Chicks on first day

CHICKS ON THE FIRST DAY ...FIRST DAY INSTRUCTIONS:
• Be sure you have some flexible time to pick up your birds from the delivery point and be home the first day and night to watch them. Sometimes they do not arrive when expected.
• Be sure to have your brooder area set up and heating source tested so that the birds can go straight into the brooder as soon as they arrive.
• Refrain from handling or playing with the birds the first 24 hours.
We recommend for the first day to have the drinking water at 27 degrees (or very warm) because the birds are small with little weight to them on arrival. They will drink a lot of water, which if too cool, can rapidly decrease their body temperature and put them into shock or make them sick.
• Take each chick, one at a time, and with your fingers hold the chick’s head and do a quick dip of the chick’s beak into the water and then let go of the chick. This is teaching the chicks how to drink.
• You can add mix water and chick-start formula and use this mixture for the first two days then change back to regular very warm water.
Normally the chicks will NOT start drinking or eating until their body has warmed. So, at floor level the temperature needs to be 32 degrees Celsius directly under the heat source, for the first few hours only until the chicks start showing signs of heat stress.
Make sure there is plenty of room for the chicks to walk away from the heat source in case they get too warm. Lay down several layers of old newspaper on the brooder floor. Their feet will not slip on them. Change the newspapers out as needed and remove them after the first day.