Look After Baby Chicks

Chicks are adorable and cuddly creatures who grow into amazing egg-laying pets. Chicks need special care, including a heated brooder and nutritious chick feed, to ensure that they grow up happy and healthy. Learn how to set up a safe brooder for baby chicks, provide adequate food and water, and move growing chicks to an outdoor coop.

Steps

Choosing Chicks

1. Check local regulations on keeping chickens. Most communities permit keeping chickens, but there may be zoning codes you should follow. You may need to get a permit or a signed agreement from neighbors before you're allowed to set up a coop. Each state and local municipality have slightly different codes, so be sure to check up on the laws in your area before making any purchases. Check your local homeowner association rules.
   • Some communities limit the number of chickens you can keep. There may also be a limit on the size of the coop you can have in your yard.
   • Others limit the number of crowing chickens, or roosters, you're allowed to have. This is more common in areas that are densely populated.
2. Decide what chicken breeds to keep. Chicks might look the same when they're little, but different breeds grow up to have very different qualities. Some chickens are great egg layers, others have sweet pet-like personalities, and still others are good if you want chicken meat. Do some research to find out which breeds to get before starting your coop.
   • For example, if you want a breed that reliably produces good eggs, choose a layer breed. Rhode Island Reds, Buff Orpington, and Australorp are all layer breeds.
   • If you're interested in chickens that lay eggs and provide good meat, you need a dual-purpose breed such as Silver Laced Wyandottes, Ameraucana and New Hampshire.
   • Broiler chickens are raised primarily for meat. These include Jumbo Cornish Cross and Heavy Man Special.
3. Decide how many to buy. Chickens are a flock animal and perform better in flocks of at least 6 or more, so it's a good idea to get more than one. A healthy chicken will typically lay 1 egg each cycle (about 1 egg every 25 hours) five or six eggs per week, so keep that in mind when you're deciding how many to get. Most small coops start with four to six chickens. If one falls ill or gets eaten by a predator, you'll still have plenty of chickens to produce eggs.
   • Once you know how many you want, you can choose to buy them from a disease-free licensed hatchery, reputable breeder or at your local farm store in small quantities. If you want to order them from a mail-order catalog, you may have to purchase a minimum number of 20 or 25 chicks.
   • Unless you're prepared to raise a rooster, make sure you get all female chicks. Roosters can sometimes be aggressive, however they are no more difficult to take care of than hens. Roosters don't lay eggs.
   • If you want to see the chicks hatch from eggs, different preparations are necessary. See How to Hatch Chicken Eggs for more information.
4. Make space for the chickens before you bring them home. For the first two months, your chickens will live in a brooder. This is a small box or cage that can be kept indoors at a controlled temperature. Once they're fully feathered the chicks can be moved to an outdoor coop with a yard for them to roam.
   • The coop structure will need to be six to eight feet tall. It should be wide enough to accommodate side-by-side nesting boxes for your birds. Each box will be about 10 inches wide.
   • A good rule of thumb is to plan for four square feet of yard space per bird. This is enough room for the birds to roam comfortably. Of course, if you have more space, the birds will appreciate having a bigger yard to explore.

Caring for Hatchlings (Day Old Chicks)

1. Set up a chicken brooder. A brooder is a small box that your chicks will live in for the first few months. During this time they're still growing their adult feathers, so they need to be kept in a warm, secure environment for protection. The brooder should be kept inside your garage, laundry room or another safe indoor area.
   • A sturdy cardboard or plastic box works well as a brooder. You can also get a special wooden chicken brooder from a farm supply store if you prefer.
   • After a week or two, place a low perch in the brooder, such as a thin bar or stick. The chicks will learn to practice hopping up on the perch.
2. Prepare the brooder floor. You'll need to add soft, comfortable flooring that can easily be changed out every few days. Pet litter made from pine shavings works well. You could also use shredded newspaper in a pinch, but the ink can stain the fuzzy chicks. Do not use slippery computer paper or glossy paper to line the floor.
   • The litter should be changed every few days to keep the chicks from getting sick. Chicks are prone to diseases that can easily spread in dirty conditions.
   • If the floor of the brooder is wire, be sure to cover it with solid cardboard or wood to keep the chicks' feet from slipping through.
3. Install a lamp and monitor the temperature. Chicks can die if they get too cold or too hot, so it's essential to buy a lamp or a brood heater for your brooder so you can keep them at the ideal temperature. A light bulb with a reflector should provide the right amount of heat, but always check with a thermometer. You can use a 100 watt red bulb or a red heat lamp (avoid using bright lights). Affix the lamp to the top of the brooder along with a thermometer you can use to monitor the temperature.
   • The temperature should be kept between 90 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit for the first week of the chicks' lives. After that, you can reduce it by five degrees each week. Keep doing so until the chicks have developed their feathers after about five to eight weeks.
   • Adjust the heat by raising or lowering the light or changing the wattage of the bulb.
   • If the chicks are panting or pressed against the sides of the brooder, that is a sign that they are too hot, and you need to turn down the heat. If they are huddled together under the light, they may be too cold.
4. Provide food and water. You'll need to buy a special chick feed called crumbles at your local farm supply store. This feed meets all the nutritional needs of a chick under two months old. You can buy either medicated or non medicated crumbles. Provide fresh food at all times in a shallow metal or plastic bowl. Provide fresh water in a shallow bowl as well.
   • Medicated feed contains medication to help prevent disease from spreading. If you choose unmedicated feed, be sure to clean the brooder frequently and pay close attention to your chicks' health.
   • Make sure the water is changed daily. If it looks soiled, change it even more frequently.
   • Chicks are allowed snacks such as worms or bugs (except cockroaches) from the garden. Avoid giving them any human food until they grow older.
5. Play with your chicks. Getting your chicks used to your presence from the time they are babies will help you coexist later on. Bring the chicks out of their brooder to play once a day or more. Pet them, let them prance in the grass, and help them get used to being handled.
   • Make sure you don't leave the chicks unattended. A cat or another predator could snatch them away if you aren't careful.
   • Handle the chicks gently. They have fragile bodies and should not be dropped or squeezed. Make sure children know how to handle them properly.

