Tag: baby silkie chicks
Silkies For Sale – 3/21/18
How to Prevent Pasty Butt in Baby Chicks
Almost everyone has had a chick which has had a piece of poo sticking to its behind. We try to remove it and end up making an even bigger mess by smearing the poo around the poor chick’s backside. It ends up drying hard like cement or worse capping the vent causing a small explosion of backed up poo when finally removed. There must be a way to prevent all of this from happening again.
Pasty Butt or “pasting up”, is a condition in which the little chick’s poo gets stuck to the vent (small slit on chick’s back end) and “stops up” the chick like a cork. The chick can’t eliminate its poo and the poo gets backed up into the body of the chick. This can kill the chick fairly quickly if not removed.
If I see that a chick is plugged up, I will carefully remove the piece of poo with my fingernail. I gently tug, being careful not to hurt the chick. This works best when the poo is dried. Some feather down may come off with the poo using this method. Sometime there is too much poo and it is too wet to remove it with your fingernail. I will then use a Q-tip and warm water to soften the poo until it comes off. The disadvantage with this method is that now the chick has a wet behind and can quickly become chilled. I gently dry it off with a towel or paper towel and place it back under the heat lamp to finish drying.
Pasty Butt is common in chicks sent in the mail or in crowded feed store bins. It tends not to happen in chicks who are hatched and raised by a broody hen. Their temperature is regulated by her feathers and she will take care of making sure that their behinds are clean.
When you’ve hatched out chicks in an incubator or have had chicks arrive in the mail, you must take the place of the mother hen and clean the chicks yourself. The new baby chicks will not be able to clean themselves until they are at least a week old. They are not capable of reaching around to that spot to clean it properly. This will be your job as surrogate mother hen. You will need to check your chicks regularly for the first week of life. After the first week is finished pasty butt is less common and they are better able to keep themselves clean. Their bodies have also become better regulators of heat and their digestive system is better able to handle new food.
When checking your chicks, don’t confuse the vent with the belly button. The vent is immediately below the tail feathers. It is a thin line that opens and closes. This opening is also through which the eggs will come out of the hen’s body when she starts to lay. The belly button is between the vent and the chick’s legs. There may, perhaps, be a piece of the umbilical cord still there. Don’t pull on it as sometimes intestines can still be attached to it and you can end up pulling out the baby chicks bowels. The cord will drop off itself in a day or two.
You may wonder what causes pasty butt in the first place and why do only some chicks suffer from it. Silkies in particular seem to get it quite a bit. This may have something to do with their extra fluffy down. The poo seems to stick to it quite easily. It may help to put a dab of vaseline jelly with a Q-tip right below the vent line. The poo is then unable to stick to the down.
Temperature regulation has a lot to do with whether your chick will develop pasty butt. Too hot or too cold conditions will bring on an outbreak. Chicks that are sent in the mail often are left in cold mail rooms where they may become chilled. If mailed out in the summer they may also suffer from too warm of conditions.
250 Watt Heat lamp bulbs can often put too much heat into your small brooder. Try a smaller watt bulb or use a different heating source. I like the Ecoglow or the Sweeter Heater. They both mimic a mother hen by creating a warm cave where the chick can feel protected. I have not found them to be too warm. Radiant heat does not heat the air but does heat the chick and bedding. Watch your bird’s behavior. They will let you know if they are too hot or too cold. Chicks that are too cold will huddle up together and make loud cheeping sounds. Chicks that are too warm will spread out to the corners of your brooder to try and get away from the heat source. For the first week the brooder should be 90-95 degrees. For more information check out How to choose a Heat Source for your Brooder.
Placing the chick in stressful situations will also bring on pasty butt. Overcrowding in the brooder can bring on stress for baby chicks. Too many chicks can trample each other in their frenzy to find the best spot in the brooder, best place to get food or best place at the waterer. Stronger chicks will walk over weaker ones. Smaller chicks can get squished into corners. Keep your numbers in the brooder manageable. Newborn chicks need about six square inches of space each. They also need space in which to get away from the heat source if they need to. More information about brooder size is at Choosing the Perfect Brooder.
