Moving Chicks To A Nursery Shed Area
Today is 24th June 2018 and it's a Chicken Moving Day on our smallholding!
The first batch of chickens have been happily brooding in their indoor rabbit cage brooder for 4 weeks. By now the 16 chicks have some of their adult feathers poking through which I think makes them look a little scruffy but they are also beginning to look rather crowded! The chicks are also starting to sleep on top of the heat stand, not under it, indicating they are no longer feeling the cold - the summer has reached the peak warmth and so it is high time we re-home them to their outside shed.
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James has secured a 3’ x 7’ section of the metal shed with a ¼” x ¼” galvanised steel mesh, pieces of wood and some expanding foam filler which protects the little birds from any unwanted visitors (mainly rodents). The brooder is underneath the droppings board, so is in a space that is awkwardly tucked in and generally unused which makes it perfect for baby chicks. This took about ⅓ of the entire shed space but leaves plenty of room to, in time, rehouse the bigger chickens into.
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We also ordered a cheap poultry heat lamp, which will keep the birds warm through the nights for another few weeks, until they become fully feathered. The lamp has two heat settings and we’re thinking that the lower setting will do nicely, as it is a middle of summer and reasonably warm. It also comes with a convenient chain which allowed us to get a better angle of the heat, emanating away from the shed door and towards the corner of the nursery brooder, making that corner extra warm and cosy for the chicks to huddle in.
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We installed a galvanised steel food dispenser and will wean them from the chick crumb that they are eating now onto the growers pellets in the next week. We also added a 6 litre plastic waterer which will do the job until the chicks grow up enough to use open water buckets without the risk of drowning.
For the substrate we used a couple of litres worth of wood shavings which we still had available from the time we were brooding quail back in February. This stuff lasts forever! |
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The move was very successful! The little chicks loved the extra space but we left the shed to allow them to explore it and settle in for a few hours. When we checked on them next, they were having dust baths, eating, drinking, running around and generally enjoying being little chickens!
This move has freed up the brooder space for the second batch of Welsummer chickens that are due to hatch at the start of July. My thinking is that by the time we move Welsummers into the brooder shed, this first lot will be free ranging the fields, enjoying 2.5 acres of grass and meadow, and only returning to the metal shed at nights, where there is a lot of space at the top to house them all comfortably - we may only need to add a few perches nearer the time.
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