Moving Chicks Outdoors

1. Move the chicks to their outdoor coop. When the chicks are at least two months old or have grown their wing feathers, they will be ready to move outside to their larger coop. Ready-made coops can be purchased from farm supply stores, or you can build your own. A coop should provide shelter from inclement weather, protection from predators, and a cozy place to sleep. Make sure it has the following features:
   • An elevated, enclosed roost. The coop should have a place for the hens to sleep comfortably several feet from the ground. Chickens naturally prefer to roost off of the ground when they sleep, since this protects them from predators.
   • Nesting boxes. In the roosting area, make sure each chicken has a separate box about 10 inches wide in which to lay its eggs. Line the boxes with straw or wood shavings. Larger nesting boxes can fit more than one chicken.
   • Space for the chickens to run. Chickens are happiest when they have space to run around and forage. The coop should have a door leading to an outside area that's at least four by eight feet for three to five chickens. The chickens will be safest if the area is fenced on both sides an overhead (to protect from hawks). The holes in the fencing should be no larger than 1 inch squared.
2. Provide food and water. Now that the chickens are over two months old, start buying "laying mash" (also called "poultry pellet") so they have the nutrients they need to lay eggs. It's available at the farm supply store. You can feed older chickens organic kitchen leftovers, fruits and vegetables, and garden weeds as well. Put the feed in a chicken feeder that you clean out once every week and a half.
   • Chickens like raw fruit and vegetables of all kinds, cooked pasta, cooked rice, cooked beans, and any other type of grain. Don't feed them food that's high in fat or salt.
   • Put a bowl of sand or finely crushed eggshells in the coop. The chickens use it to digest their food, since they don't have teeth to grind it up. Eggshells also provide extra calcium.
   • Provide water in a chicken waterer. In the winter, you may need to use a heated waterer to prevent the water from freezing.
3. Clean the coop regularly. The straw in the nesting boxes and the floor shavings should be shoveled out and replaced with fresh materials every week and a half or so. Every four months, clean out the entire coop by shoveling out the waste, spraying it down with a hose, letting it dry out, and adding fresh bedding. Neglecting to do this could lead to diseases spreading in the coop.
4. Play with the chickens. Even as young adults, chickens like to be around humans. Name them, pick them up, and pet them. You can feed chickens by hand to help build trust. After awhile, your chickens may come when you call, just as a dog would. Many people find that chickens make intelligent and fun-loving pets.
5. Collect eggs regularly. Hens, also called pullets, will start laying eggs between 20 and 24 weeks of age. Depending on the breed, most hens lay five or six eggs a week through the spring, summer and into the fall. When the daylight drops below 12 hours, the egg production will also drop off.
   • Collect eggs daily to encourage more production. Don't leave eggs sitting in the roosting boxes for too long.
   • Hens will produce eggs for an excess of 8 years under ideal and stress-free conditions and when fed a species-specific diet (void of hard grains, flax, fish meal). Most commercially raised egg layers will slow production after about 2 years, but your happy, healthy chickens should be laying eggs for a very long time.

Tips

• Be very careful when holding baby chicks; their bones are very fragile.
• Never help a baby chick if it stops and don't come out of its egg because you could kill it.
• These steps may not be suitable for turkey chicks, flamingo chicks, pukeko chicks, pheasant chicks or any other precocious chick you choose to think of.
• Love your chicks and be careful their bones are fragile.
• Feed your chicken everyday and don't forget to clean the coop.

Warnings

• Don't use cedar chips, sawdust, or treated wood shavings for bedding.
• Never take a wild baby chick away from its mother. This article is for domesticated baby chicks that are meant to be pets.

Things You'll Need

• 250-watt light bulbs
• Untreated wood shavings
• Cage for the chicks

Related Articles

• Raise Chicks
• Take Care of Ducklings
• Take Care of Chickens
• Feed Laying Hens

Sources and Citations

See also

• Breed Chickens
• Candle an Egg
• Make a Simple Homemade Incubator for Chicks
• Sex Rhode Island Red Chicks
• Determine the Sex of a Chicken