0:00

Hi there , I'm Rip Stalvin . I want to

0:02

welcome you to another Poultry Keepers podcast

0:04

. Are you raising chicks now ? Are

0:07

you going to be raising chicks in the future ? Well

0:09

, if you answer yes to either of these questions

0:11

, then this podcast will help you

0:13

get your chicks off to a very strong starting

0:15

life . This is part one

0:17

of a two part series from one of

0:19

our most popular poultry keepers 360

0:22

live streams we have done so far , so

0:25

get ready for some really great content

0:27

, because here we go . Welcome

0:39

to another poultry keeper 360 live

0:42

. We've got a really good show coming up for you because

0:44

we're going to share with you how you

0:46

can give your baby chicks a strong start

0:49

so they can reach their full genetic

0:51

potential later in life . I know you're wondering

0:53

what you can do to ensure your chicks get

0:56

that strong start they need , so

0:58

Jeff Maddox is going to share with us

1:00

exactly what we need to do to help them

1:02

succeed . Jeff , take it all .

1:04

Thanks , rip . I'm not sure I'm going to share

1:07

everything they need to know , but we're going to

1:09

get some high points of , I

1:11

think , things that we're often neglected

1:13

. You need to understand that every

1:16

infant doesn't matter whether it's

1:18

human or other requires

1:21

extra attention in the beginning of his

1:23

life . So the chicks are

1:25

actually no different than this . I think a lot

1:27

of people fail to understand

1:29

actually what's happening in that first two weeks

1:31

or that first 14 days . But

1:34

as soon as that chick pops out and

1:36

we've got a couple of links for you that we're going to share and

1:39

I you know , hopefully you'll go look

1:41

at them , read them , things like that . But

1:44

you know I'm referencing

1:46

the Hubbard Breeder website

1:48

as far as managing and leering

1:51

specialty chicks . Premium chicks , you

1:54

know and Hubbard starts right out with premium

1:56

chicks need special attention the first

1:58

week of life because they're different genetic characteristics

2:00

. Okay

2:02

, this is coming right out of

2:04

large scale Breeder World data . They're telling people extra attention

2:07

first week . Extra attention

2:09

first week , all right . First week of life is key

2:11

to ensure future

2:13

performance and I

2:16

want to reiterate that the first

2:18

week of life is

2:20

a key to ensure

2:22

what that bird's going to turn out like . I

2:25

see a lot of birds that don't get the

2:28

right attention . When they're , you know , day

2:30

olds in that first week , you

2:32

know they're just kind of throw them in

2:34

a pan live or die . Here's your

2:36

food and water and that

2:39

body weight actually increases three to

2:41

four times in that first week from

2:44

when that chick is hatched , or should , right

2:46

? So how many people are actually

2:49

weighing your chicks when they come

2:51

out of the hatcher ? You know , don't

2:53

raise your hand , caring probably is . So

2:55

yeah , we do have hitting , but

2:57

you know , knowing that weight and monitoring

2:59

that weight , and you know we

3:01

did that weighing thing earlier . We haven't

3:03

talked about it a whole lot since . I don't know where we're

3:05

at with it , but weighing the birds throughout their

3:08

life , and you

3:10

know the industry does this

3:12

. They do it on a larger scale . They're

3:15

weighing the birds every seven days and

3:17

you know so they're tracking that

3:19

progress and once they have benchmarks

3:22

and they know where that bird's supposed to be at day seven

3:24

and day 14 , day 21, . Etc . That

3:27

can tell if there's an issue or if there's not

3:29

an issue . So they're , they're

3:31

using those again as benchmarks

3:33

to know if they're doing it right .

3:36

Jeff , if I could just interject something here

3:38

. Sure , and when I first

3:40

got started in exhibition poultry , you

3:43

know if there was a mistake to be made , I probably

3:45

made it at least twice . But

3:47

what Jeff is saying is absolutely

3:50

right . It's paying

3:52

attention to the small details

3:54

and it's doing what Karen does . Weigh those baby

3:56

chicks . You can't . You

3:59

can't give them too much attention , as my philosophy

4:01

, but you don't want to smother them at the

4:03

same time . You want to let chickens

4:06

be chickens . Make it as natural for them

4:08

as you possibly can , but pay attention

4:10

to the detail . Sorry to get

4:12

carried away , Jeff . No , no , I

4:15

got a question too . Okay .

