Week old chicks

[PeteN]

Any of you beeks poultry keepers also. Just got some week old chicks, they are currently on a feed that includes a anti coccidistat. Should I continue or put them on chick crumbs without the additive.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Coccidiostat feed till they are six weeks old then they can go onto ordinary chick crumb

 

[PeteN]

Excellent thanks

 

[hedgerow pete]

ok i am worried now, i am feeding my chicks
Smallholder range baby chick crumbs and i have just read the bag it has no coccidiostat's in it, should it? and if not why and where do i get some from??

 

[bigal123_123]

i also only feed chick crumb from start and had no problems upto now

 

[drstitson]

depends whether you want to be organic.

1st period crumb (fine) often has coccidiostat
2nd period crumb (coarser) doesn't

chicks can actually do fine on 2nd period or even whizzed up mixed grain.

 

[Cazza]

Don't panic Pete,
My family have been raising chicks for years using chick crumb or milled corn with no additives and no probs.
You should be fine.
Cazza

 

[hedgerow pete]

i am now REALY worried whats secong crumb mix.

i go from a bag of small holder crumb straight into growers pellets and , no i am not organic its just what the people at country wide stores had when i went in the other week. also its the smallest bag i could find so i was thinking by the time its finished i would get another bag but hopefully they would have had a fresh delivery so i dont feed stale food.

am i doing it wrong again?

 

[drstitson]

pete - that's fine.

in italy they do the two grades of crumb before moving up to whole grain (our adult chucks actually prefer second period to whole grain).


i'm looking forward to when a thread starts on rearing turkey/quail/game chicks - if you want to make up suitable feed for them yourself you need....wait for it..... soya flour!!!!

i'll get my coat.

 

[madasafish]

Hmm
I raised quails and turkeys with chicken feed.. ( chick feed to be precise). Nothing wrong with the results..

(For quails, just ground it up fine)

 

[hedgerow pete]

does the soya flour come from italy with the chicks too.


the wife has mentioned about getting a dozen day old pheasent chicks to bring up to freezer weights

 

[drstitson]

'fraid it does.

if you do raise pheasants (have you tried finding a local breeder as they often just bin excess eggs after the end of the official hatching season?) remember they fly early.

 

[hedgerow pete]

i have a netted cover chicken pen for them to be in

 

[Ervyne]

Not to confuse things further, but I would suggest if you are concerned about coccidiosis, you may at some point, want to start vaccinating chicks with a coccidia vaccine (paracox). It can be done up to 9 days of age and although it is mainly supplied in large doses, smaller aliquots can be bought through the poultry club.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Or you could give them all Lifeguard tonic.
Have a look here http://www.smallholder.co.uk/news/8...o_stay_on_top_of_coccidiosis_and_confinement/

 

[hedgerow pete]

ok , i know very very realy worried, why do you treat for coccidia when they are chicks before they are nine days old.

can some one do me a favour and write down a simple list, of what drugs/treatments and medications i should feed and at what stage of the chicks life span should it be done,

i all i do is the fluevent treatment for worms etc every 4 months, or am i doing that wrong as well

 

[porterswoods]

It might be cheaper to do a worm count with the vet, Minster Vets do one for £23.02, rather than routine worming. I have 12000 free range chickens and have not wormed this flock at all, i have had them for over 40 weeks and only done 3 worm tests.

if you intend to grow the chicks for the table then you would be advised to have a coccidistat in the feed. This will have a withdrawal period for meat, this is the reason you switch to a feed without one.

If you are keeping the hens for laying then you should have the cocidiosis vaccine as mentioned above. you should also consider an infectious bronchitis, of which there are many strains, and salmonella vaccine. Infectious bronchitis can cause false layer syndrome, which means that the hen is unproductive. Salmonella i think everyone knows about. Apart from that i don't think that there is anything else, unless there is a history of endemic disease on your holding or nearby.

 

[Erichalfbee]

We eat our birds and eggs and they get wormed with Flubenvet every three months and once a year they get Eprinex spot-on to make sure they have no ectoparasites. I'm sure the spot on will get internal parasites as well but evidence is anecdotal.
I use poultry shield to protect against red mite and stalosan powdered disinfectant on the paving slabs on which the hemcore/woodchip bedding is spread in their run. They free range all day except when it rains or snows...wusses.
In the winter I give them a box of wood ash to bathe in so that they keep their feathers in order. In the summer they dig their own holes but if it rains for too long and they haven't got out they get a mix of sand and soil.
They are not vaccinated against anything and don't get coccidiostats. We are still alive to tell the tale of how delicious they and their eggs are.
Pete, I'm sure that as long as you keep them in clean conditions you need not worry too much about doing anything else.
I hope this helps.

 

[porterswoods]

I i have previously said that i have 12000 hens, so that makes it economical to have the vaccines. I also have Turkeys and cocidiosis is a real treat, more so when they are day old.For the average backyard poultry keeper it probably isn't worth the hassle or cost.

I do use hydrated lime in the scratch area. It keeps the area dry and kills many of the parasites, also has the benifit of killing parasites on the birds when they dust bathe.

For redmite i use washing up liquid diluted into water, which is what poultry shield is, and is a fraction of the price. Spray this frequently into every crevice you can find. This should keep them at bay. if you have a serious problem then take the hens out for a couple of weeks and use a product like ficam w which works really well.

Worming treatments are expensive, even more when they are eating more than 10Kg of feed a day. I do know that it is better to test for worms and treat accordingly rather that do a routine treatment.

 

[hedgerow pete]

your test is £23 and i doubt that any vet in brum would know whay a worm test or a chicken is,
the little tube of fluebivent i brought for £14 should if i wanted it to last for three years worth of use, so the worming stays

i like the idea of liming the scratch areas,

as for every single one of the other ailments you go on about i have never treated any of my chucks for and unless you want to exspand on what they are and how to treat them i will stay completley lost, some of your words had more than four letters in them!!!!!

also some of the products you have suggested are going to cost me a lot of pennies with having no job at the moment it will have to wait a little longer befor treating.

but it does sound as if i need to get a properly sorted out treatment programe sorted, not just for the birds but for selling the products i want to do as well, any tips where to look