Baby Basics - Raising Poultry - page 76

Before babies hatch, they take in the yolk sack from the egg through the navel; it is
pulled inside the body slowly in the final days prior to hatching. The egg yolk nourishes
them for the first 72 hours of their lives, giving breeders that window of time to ship
the young birds. They do not need external feed or water during that period; however,
when they arrive, they may be chilled and need a nutrient-level boost to get them over
the chilling.
Probiotic mixtures may make a great deal of difference in this situation and are usu-
ally given in room-temperature water. Hard-boiled egg mashed and mixed with corn-
meal can also help (see Pasty Back Ends box on page 77 for mixing instructions). Or
if you have a source for raw milk, letting it turn sour and mixing it with the mashed
hard-boiled egg makes a good starter food and provides healthful active enzymes to the
stressed chicks' digestive tracts. If chicks appear to be extremely stressed, some raisers
give a small dose of low-level antibiotic (such as Terramycin) to the water to help get
things back under control.
In some cases waterfowl drink way more water than they can handle after becoming
dehydrated during shipping. Control the amount of water they get over the first couple
of hours. Put the waterer in the brooder for only 10 minutes or so every hour for the first
two or three hours. That way they won't gorge themselves and drown their tissues with
too much liquid.
Nursing and Nurturing Turkey Poults
Chicken babies cope with shipping stress better than most species. Turkey poults do not
handle shipping chill well. In many cases, they will not thrive. They may live for several
days but never successfully fight off the stress-induced condition and finally succumb.
Spending extra time with your young ones that first week makes all of the difference
in the world. Check on them frequently to make sure they're getting nourishment. You
may need to force-feed them by either pushing the beak into the feed and hoping they
will eat or opening the beak and placing some feed inside.
A New Home for the Two-Week-Old
Move the baby fowl on to larger quarters at two weeks of age. I usually transfer mine to
metal tier brooders for another couple of weeks (see page 63 ) , and once they are about a
month old, I move them to a place where they can run around, like the floor of a larger
building.
You can easily move them straight into a larger building at two weeks, as long as it
is fairly predator-proof and has some sort of draft guard around its heat source. (See the
simple building plan described on page 25 in chapter 2 for an example of the type of
building that's appropriate, and chapter 26 , Dealing with Predators, regarding tips for