4:16

So we're talking first seven days . Can

4:19

we talk a little bit about the whole chip

4:21

chicks thing ? Like you know , chicks can

4:24

go three days without eating . But that's

4:26

not ideal , is

4:28

it ? I mean , we wait to feed them till they're

4:30

three days old so that they can absorb

4:33

their yolk .

4:34

Yeah , I mean , we really shouldn't do that . You know , and one

4:36

of the points down below is actually

4:38

feeding them within six to 12 hours

4:41

after hatch stimulates

4:43

the development of the chicks

4:45

gastrointestinal system , right

4:47

? So the sooner you can feed

4:49

them , the healthier they're actually

4:51

gonna be .

4:53

And it stimulates . No

4:56

, I was just gonna say I saw one study

4:58

where they're actually feeding chick

5:00

in the incubator before they ever

5:02

pull from the incubator to go to the breeder .

5:05

Yeah , I mean the sooner you can get

5:07

them on feed the better , you know , because

5:10

that early that first feed is

5:12

what's gonna stimulate that reabsorption

5:14

and promotes the reabsorption of the yolk . So the

5:16

faster that yolk actually reabsorbs once

5:19

it finds feed and it

5:22

feels more secure , so it can

5:25

reabsorb that yolk much faster

5:27

instead of being five to seven days or

5:29

three to five days depending on the bird , right

5:32

, but that all goes into weight

5:34

and growth and development . So again

5:37

, the faster you can get them on feed , the better off we're

5:39

gonna be . And you

5:42

know the industry's hoping to get them on feed within

5:44

the first six to 12 hours , right , so

5:46

they're hatching them , they're driving them like crazy to . You know

5:48

, they're farming them . They're farming wherever

5:50

they're gonna be . They get them out . Their

5:52

feed and water is already in place and

5:56

there's feed and water everywhere . Gary , you gotta

5:58

where's that pan ? That's for sure .

6:02

That's not for sure , but yeah , which one did

6:04

you want ?

6:05

Oh , that battery breeder where they had the

6:08

feed pan on the floor . Yeah , so

6:11

you literally want at least 50%

6:13

of the floor space where the chicks are gonna

6:15

be to be covered in

6:17

feed . Now you can use pans like this

6:19

, which is great . A lot

6:22

of folks don't have the pan , so they actually

6:24

put down brown craft paper like

6:26

the nursery bag paper sacks the brown

6:28

. You want it unfinished

6:31

. You don't want , you know , you don't want

6:33

to slick side to it , because you

6:35

can . Actually the birds can slip on it

6:37

. It can . You know

6:39

, pop the tent out of the back joint . You've just lost

6:41

a valuable chick . But you're

6:44

spreading feed out all over the place . Typically

6:46

, we'll put the feeders that they're going to be

6:48

eating in the middle of that

6:50

paper and scatter

6:53

feed around it . But we

6:55

don't really want them to have access to bedding

6:57

, we don't really want them to have access to the ground

6:59

. You know we need them to be

7:02

somewhat of a protective environment

7:04

that first two to three days and

7:06

we want to make sure that they've gotten something to

7:08

eat . So everywhere they walk

7:11

, they're either bumping into water or they're bumping into

7:13

feed . And yeah

7:16

, yes , sir .

7:17

How soon should they introduce

7:19

grit to the chick ?

