start with and take care of them — keep them warm, provide plenty of fresh water and food, and change bedding frequently — you shouldn’t have any fatalities in your fledgling flock. Pick only the number of chicks you ultimately want in your flock, and take great care of them!
Poultry Tribune, circa 1940.
Chapter 7
Chicken Care
So, you picked out your chicks. Now they’re home with you, still bundled inside a dark cardboard box punched with ragged little breathing holes, frantically peeping. They want out — now! What do you do?
The Care of Little ’Uns
Well, what you should have done before bringing the little ones home was set up their living quarters. No, not that spacious coop you’re building or have finished building out in the backyard. You need something smaller and cozier for the chicks until they are mature enough to tolerate being kept outside. You need a brooder.
A brooder is a wire cage or some other type of ventilated box equipped with an overhanging light source for warmth. Some folks use old aquariums or wood boxes, but I prefer a large wire cage specifically made for the purpose of raising a few baby chicks. These cages or brooders are available at your local or on-line hatchery or feed store. Keep the brooder on a table or countertop in your basement, garage, or spare room while your chicks occupy it. You want the baby chicks close by to monitor them.
Ensure that no drafts will disturb the brooder. A great quick windbreak for a brooder can be as simple as newspaper folded lengthwise into 4-inch (10 cm) strips and taped around the bottom of the cage.
A brooder should provide water, food, warmth, quiet, and security for your new chicks.
A typical brooder cage has a wire floor and sits on top of a removable metal pan for easy cleaning. Lift the cage, line the pan with newspaper, and replace the cage atop the pan. You will need to remove the soiled newspaper and replace it with fresh newsprint at least once daily, or else your chicks will start to stink. Chicks are, and remain throughout their lifetimes, prolific poopers. I always clean my chicks’ brooder twice daily; in the morning after the chicks have had a long night to themselves to sleep and poop, and before my bedtime, so the chicks can rest in clean premises. Just because you’re raising chicks doesn’t mean you want your spare room, garage, or basement to smell like a barnyard!
Bedding
Put some old rags, towels, or socks on the cage floor. Chicks don’t roost on a perch the first two or three weeks of their life. They fall asleep on the floor where they are standing, eating, or pooping. The rags give them something soft to fall asleep on. Use rags you won’t mind throwing out. Once the chicks sleep (and, of course, poop) on them, you’ll want to throw them away and replace them with fresh sleeping rags daily. Make sure the rags don’t have loose threads on them or the chicks will try to ingest them, which can harm the chicks. I found that old socks are best to use for chick bedding — they have few loose threads and fibers that the chicks can pull on and consume.
After the chicks are a month old, you can place wood shavings on the bottom of the brooder cage. Do not use wood shavings before that first month is over, however. Baby chicks don’t know what’s what yet — in the course of experimental tasting, they will try to eat the shavings. If they do ingest wood shavings, their digestive system may become blocked up (known as pasting up), and the chicks may become very ill and die.
Nest Box News
Chicks live in their brooder, a roomy cage equipped with a heat lamp, until they are fully feathered. They are now called pullets; when they are one year old; they become hens.
Temperature
Suspend a heat lamp 6 to 8 inches (15–20 cm) from the top of the cage. The temperature in the cage should start out between 90° and 95° F and should be decreased by five degrees each week for the next five to six weeks. Put a thermometer
Poultry Tribune, circa 1940.
Chapter 7
Chicken Care
So, you picked out your chicks. Now they’re home with you, still bundled inside a dark cardboard box punched with ragged little breathing holes, frantically peeping. They want out — now! What do you do?
The Care of Little ’Uns
Well, what you should have done before bringing the little ones home was set up their living quarters. No, not that spacious coop you’re building or have finished building out in the backyard. You need something smaller and cozier for the chicks until they are mature enough to tolerate being kept outside. You need a brooder.
A brooder is a wire cage or some other type of ventilated box equipped with an overhanging light source for warmth. Some folks use old aquariums or wood boxes, but I prefer a large wire cage specifically made for the purpose of raising a few baby chicks. These cages or brooders are available at your local or on-line hatchery or feed store. Keep the brooder on a table or countertop in your basement, garage, or spare room while your chicks occupy it. You want the baby chicks close by to monitor them.
Ensure that no drafts will disturb the brooder. A great quick windbreak for a brooder can be as simple as newspaper folded lengthwise into 4-inch (10 cm) strips and taped around the bottom of the cage.
A brooder should provide water, food, warmth, quiet, and security for your new chicks.
A typical brooder cage has a wire floor and sits on top of a removable metal pan for easy cleaning. Lift the cage, line the pan with newspaper, and replace the cage atop the pan. You will need to remove the soiled newspaper and replace it with fresh newsprint at least once daily, or else your chicks will start to stink. Chicks are, and remain throughout their lifetimes, prolific poopers. I always clean my chicks’ brooder twice daily; in the morning after the chicks have had a long night to themselves to sleep and poop, and before my bedtime, so the chicks can rest in clean premises. Just because you’re raising chicks doesn’t mean you want your spare room, garage, or basement to smell like a barnyard!
Bedding
Put some old rags, towels, or socks on the cage floor. Chicks don’t roost on a perch the first two or three weeks of their life. They fall asleep on the floor where they are standing, eating, or pooping. The rags give them something soft to fall asleep on. Use rags you won’t mind throwing out. Once the chicks sleep (and, of course, poop) on them, you’ll want to throw them away and replace them with fresh sleeping rags daily. Make sure the rags don’t have loose threads on them or the chicks will try to ingest them, which can harm the chicks. I found that old socks are best to use for chick bedding — they have few loose threads and fibers that the chicks can pull on and consume.
After the chicks are a month old, you can place wood shavings on the bottom of the brooder cage. Do not use wood shavings before that first month is over, however. Baby chicks don’t know what’s what yet — in the course of experimental tasting, they will try to eat the shavings. If they do ingest wood shavings, their digestive system may become blocked up (known as pasting up), and the chicks may become very ill and die.
Nest Box News
Chicks live in their brooder, a roomy cage equipped with a heat lamp, until they are fully feathered. They are now called pullets; when they are one year old; they become hens.
Temperature
Suspend a heat lamp 6 to 8 inches (15–20 cm) from the top of the cage. The temperature in the cage should start out between 90° and 95° F and should be decreased by five degrees each week for the next five to six weeks. Put a thermometer
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