Other things that can cause stress are loud noises and frequent handling by over eager children. The first week of life should be a time of calmness with no major transitions. They are very cute to look at but when you sweep your hands into their brooder to scoop them up all they are thinking about are flying predators. They instinctively know that they should fear things that come from above. Try moving the brooder off the floor and onto a table where your presence is not so threatening. Keep the brooder in a quiet area. Limit your handling of the chicks during that first week. There will be plenty of time later to cuddle with your chick. Chickens do not imprint like some other birds. There is not need to try and tame them that first week.
Baby chick’s first food should be “Chick Starter” crumbles. The size of the crumbles can vary. For the first week of life I recommend grinding the chick starter up so that it resembles powder. I use a coffee grinder. I think that this is easier to digest than some of the large crumbles that are in some packages. Pasty Butt poo is sometimes very loose and runny. Oatmeal can firm it up. I take old fashioned oatmeal and grind that up in a coffee grinder and then add it to the ground up chick starter. I make a batch that is 1/4 oatmeal and 3/4 chick starter. They seem to really like it and tend to eat more food with the oatmeal in it. I will also sprinkle some chick grit (sand) on top of it, kind of like just adding a sprinkling of salt to something. This will also help to firm their poo up as well. Grit can also be offered in a separate dish.
Treats should be given very sparingly that first week. I wouldn’t give them any treats beyond ground up oatmeal, hard boiled egg yolk, or perhaps some plain yogurt. Pasty butt is often a result of the chick switching from nutrients found in their egg to the new food out in the world. Stick with the chick starter for now. There is plenty of time for treats after they are a week old and their digestive systems can better handle it.
I do add some things to their water. Probiotics and vitamins can give them a good start. Rooster Booster has both vitamins and probiotics . It can be added to water or sprinkled on feed. Probios is also a choice for adding active cultures to your chick’s gut. Gro – 2 – Max is a product that is organic and provides probiotics for your water .I also add a splash of apple cider vinegar to their water for gut health.
Be on the lookout for listless behavior. I notice that my chicks move and walk differently when they have pasty butt. They do not feel well when they are plugged up. Remember that temperature, stress and food each play a role in your chick’s health.
For tips and tricks for raising outstanding silkies check out our Chicken Learning Center at VJPPoultry.com . VJP Poultry is an NPIP and state inspected hatchery located 30 miles north of St. Paul. We hatch out silkies all year long so we always have stock available. Like us on Facebook to get weekly updates on what we currently have for sale.
Victoria J. Peterson
Silkies For Sale – 3/14/18
How to Choose a Heat Source for your Brooder
A baby chick runs to the safety and warmth of its mother’s wings. Here it feels secure and loved. The mother hen’s body heat warms the little chick and when it is ready the chick will dart out into the world to find food and water. When choosing a heat source for your brooder you will want something that can be as close as possible to a natural mother hen.
Chicks need supplemental heat. Their little bodies will not keep themselves warm enough until they fully feather out. Feathering out means that they completely lose their baby down and develop true feathers. This can happen at different ages depending on your breed of chicken. The larger the breed, the sooner they will no longer need a supplemental heat source. Most breeds need it for about six weeks depending on the outside weather. Brooding in the winter is different than brooding in the summer. The temperature around your brooder will make a difference in how long you keep your chicks under the heat.
Chicks also need steady heat both day and night. You will need a heat source that is dependable and allows for a typical sleep cycle. A steady white light on them 24/7 is not normal or natural. A red infrared bulb is better for their sleeping patterns and is supposed to cut down on any pecking activity among the chicks.
The basic heat formula that most people use for baby chicks begins at 100 degrees Fahrenheit for newborns. This is what the temperature of the incubator was. You then subtract 5 degrees for each week of age after that. A one week old would be 95 degrees, a two week old would be 90 degrees and so on. I find that formula way too warm and could lead to your little chicks pasting up on their fluffy behinds. In the world of the mother hen, the little ones would be exposed to cooler temps much sooner and I think that less heat is better than too much heat when it comes to brooders. You need to make sure that the chicks are able to escape any temperature that is too warm.