7:22

I usually tell people day three because the chick

7:24

doesn't really know what it is . So I want

7:26

to get the crop in the gizzard full and

7:28

quick as I can . You

7:31

know , and do we have

7:33

that gizzard or that crop

7:35

picture that ripped ? Did you

7:37

pick one out ? Hopefully after

7:40

tonight folks will be looking

7:42

at crop fill and

7:44

within that first eight hours

7:46

after the birds placed , you

7:48

want to go in there and you want to look and it looks like they

7:50

kind of swallowed a marble . Okay , and

7:53

you can see the difference in these two chicks . You

7:55

want at least 80% of those chicks

7:58

to have their crops filled

8:00

within that first eight hours and

8:02

after 24 hours you're looking

8:04

for a 96 , 95

8:06

, 96% crop fill , so

8:09

that crop being full . The

8:11

sooner again we're back to , the sooner

8:13

they find feed , the sooner they get

8:15

that crop going . This actually

8:18

sets their appetite for life . You

8:20

know how much they're going to want to

8:22

eat and how frequently and all that . But

8:25

the sooner we get food in their system and the sooner

8:27

we get them growing , the healthier

8:29

they're going to be Right . So in

8:32

that first week we're looking

8:35

at , I

8:37

mean that first week is going to set like

8:39

the skeletal , the physiology

8:41

, the immunity , everything that's

8:43

going to happen in that bird . We're

8:46

basically setting the blueprint for

8:48

the entire life of that bird . So

8:52

being in control and this goes a lot

8:54

. This goes really good with our conversation

8:56

about hatching eggs , buying chicks , buying

8:58

birds . We don't know

9:00

what happens . Two weeks ago , when

9:02

we had that conversation , we

9:04

don't know how that bird was

9:07

treated in that first 14 days . So

9:10

something's out of our control

9:12

, hitting . And what I'm alluding to

9:14

is , if it's not done

9:16

right , the first 14 days we're going to see

9:19

in maturity

9:21

, we're going to see deficiencies in that bird

9:23

that are

9:26

responsible as far back as that first

9:28

week of life and it's

9:30

Let me throw

9:32

this up here yeah , go ahead .

9:35

I know some of the folks in the exhibition world

9:37

seem to think that

9:39

they can take

9:41

birds that didn't get this good start we're

9:43

talking about . But

9:45

they can correct all of that in

9:48

the conditioning coop just before

9:50

a show and that's not possible . If

9:52

you don't set it right the first

9:54

seven to 14 days

9:56

, you can't make it up , you can't

9:58

overcome what you've lost .

10:01

That's very true , pat , and I agree

10:03

with you on this , shantron and

10:06

I mean . We have generations

10:08

of birds out there that may

10:10

not have been raised right in that first 14

10:12

days and

10:15

people , through selection and breeding and other things

10:17

, have overcome that

10:19

. I'm just curious this

10:22

may even go to a current situation

10:24

, because I know that she is taking good care

10:27

of her chicks is

10:29

her genetics ? Now she's

10:31

complaining about having overweight birds . Right

10:34

, all of her birds are bigger

10:36

than the standard . Well

10:39

, the person that she got the breeding

10:41

stock from 10

10:44

years ago may not

10:46

have been taking care of that was birds correctly , so

10:49

when she bought them they might have been in

10:51

the standards the weights of the standards

10:53

Now being fed

10:55

better , being managed better , being taken

10:57

the whole bit all the way through , or

11:00

she and the true genetic potential and

11:02

that's actually my biggest fear for the people that

11:04

are listening or going to watch this later is

11:07

you may end up

11:09

seeing things in your breed and

11:11

you may hate me when this is all said and done

11:13

, because now you're going to

11:15

bring out more of the real attributes

11:18

that this genetic line that you have

11:20

is there . So

11:24

just know that there might be

11:26

a skeleton in the closet that we

11:28

don't know about , and it may show

11:30

up For some of you

11:32

. I'm sorry if that happens , but

11:34

our job is to raise the healthiest

11:37

birds as quick as we can

11:39

day one and see what their

11:41

true genetic potential is . So

11:44

some things may show up , and whether

11:47

it's there too , I

11:49

kind of get a kick out of like on the Facebook

11:52

page for poultry keepers and culture

11:55

, breeder nutrition and so on . People

11:57

refer to they grow too fast . There

12:01

really is no such thing as growing

12:03

too fast . It's the genetic

12:05

potential of the bird . Give them

12:07

good feed , give them what they want

12:09

from

12:12

day one to about six months

12:14

of age . There shouldn't be any feed

12:17

restriction . That bird is

12:19

still growing and developing for that first six

12:21

months . So what you get is

12:23

what the true genetics are . Now

12:25

, you don't like what you got . I'm sorry

12:27

, but that's what you got .

12:30

So then Well

12:32

, you got it . You have to know what you have . I mean

12:34

you can't call something that hidden under

12:36

there . So I mean bringing everything out

12:38

into the open is necessary

12:41

.

