Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Chick Checking

When checking chicks, I like to note several things. (Click on each photo and make your assessment.)

1. Are they being fed well and growing at a rate to be banded at about 5 days? These German Roller chicks are being well fed and growing very fast.

2. What is their skin color? The overall skin color on the chick on the right is slightly more red than I like for non color fed chicks. (The photo is more red than the chicks look visually.)

3. Is a fat layer visible under the skin on the rump? Yes

What else should be noted and what action needs to be taken?

Please Send in your answer and I will continue and finish this post tomorrow. (only right answers are posted, so give it a shot!)

Correct! Too Much Protein! Offer peas and dry plain nestling food and start on Dr. Rob Marshall KD Powder. Note red color on left chick skin and rump. Skin shows some creasing and dehydration. Wash and carefully remove the thin invisible lacquer layer that is threatening to plug the vent.

  One hour later and the improvement is fantastic!



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The redness indicates need to drop down on the egg protein and increase the carbs with plain eggfood, and I would add peas. They look a little dehydrated.
Odd this year, I have seen this several times with my chicks and they seem to need more hydration .

Anonymous said...

Hi Linda,

I have a question not related to this post, it stems from a canay book I'm currently reading (I just dont have the title and or author right now)...

The author promotes leaving the pair together year round. Apparently it then allows the birds to come into breeding condition naturally and seems to work better than our way of trying to "manage" the breeding seasons. Have you ever tried this? It makes sense to me that the male and female will progress naturally as the male testosterone levels increase which will result in him systematically starting to court the hen (bringing her into breeding condition) and then ultimately starting their breeding as a synchronised pair..

I would love to hear your thoughts on this as I would like to try it out.

Shawn