day old chicks

[mtg]

Does any one know where I can get day old chickens? (In Vic). In the long distant past Inghams gave me as many as I wanted for nothing. I don't want to hatch them unless I have no other option, I hate it when they don't hatch after you've heard them cheeping. I do have an egg incubator though, and an egg source. We want them for behaviour study and they will go to a good home after.

[rodannt]

I get day old chickens from Wagner,s Poultry (Google them) at Coldstream. They have freighted them to Morwell for me. They are fantastic to deal with. The best thing is we can order females that are easy to re-home at the end of the program.

[mtg]

Thanks for that, I just found your reply.

[mtg]

By the way rodannt, what sort of pracs did you do with the chicks? It's been ages since I had any (we've only hatched chicks or ducklings more recently and then they went home). As I recall we only did pecking order and cuddles! And then they became pets! I'd like to do a bit more with behavioural studies and maybe growth? They'll go to good homes at the end of term so that is at about 6-8 weeks old.

[Narelle01]

I remember doing imprinting in year 12. We taught those chicks to follow us, and respond to us like their Mummy's.
I was up twice a night to reheat the hot water bottle i had my little chick wrapped up on, and she lived!!
She went on to a very happy life at my aunty's property, giving her eggs most days of the week.

But did you see the video of what they do to the male chicks? Was so sad..

[rodannt]

We have them for our Farm Studies students and the program is about raising healthy Chickens, so the students just weigh, measure their growth and look after them. They are kept at school until they have all their adult feathers and are then sold to students in minimum groups of three.We have had approval from the Animal Ethics committee to do this. I am in Victoria so all animal use in classrooms need approval from this committee.