12:41

Yeah , but I mean now you're selecting

12:43

for smaller birds to get them back

12:46

into the standard , Right ? I

12:48

mean , there's really nothing wrong with it . According

12:52

to the standard , there's something wrong with your birds

12:54

, but for somebody

12:56

who wanted to use them in a real-world situation

12:58

as egg layers , dual purpose

13:01

for meat and other things , there's nothing

13:03

wrong with the breed

13:05

strain that you have

13:07

being slightly overweight . It's just the

13:09

person before you . That's what they selected

13:11

for and that's where we're at and

13:13

that's fine .

13:15

Talk me into that . They're going to be more productive

13:18

when they're smaller .

13:19

Sure they're going to be more eggs , right I'm

13:21

confident we're going to make them . I'm not , but

13:23

that's okay .

13:27

In 10 years I'll get back to you , I

13:29

mean how many eggs eat .

13:30

What's your average eggs ? I don't know . Okay

13:32

, yeah , all right , see how you are Okay

13:35

.

13:36

Well , just each bird has their own . It's too complicated

13:39

, so yeah .

13:40

Now , when the show's over , karen , is there a way

13:42

to plop up these show notes at the

13:44

end so people can come back and

13:47

reference them or not , or

13:49

they're just going to have to keep replaying the video .

13:51

Rip can upload the document

13:53

to the Facebook group . Right yeah

13:55

.

13:57

All those documents we're going to talk about

13:59

tonight have been uploaded to

14:01

the Polkare Keepers 365 section

14:04

on our Facebook group , so you can

14:06

go down . You can go there and download them

14:08

as PDF .

14:10

They're ready to rock and roll whenever you want them

14:12

All right , and I think he wants this one too , the

14:14

one that's called Show Notes 10422

14:18

.

14:18

Okay .

14:19

Not 100 . Yeah , uh-huh .

14:20

I can do it . It's giving me a hard time . Yep

14:22

, all right . So let's

14:25

talk about feed . In that first 14 days

14:27

, the breeder hybrid breeders

14:29

tells you to start out on a crumble because

14:31

you have a more uniform piece in part , and

14:35

so there's not going to be as much diet

14:37

selection , you know , sorting

14:39

, et cetera . That's fine . You

14:41

can also do it with a mash , as long as it's a uniform

14:44

particle-sized mash . There's

14:46

no reason why you can't do that , and

14:49

whichever way you want to go is fine . I'm

14:51

not going to take sides here .

14:53

You know .

14:53

If it's easier for you to go buy a bag of

14:55

chick starter crumbles , do

14:58

that . Please , don't get medicated . People

15:01

don't understand that . That medicated feed is actually

15:03

and proleum is blocking thiamine

15:06

, which is a B vitamin , so

15:08

it's a thiamine inhibitor and

15:11

you're not really helping your chick out and

15:14

there's really no need , you

15:16

know , to be fighting something

15:18

that you don't have Right . All

15:20

you're trying to do is prevent them from getting coccidiosis

15:22

. There's other methods for doing

15:24

that . A non-medicated chick starter is

15:27

going to work just fine . So

15:30

is there any questions at this point ? Do you got

15:32

that picture of that feed ? People are

15:34

going to lose their mind when they see this picture . So All right .

15:40

There you go All right folks

15:42

.

15:42

You see that that's actually a chick starter

15:44

. Okay , now I'm not

15:46

going to argue with you . I'm telling you this

15:49

person , this is real feed , real world

15:51

. These people are using this from day

15:53

one through finish . The

15:56

chicks will not eat pieces that they're

15:58

not capable of swallowing . So if

16:01

there's going to be a few pieces of whole corn

16:03

left in the feeder eventually and

16:07

that's perfectly fine , you know you can

16:09

throw away a few pieces of whole corn . You

16:12

can take it out to your adult birds . They're going to love you

16:14

for it . It doesn't matter . But

16:17

good , chunky course . You

16:20

know you really want the bird eating

16:22

the biggest particle size that it can

16:24

get down its throat and into

16:26

its crop and down into the gizzard

16:28

. It's going to stimulate better gizzard

16:31

function . It's going to get the gizzard working

16:33

harder earlier . Then

16:35

those birds are going to be fine . And

16:37

there's people out there right now rolling their

16:40

eyes thinking Jeff has lost

16:42

his mind . But you see that powder Chickens

16:45

don't like powder . How many people watch

16:47

in this show ? Actually , every

16:49

one of you hates powder , right

16:52

? I hear it all the time . Oh

16:54

, my bird's hate powder , my bird's hate

16:56

powder . It's like okay , so

16:59

don't feed them powder . You

17:01

know they're looking for a particle

17:03

size about an eighth of an inch wide and

17:05

a quarter of an inch long . That's pretty big

17:08

and they can handle it

17:10

. Okay , they can be perfectly fine

17:12

.