The most common way to brood chicks indoors is with a heat lamp fixture and a 250 watt heat lamp bulb. It is the cheapest way to go and many people use it especially if they don’t brood chicks very often. The pros for going this route is that you can purchase them at most places that sell chicken supplies. You can hang them at any distance from the brooder. However, many things can go wrong. The biggest issue is that they can fall into the brooder and start a fire. They must be hung very securely. Do not rely on just the clamp. Use zip ties and chain to secure it. We always use a double system so if one cord fails the other cord will prevent it from falling. I will put a flat screen on top of my brooder as an additional measure to keep the heat lamp from falling into the brooder. Make sure that your heat lamp fixture has a porcelain socket, not a plastic one that can melt. The bulbs will have to be replaced. I have found that they also lose strength as they get older and do not put out as much heat. Always have extra bulbs available in case your bulb burns out. If they bulb burns out at night your chicks will become cold and begin to pile up on each other for warmth. This will cause the ones on the bottom to suffocate. Always start each season with a new bulb. I have found a 250 watt heat lamp bulb too warm for small brooders. You can get infrared bulbs at lower wattage. Always dust your bulbs and hoods as dust buildup can cause a fire as well. Reptile ceramic heat emitters can also be used as a safer alternative to heat lamp bulbs.
There are also heat lamp holders that are caged at the top to operate safer.
Radiant heat is another brooder heat choice. Radiant heat passes through air without warming the air. There are several products that rely on radiant heat. Brinsea’s Ecoglow , Titan’s Electric Mama Hen andRentACoop’s heating plate all use less electricity than a heat lamp bulb and mimic a mother hen. They are for small batches of chicks but the Ecoglow 50 can warm up to 50 chicks. The advantages of these are that there is no fire hazard , it uses less electricity (14 watts vs 250 watts) and there is no disruptive light. It is more like a natural mother hen by creating a little cave to hide under. You can adjust the height of them as the chicks grow. You do not have to hang it up as it stands on legs. You will have adventurous chicks jumping up on top of it and creating messes but it is easy to clean up. These types of radiant heat brooder heat sources work best if the air around it is above 50 degrees. They are not effective in outdoor use if it is less than 50 degrees. These products are not as warm as a heat lamp can be and will not heat the air around it. I think that these are nice if you plan on doing a batch of chicks every year. It may be expensive at first but it will pay for itself in lower electric costs. There is nothing to replace on it so you do not need to worry about bulbs burning out.
A Sweeter Heater uses radiant heat as well. Instead of being a free standing unit, it is hung from above or as a side panel as in the cozy products panel. Sweeter Heaters come in different sizes and are the best heaters for people who brood chicks frequently. Hang it above on chains so that they are just above the chick’s height. Raise it higher as the chicks grow taller. Since it swings on chains, the chicks will be reluctant to roost on top of it. Radiant heat has one temperature and no light to keep chicks up at night. The unit is completely sealed so there is no fire danger.
I am in the process of changing out all of my indoor heat lamps and replacing them with Sweeter Heaters. I have used heat lamps with brooders for ten years, but I have always had that nagging feeling that I should replace them. I brood chicks all year long so it was best to switch to the Sweeter Heater method. It will be cheaper in the long run on the electric bill and I will have the peace of mind that no bulb will burn out and leave all of my chicks in the cold.
Chicks will let you know if they are too warm or too cold by their behavior. Cold chicks huddle up and cry (cheep). Too warm of chicks stretch out to the corners of the brooder to get away from the heat source. Chicks that are just right will wander around all over the brooder doing typical chick things like eating and drinking.
If you are still undecided on what kind of chick brooder to get, check out “The Perfect Chick Brooder“.
For tips and tricks for raising outstanding silkies check out our Chicken Learning Center at VJPPoultry.com . VJP Poultry is an NPIP and state inspected hatchery located 30 miles north of St. Paul. We hatch out silkies all year long so we always have stock available. Like us on Facebook to get weekly updates on what we currently have for sale.
Victoria J. Peterson
VJP Poultry 