Raising day old chicks.

       First thing to remember before even ordering any chicks is to check if it is legal for you to have them. If you live in the city, many will allow a few hens, others will allow none. It is best to error on the side of caution and call city hall first. Some cities like Seattle, WA make you get a permit to have chickens and the permit states how many, what sex, and the distance they have to be from any dwellings. If you live in the country, you may still want to check, not all townships are very “farm friendly”. I know of a lady in Ohio who built her coop, ordered her chickens, grew them to about 6 weeks, was very happy and excited only to have the township office make her get rid of them because they were not allowed in the area. The bottom line is to make sure you can have chickens where you live. Depending on what kind of flock you want to keep, you may need check if you can process your birds on your property. Some cities do not allow any birds to be killed within the city limits.

Do you want fresh eggs? Do you want the best fried chicken you have ever had? So you want some of both? These are the questions you need to ask yourself, before you place an order. If you wand meat birds only, you need not build a big fancy coop. Your birds will only be around for 8 to 12 weeks so they will not require a warm winter proof coop. If you want eggs, you will need a safe, secure, warm, and well ventilated coop to house your chickens. You will also need to put a nest box or two for your birds to lay in. If you want both meat and eggs, you will need to have room for your layers and you meat birds. The first year won’t be an issue as long as you can tell your hens from your roosters but the next batch of broilers will be too small to deal with the full grown hens. Once you decide what kind of flock you want, get your coop built and order your chicks. I will be writing another article about coops in a bit. For now lets go to the brooder.

     A brooder is the space you will raise your day old chicks to an age where they can be safely be put into the full sized coop. A brooder can be made of anything that is big enough for your chicks to be secure but not cramped. Remember the chicks grow at quite a clip so get a box bigger than you thing you need. For a batch of 25 chicks, a box about 2’x2’ will do for 2 of 3 weeks. Starting with that setup you will also need litter, a heat lamp, a chick waterer, and a chick feeder. The litter cam be just about anything, shredded news paper, pine shavings, leaves, or sand. Any of these will work but I prefer pine and cedar shavings. Be sure to have fresh litter on hand if you need to clean it out, if the litter smells, replace most or all of it. The heat lamp can be bought at any hardware store, poultry supply houses sell special heat lamps but a clip on light with a red heat lamp will work just fine. You will need to be able to adjust the height of the lamp to change the temp in the brooder. If your chicks are huddled up under the lamp, it’s too cold, lower the lamp, if they are spread out and panting, it’s too hot, you need to raise the lamp. As the chicks grow, you may need to increase the size of your brooder box.

Feeding your chicks depends on your thoughts on medicated feed. Most chick starter is medicated but you can find ones without the meds in them. Keep the feeders filled with food so the chicks don't run out. Just a few hours without food early in life will stunt their and possibly kill them. The same goes for the water. A few hours without water will kill your chicks, even more so in the warmer months. The chicks can not drink that much at once so must during often to keep healthy. Keep the temps in the brooder the same and slowly cool the brooder off over the next 3 weeks. Day old chicks need temps of about 90 to 95 degrees F. After a few weeks, the temps thew need drop to about 70 degrees f so keep slowly raising the lamp. If you keep the waters and feeders full, the litter clean, and the temps good, your chickens will reward you with hours of entertainment, not to mention a lot of whole-sum food for your enjoyment.