17:12

You're talking large foul . I

17:15

heard a rumor that Bantams really can choke

17:17

on feed . Is that not ?

17:19

Any chicken can choke on feed if it gets too

17:21

excited when it's eating . So

17:24

yeah , I mean they can choke

17:26

on powder . So the

17:28

people that are limit feeding and their cups

17:30

are empty and they're limit feeding too

17:32

hard , that their bird's appetite

17:35

is that , you know ? Just insane

17:37

. Okay , so what ? The next thing

17:39

is when birds can see other

17:41

birds . There's a sense of competitiveness

17:44

as far as when it comes feeding time and

17:46

they'll eat too fast . But

17:49

they can choke on powder just as much as they

17:51

can choke on a whole granulocorn . It's

17:54

how fast they're eating and

17:56

why are they eating that fast ? So

18:00

just slow them down and if you

18:02

think they're eating too fast , make it a wet mash , just

18:05

soak it in some water . I don't

18:07

help it all Slide down .

18:10

I'm going to give to that , because I

18:12

ordered some white old English trio , white

18:15

old English game bannum and

18:17

had them shipped here from Texas and

18:20

I just put them in the pen , put

18:22

the water in there , put the feed in there and

18:25

that male apparently

18:27

was so hungry , or he was

18:29

just aggressively eating that

18:31

feed , eating that feed , eating that feed , and

18:33

I turned around and he was dead . I mean

18:35

, he just joked on it .

18:37

Yep . So you almost need to . In

18:39

your case , rep , you just kind of want to give them a little

18:41

bit and just kind of work them up

18:43

a little bit at a time . But

18:45

yeah , he must have been starved , coming from

18:48

. How long was he in trance ?

18:50

About nine hours yeah

18:52

.

18:53

He may have had anxiety issues too by the

18:55

time he got there .

18:57

Yeah , it also sounds a

18:59

bit like like he said if he was cup

19:01

fed in his previous life , where he's

19:03

only gets a little bit at

19:05

a time so he knows when that food's down there he

19:07

better eat yeah . You know what I mean .

19:09

He might have been conditioned to eat everything

19:11

and no one where they came

19:13

from . That entirely pop .

