There are few things as exciting for owners of backyard chickens as getting new chicks.  They are just so cute and fuzzy.  We picked up our little girls on Tuesday, January 29 from the breeder we bought Zsa Zsa from.  This time we had some complications with our chicks.  In the first few weeks we wound up losing two of the four chicks to what appeared to be cocci. Following is a bit of information about our two survivors and some lessons learned.

My wife can come up with some clever names.  Our Blue Cochin will grow into a very large blue/silver colored chicken.  She is the largest of our chicks and is probably between 1-2 weeks old.  She has a very loud chirp.  She was loud enough that she woke me up overnight with her chirping.  You will notice that she is feathered down her legs.  This is a unique trait of the Cochin breed of chickens.

Cochins grow into large, fluffy chickens.  Most of them weight 8-10lbs and look like they weigh about 20lbs with all their feathers.  They are a very friendly breed and like to play mother hen, sitting on any eggs they find.  The Cochin variety of bird lays approximately 3-4 eggs a week.  The eggs are a creamy brown color.  Cochins became world famous when a Chinese delegation gave some Cochins to Queen Victoria of England, who adored these chickens.  They have been in America since around 1850 and are known to be especially friendly, although our chick is the bully of the brooding box 🙂

We also have a Gold Laced Polish chick.  This chick will grow into a friendly, unique looking hen.  She will have a fluff of feather on her head that will be gold, black and brown.  Polish chicks do really well in the heat.  They lay a small to medium white egg.

The two chicks we lost were a White Crested Black Polish that would have been a beautiful bird.  We also lost a Silver Polish.  All the chicks were inoculated against cocci but wound up getting sick and the symptoms were amazingly similar to cocci.  When chicks have been inoculated against cocci they are usually fed non-medicated feed.  After we lost our first two chicks I went ahead and switched to medicated feed and haven’t had a problem since.  The only reason I could find for the non-medicated feed was that it was a waste of money since they had already been treated for this issue.  Here are the two chicks we lost, and the names we came up with:

We keep our chicks in the house when they are young.  They hang out in the office in a breeding box that I made.  They sleep for the first few days because they have been through A LOT!  Chicks are shipped via express shipping to breeders and individuals in special boxes.  Our breeder had at least 100 chicks in her garage.  The extra travel to our house puts a bit more strain on them and they need to rest, eat and drink.

Chicks stay under a heat source that keeps the temperature in that portion of the box between 95-98 degrees.  They are good about moving themselves around the box to regulate their temperature.  They eat a special form of starter feed that is crumbled and easy to digest.

In 1-2 weeks the chicks will start to pop out some feathers.  They will begin those awkward weeks when they look like teenagers going through puberty.  Frankly they are pretty ugly when they are pullets.  Once they have fully feathered out and temps warm up outside, they will be introduced to the big chickens in the coop.  I will let the young pullets out in the kennel portion of the coop so they are protected but not in with the big chickens.  They can look at each other and get used to each other.  Slowly they will be introduced to each other.  We’ve never had a real problem with chickens get along since we tend to buy friendly breeds.

A lot of people ask how much chicks cost.  If you already have all the gear (coop, brooding box, feeder, water, heat lamp) or can borrow it, the cost is pretty low.  These unique chicks cost $18 all together.  Their starter feed runs about $10. There are cleaning costs too…

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