The pullets are 1 week old and Mellow is 2 weeks old. He is already acting like a protective rooster. He makes sure they are warm and he watches over them with great alertness.
We have the chicks in a cage I lined with some cardboard on the sides to keep the cool draft from them. I feed them a chick grower for food that has high protein that they need for good growth and a chicken water bottle. At first I line the floor with newspaper until the poop accumulates faster then I can keep it clean in a day. Then I raise the cage with bricks and put the paper under the wire floor, which they poop through. A light is placed above the cage to keep them warm when it gets below 85 degrees. The rule of thumb is : at 3 days they need to be 90 degrees and for each week the temperature can be reduced by 5 degrees until they have their true feathers. It is really important that the new chicks are not released in with the older chicks until they are at least 3 months and they have a place to escape to.
They need to be protected from chicken snakes as well. Chicken snakes will eat the eggs and chicks small enough to fit in its month. They will also attempt to eat a full grown chicken starting at the head. They will get the head of the chicken in their mouth then realize they can not finish the meal. The snake then releases the head and by then the chicken has suffocated and died.
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