19:16

And we're not saying anybody did it wrong . It's just

19:18

a difference in how things are done at

19:21

different locations and all

19:23

right back to the first 14 days . So

19:25

actually , when you get done with the crumbles

19:28

somewhere around day 14 , if

19:30

you haven't already started on a mash feed which

19:32

I know most of you aren't going to because you got to have

19:34

pellets and crumbles , but you can

19:36

Hubbard Breeders actually says you

19:39

can moderate that

19:41

growth factor slightly by

19:44

feeding match . Okay , give the

19:46

bird a chance to sort through some feed

19:48

. You know , look for pieces and parts

19:51

that it's after . And

19:53

so that is always an option . If

19:56

you feel like they're growing too fast , you

19:58

can always switch them to a mash , although

20:00

it hasn't been my experience , but

20:03

you know they did note that finer mashed

20:05

. You know , like that one powdery feed picture

20:07

that we had there is that it

20:10

will actually with a few course

20:12

particles in it . So if it , if the particle

20:14

size isn't fairly uniform , that'll

20:17

actually reduce growth more

20:19

than feeding that course mash picture

20:21

. You know where there's a scoop called grain

20:24

and it may also

20:26

reduce the uniformity

20:28

of the chicks , you know , by having too

20:31

much particle difference in

20:33

that feed in the beginning . So

20:36

you want to feed . That's pretty . You know

20:38

almost all the particles look similar

20:40

to the chicks . Look , chickens

20:42

are green buggers . No doubt about

20:44

it . They've researched this

20:46

time and time again . Chickens always

20:49

eat for the biggest piece first . Okay

20:51

, absolutely Always will

20:53

Gonna pick out the biggest piece first

20:55

. So just just know

20:57

that that's the way it goes , unless

20:59

, course , the biggest piece is bad . So

21:02

I pulled up another . It was

21:04

really hard to find information to support

21:07

what I believe . You know , what

21:09

I've observed , you know over my

21:11

years , and but I was able

21:13

to find one in this link

21:15

will be available as well . Hatchabilitycom

21:18

s5 PDF Jing

21:21

done by Vern Christiansen

21:23

. So we're

21:26

looking at development rates , different physiology

21:28

system in the first seven days . First seven

21:30

days right post hatch , right

21:33

, number one , circulatory system

21:35

. Okay , it's going to be rapid

21:38

and early . I mean the first . One of the

21:40

first things is that's building on is

21:42

circulatory system . Same

21:45

time it's working on kidney , kidney and

21:47

body fluid systems , digestive

21:50

system , right there . You know

21:52

, within that first two or three days . We talked about

21:55

that earlier . You know that's happening

21:57

right after hacks . This is all happening

21:59

in the first seven days . Don't think

22:01

it's going to happen . You know , six months down

22:03

the road is the pattern

22:06

for this . Birds life is happening , is

22:08

happening in the first seven

22:10

days . Okay , a bird

22:12

can't can't regulate its own body temperature

22:15

until it's about 14 days old . So

22:17

, watching those birds , seeing

22:20

how they behave , making sure the temperature

22:22

is right , actually pick them up

22:24

and feel their feet . If their feet feel

22:26

cold , need to up the temperature a little

22:28

bit , okay , and then reevaluate

22:30

them four or six hours later , see

22:32

if this feet are still cold . One

22:35

way to tell Rip your

22:37

ear for felt chicks feet to their cold or not . All

22:40

right , karen . Okay

22:43

, well , we're 50 , 50 .

22:48

I'm terrible to my newborn chick . He said I treated

22:50

him well , but I'm a fan of them

22:52

not being very warm , so

22:56

I don't . I just feel like they need to be

22:58

tested .

22:59

You want to harden them off early , huh ?

23:02

Not terribly , but I mean , yeah , I

23:04

just kind

23:07

of like Karen .

23:08

You know I go back to

23:11

Broody Hens hatching

23:13

baby chick . Those

23:15

chicks are not up under that , broody

23:17

Hens a lot . They're out and

23:19

about there hunting stuff to eat . They're

23:22

running around If they get cold and they'll come back . I

23:24

try to arrange my brooder

23:27

to where there is heat

23:29

on one end and it Cooler

23:31

on the other end .

23:33

And that's the right way to do it . Rip , they

23:35

have the ability to go to heat and find

23:37

heat , just like the mother hen was

23:39

there .

23:40

But they have that ability to be out

23:42

of that heated area at

23:45

ambient temperatures or near ambient temperatures

23:47

, and that's good , because

23:50

that's how they started

23:52

pushing that body temperature development

23:54

anyway , right , but Jeff , I

23:56

will say that for the first

23:58

few days I'll put a

24:00

partition in there that

24:03

kind of keeps them confined to the warmer

24:05

area , also to

24:07

the feed mortar , until I know that they're

24:09

eating and drinking the way they should , and then I'll

24:12

take that partition out and they

24:14

can do whatever they want to do at that point .

24:16

So , rip , did you always know that , or when did you learn

24:18

that ?

24:20

Mm-mm . I guess I'll kind of always

24:23

knew that , and I've been one that

24:25

felt like if we can mimic

24:27

the way chickens would

24:29

be raised in the wild , that

24:32

we would have better birds . I

24:34

think the one kicker to that was

24:37

if we have better

24:39

nutrition available to us now

24:41

than the birds do in the wild . So

24:44

, going back to what you were saying about genetics

24:46

, it can cause some things to pop up that

24:49

we might not know is in our line

24:51

, and of course that

24:53

can be a good thing or it can be a bad thing . But if

24:55

it's a bad thing , we know it's there , so we can eliminate

24:58

it from our line . So that's

25:00

the positive side of that , yeah , yeah

25:02

and I think I straight from reptiles .

25:04

So they need a vassing spot , they need a cool

25:07

zone , they need one in between

25:09

Just what

25:11

they need . How ?

