500 Chukar Chicks
The chukar chicks arrived around noon on Wednesday of last week. I had some great help in preparing for their arrival from my friend Russ Peterson at Rooster Valley Pheasants gamebird farm. I was not prepared for how small the day-old chukar chicks were. The first night or two were a little tricky as there was a bit of a cold spell in our valley. I had to use a propane camp stove to keep the temperatures up in my brooder rooms.
The 250 watt heat lamps were providing great heat in the center of the brooder but the edge temps were a little low. I added a fourth heat lamp on the edge of each circle to help with the problem. The pine shavings seem to work well for a ground covering and an insulator. I used some paper plates for feeders to double my feeding space for the first few days.
I was very impressed with my low pressure nipple waterers that I purchased from Natures Way. It took a little bit of adjusting to get them leveled and working properly. The chicks didn’t take long to figure out how to get water from the nipples.
So far I have only lost about 8 chicks since they arrived 5 days ago. The ones that seem to die are either weak or runts. I wonder if I could set-up a quarantine area and try to save some of the birds that look like they are struggling. They are starting to consume huge amounts of feed now. Luckily I have a neighbor who mixes high protien feeds and he delivers it right to my barn.
Nice work! I suspect if raising them is similar to raising turkeys, you’ll have some losses at first. One method I’ve heard works very well for turkeys is dying the feed green with non-toxic food coloring. With turkey poults, they notice the feed faster and fewer of the weak ones die off.
I know my in-laws (who raise 24,000 turkeys each year) try to separate the weak ones into a smaller holding area where there is less competition for food and the reduced stress allows for more of them to survive the first critical weeks. They also have overhead propane heaters in their barns that are height adjustable so they can raise the heat source and reduce ground temperatures as the turkeys grow.
Sean
Sean, Thanks for the tips. I am working on making a quarantine area to try and save some of the slow developers. The green food coloring idea is interesting, never heard of that one. I almost have enough sky miles for a trip to Virginia.
I’m intrested in how you set up you water nipple system.
I’m raising chuckar’s also, except that I’m putting them in a remote johnny house in the feild.
I have ordered just the nipples from a company and have to intall them on the pvc pipe. Could you send me more picture of the system , and any helpful hints on installing it.
Thanks
Jim
I think the systems from Nature’s Way are great! The main problem I ran into was getting the pressure reduced down to the recommended 5lbs. I ran my system off of a hose bib. If your going with gravity feed/tank you won’t have that problem. The float valves keep the pipe filled and the nipples running smoothly. My systems have a clear tube (mounted vertically) on the opposite end of the pipe from the floats – to help with leveling. They leaked a little, but not enough to worry about. My main concern is getting the birds through the first 6-8 weeks without drowning any. I have since transitioned my birds to the standard fount waterers. But, many people use the nipples year round. Winter temperatures are too cold here so I can’t use the nipples year round. Hope that helps.