]

1. I live in CANADA, and I've ordered my chicks from FREY'S HATCHERY, through the FARM SUPPLY CO-OP, they DO NOT get mailed to me, and I have to pick-up from the CO-OP STORE. My question is, WILL I GET PACKING PEANUT ROOS? or not since I'm ordering through a co-op store which brings in a bunch of chicks on a certain day, plus we have to pick them up the moment they get to the store, at 8AM!


Nope..you should get just yours as I am sure they ordered others.




2. Is it okay for me to put linoleum tiles on the floor of my brooder box? I'll cover it thickly with peat moss, or shavings, plus papertowels, but I want something very cleanable other than just plain wood.


Sure



3. WHAT KIND OF FEED DO I USE?! I went to our TSC store and they only sell Start and Grow for BROILER CHICKS, well... I'm raising Rhode Island Red X Columbian Rock babies, they're dual-purpose, but will be used as layers! ... What kind of food do I use?!

That will be fine for them but I would try to get some plain chick starter. Mine started on chick starter and grower for broilers and they did just fine. They are nearly 10 weeks old now.



4. When do I introduce layer feed?

When they are ready to lay or start...around 18 - 20 weeks is what most recommend.


5. DO YOU HAVE EXPERIENCE WITH THIS PARTICULAR CROSS, RHODE ISLAND RED X COLUMBIAN ROCK, I have 15 coming in July.

Nope None but the Rocks are great birds and so are the RIR. I would expect a large brown egg from them.


6. I live in the GTA but am moving to a 9 acre farm north of BELLEVILLE, I'm looking for a store that specilizes in poultry supplies! ST. THOMAS IS JUST TOO FAR TO DRIVE, 3 HOURS!, I need to buy several things that I CANNOT find in my local Farm Supply store (CO-OP OR MASTER FEEDS STORE).

7. HOW MANY NESTING BOXES WILL I NEED, I will have 15 girls, how many boxes will I need when they start to lay, 15?


Five or 6 should be good enough.


8. If you have experience with my kind of chick, R.I. Red X Columbian Rock, what are the eggs like? can you post a photo? Large? Medium?... Laying frequency?


RIRs lay xlrg brown eggs not sure about the X but Rocks lay large Brown


9. What do I do if I DO get some packing peanut Roos? ... I will be living near some mennonite farms, but I'm not certain they'd take them, and I certainly can't have them!


Post an ad in the paper for them to be rehomed or grown them up and eat them.


10. On the property we bought, there is a huge chicken coop already there, as far as I have calculated it could hold 96 chickens! However, we're only putting our 15 in there when old enough, It hasn't been used in something like 10 years, but it's filthy! there is still old bedding in it too! WHAT PRODUCT IS BEST FOR CLEANING MY OLD COOP?

I would use a bleach n water mixture 1 part bleach to 10 parts water and then let it air dry thoroughly. Then put bedding down and mix some stall dri or Sweet PDZ (or other form of non-toxic stall deodorizer) in the bedding to help with the odor and so forth.


Good luck with your girls.

 

[suzie Q]

I am brand new to chickens myself. I don't get mine for 10 days. We are converting an old camper trailer into a coop. I was happy to see all your Questions and am so happy I found this sight.