25:12

long did I just throw food ? Otherwise , that's

25:14

the way in which chicks do

25:16

it .

25:17

Now I'm at the crowding park . How did you know

25:20

to put a petition in there to kind

25:22

of keep them in the worm zone

25:24

and make them a lot closer

25:26

? Because we didn't talk about crowding .

25:28

No , we didn't , and crowding

25:31

is important . It's something that

25:33

I kind of learned , because

25:35

I would go out and I would hear chicks chirping

25:37

their heads off and screaming in the hall

25:39

, and because they were hungry

25:41

or couldn't find water or were

25:44

too cold . So I thought , well , I'm not going

25:46

to give you an option , I'll just shove y'all down

25:48

to one in the brooder box .

25:49

Yeah , yeah . So since we brought that

25:51

up , I want to just kind of push

25:54

that issue a little bit more . So

25:57

for the first three days , besides

25:59

having the feed on cardboard or

26:01

brown paper , feed everywhere

26:03

, water everywhere , so they can't

26:05

really go more than six

26:07

or eight inches without running into food or water

26:09

you

26:11

want four birds per square

26:13

foot , or one quarter of a square

26:15

foot per bird . So you want to

26:17

kind of pack them in there that first three days

26:19

to make sure that

26:22

they found food and water . The

26:24

sooner they find food and water , the

26:26

better they're going to be when they're

26:29

adults . They're very no doubt about

26:31

it .

26:31

So yeah , that

26:34

crop field image that you had up

26:36

there is something folks

26:38

ought to burn in their mind and , incidentally , that

26:40

document has also been uploaded

26:42

to the file section on the Facebook

26:44

group . There's a whole document

26:46

on crop field . But , man

26:49

, that can tell you so much about whether your

26:51

chicks are eating the way they should or not . Right

26:54

?

26:55

If we can get it . I mean ideally

26:57

. We want the crop full , empty and

26:59

refilled within the first 24

27:01

hours . So ideally

27:04

you would want the crop filled twice in

27:07

that first 24 hour and that's put

27:09

a green Sharpie on them .

27:10

It's been full . Then you put a red Sharpie on

27:12

them .

27:13

It was empty . That was full and gone . You

27:15

know what this means , don't you ? Since

27:17

you're weighing your baby chick , you also

27:19

need to , at least twice a day , scoop out all

27:21

the poop and weigh that oh .

27:23

God .

27:26

I don't see this happening , but it sounded

27:28

good when you said it . I thought it was good .

27:30

I like the Sharpie idea better . Yeah , I

27:33

can see , karen .

27:34

Karen's a Sharpie fan . She'll be after

27:37

tattooing her chicks . Good

27:39

one Crop full yeah

27:41

.

27:43

C-F-C-E C-F .

27:44

Let's not use red , though , because it may attract

27:47

pecking by the other birds , so let's do

27:49

something that's non-attractive

27:51

. Also , in that first seven

27:53

days I didn't finish my list , but a

27:55

respiratory system and immune system

27:57

starts developing . In the first

28:00

seven days . You get a

28:02

really big push on immune system from

28:04

day seven to day 14 . And

28:07

you're probably close to 75%

28:10

by day 21 . But the biggest bump

28:12

is day seven to day 14 . So

28:15

for immune systems and

28:19

I can't tell you how important that

28:21

first 14 days is I'm going to keep

28:23

saying that until you all get

28:25

sick of hearing me and I start seeing

28:28

the viewer numbers going down really quick

28:30

.

28:30

It's a good look . Now

28:33

I'll do that .

28:33

I won't do that .

28:35

But I agree with you and

28:38

I've kind of always felt that . But the more

28:41

I learn , the more that's just

28:43

reinforced in my mind . It's

28:45

kind of like we don't get a second chance to

28:48

do this . You know

28:50

, you got one chance to set them up for success

28:53

and if you blow it there's no getting

28:55

it back . Make advantage

28:57

of those first 14 days and

29:00

just help your

29:02

baby chicks succeed . That's

29:04

what we're talking about . Thank you for joining us this

29:06

week . Before you go , make

29:10

sure you subscribe to our podcast so you can

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29:16

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29:18

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29:20

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29:23

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29:25

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29:27

again for joining us for this episode of the

29:29

poultrykeepers podcast . We'll see you

29:31

next week . Music

29:34

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