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  1. NatJ

    Help! Brand new Rhode island red chick trying to eat everyone else

    If she can still poop, and the new poop is not sticking to what is there, then it is not an issue. If her vent is covered up or stuck shut, that would be a big issue. (My best guess: probably not the case, but you can take a closer look to be sure.) If she can poop but the new poop sticks to...
  2. NatJ

    Help! Brand new Rhode island red chick trying to eat everyone else

    If the grass is attached to its roots and dirt, they can usually bite off pieces that are safe to swallow. If you cut the grass (with scissors or a lawn mower) and give the cut pieces to chickens of any age, then they swallow whole pieces, of whatever length you cut it at-- and sometimes that...
  3. NatJ

    Help! Brand new Rhode island red chick trying to eat everyone else

    Alternate idea for the future: I prefer to put colored marbles or pebbles in the water, and not bother dipping beaks. They tend to peck at the colorful things, get their beak wet, and figure out how to drink. Once a few have it figured out, the rest can also copy the first ones. I don't leave...
  4. NatJ

    Help! Brand new Rhode island red chick trying to eat everyone else

    Brooding them outside may solve the problem with the chick trying to eat the others, too. A surprising number of chick problems go away when they have more space and more things to see and do.
  5. NatJ

    Help! Brand new Rhode island red chick trying to eat everyone else

    That should work very well :) They just need one spot that is nice and warm, big enough for all of them to sleep at once (substituting for a broody hen). No need to heat the rest of their area.
  6. NatJ

    Help! Brand new Rhode island red chick trying to eat everyone else

    With a heat source, chicks can go outside from the very first day. They just need to have shelter from wind & rain, plus a place to warm up (like a heat lamp or brooder plate, since you don't have a broody hen. Of course a broody hen is a great mobile heat source.) Without a heat source, it...
  7. NatJ

    Help! Brand new Rhode island red chick trying to eat everyone else

    If you picked them up on hatch day, probably not. They would be pretty close to hen-hatched chicks, or ones hatched in an incubator at your house: plenty of time to start eating & drinking before they run out of yolk, so no real need for special recover-from-shipping treatment.
  8. NatJ

    Help! Brand new Rhode island red chick trying to eat everyone else

    Chicks absorb the egg yolk just before they hatch, and that provides enough food & water for their first few days of life. Chicks that hatch under a hen will spend those days mostly underneath her, but they will keep popping out to eat little bits of food and try drinking. By the time they use...
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