Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
4
Baby Basics
REALLY THE BEST WAY TO START
raising a poultry flock is to purchase day-old chicks,
goslings, ducklings,
poults
(young turkeys), or
keets
(young guinea fowl). While it can
be easier for some to purchase adult birds, it is a far more rewarding experience to raise
chicks. They are the most impressionable (and the cutest), and when they are a day old,
give you a chance to bond with them and to train them to behave in a manner that suits
your purposes. If you start out with adults, you are getting someone else's training, which
can cause you problems. For example, I like to teach my birds early in life to go into their
buildings at night. They all start heading in when they see me coming in the evening.
Whenever I get new birds, it is a struggle to get them to learn my routine.
There are some drawbacks, however, to starting with day-olds if you are a first-time
poultry raiser. Day-olds need very specific types of feed and certain environmental con-
ditions to thrive. They also must grow for five months before they are ready for produc-
tion. The most common mistakes made with day-olds are in the areas of heating, bedding,
feeding, and watering the birds. These mistakes can be avoided with just a bit of know-
ledge.
Methods are similar for raising day-olds of all species of poultry — chickens, guineas,
turkeys, quail, pheasants, peafowl, ducks, geese and so on — with only minor adjust-
ments made for species differences. The word “chicks” is used in this chapter to refer to
all poultry babies. More explicit raising requirements for each type of fowl are included
in the chapter focusing on that poultry type.
A New Home for the Newly Hatched
Whether picked up at the local farm store or shipped in, your first batch of chicks will be
perhaps your most enjoyable poultry-raising experience. It's exciting to open up the box
and see those little chicks looking up at you. They are thirsty, hungry, cold, and ready to
