The egg prices in America have been downright egg-agerated (see what I did there) in the recent months. This has lead a lot of people to try and raise baby chicks at their own homes. We have been raising baby chicks every year for the last 6 years and I wanted to share how to raise baby chicks for anyone out there doing this for the first time. However, please note that raising any animal requires proper equipment, care, and attention to ensure the well-being and growth of the chicks.
When choosing baby chicks we have always gone to our local farm store (Wilco and Coastal are local to us, Tractor Supply is another national chain) to pick out our chicks and bring them home that day. The other option for acquiring chicks is the internet. There are plenty of websites out there of hatcheries that will ship chicks directly to your home, I don’t have experience with this so I would suggest doing your research for the best online hatchery.
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Suggested Items Needed to Raise Baby Chicks
- Water Fount (water container)
- Chick Feeder
- Heat Lamp (we like these ones with the clamps)
- Chick Grit (mix in with food)
- Chick Perch (totally optional but they do like to nest off the ground most of the time)
As I said above we choose our breeds directly from the farm store, if you are looking for a breed that is fancier and rarer you would want to search online. The most popular breeds that we have liked and are great layers: barred rock (also known as barred plymouth rock), americauna, sex links, and rhode island reds, blue laced wyandotte. Over the years we have also had campines, lavender orpingtons and marans.
Before your chicks arrive at home you will need to set up the space that they will go once you have them home. Here are the supplies you will want to have:
- Brooder-this is a high sided container that will keep them from escaping and give them some space, we built a box out of scrap wood with no bottom (we use our concrete shop floor covered with pine shavings as the bottom)
- Heat lamp-this is especially important as they don’t have their feathers yet and the fuzzy growth doesn’t keep them warm (although it makes them look sooo cute!)
- Bedding-as I mentioned above we use pine shavings, however do not use cedar shavings as this can cause lung issues for any chick or chicken
- Waterer-it is best to get one specifically for chickens as you don’t want an open container of water as they can fall in which could cause drowning and they can get too cold from this without their feathers to help keep them dry
- Feeder-again it is best to get a feeder the is specifically for chicks as this allows only their heads to stick in and they are less likely to spill it everywhere and/or poop in it
- Chick Feed-there is great debate if you should use medicated or non-medicated starter for chicks, we have used both with success, however if you use medicated it should only be used for chicks and not for grown chickens
- Grit-this helps with chicken digestion, when older chickens are in their coops they scratch at the ground and eat natural grit like rocks, shells, etc. but the younger chicks don’t have this so you will need to add some for them
- Optional: Netting or cover for the brooder-this comes in handy once their feathers start growing in and they will start to fly out
Once you have your chicks home you will want to put them in the brooder and turn the heat lamp on. Normally we will get our chicks in March or early April when the heat lamp is needed, however this year we bought chicks in March and again in June. We had an issue with a hawk killing several of our young chicks after they had been moved out to the big coop. I brought this up to say that since we have chicks in June and July we ended up turning the heat lamp off after about 3 weeks because the weather was in the high 80 and the heat lamp was no longer needed.
After we get the chicks home we like to gently push their head into the waterer so that they know where to find water and don’t get dehydrated.
Each day you will want to make sure the chicks’ food and water is full and cleaned out of shavings. The chicks will scratch around and get shavings in their water and food so this will need to be cleaned out.
Moving Chicks to Outside Pen
Most of the literature you read about moving chicks to their permanent coop recommends doing this when they are between four to five weeks old. However we like to wait until their adult feathers have fully emerged before moving them just to make sure they are able to survive outside no matter what the temperatures might be.
When we move them to the outside coop we like to separate them from the rest of the chicks so that they can get acclimated to their new surroundings. We usually like to leave them in this outdoor area for about a week before they are let free to roam the rest of their new coop.
To Have a Rooster or Not Have a Rooster
Now you may be wondering if you would want a rooster as part of your flock. There are several advantages and disadvantages to this. First it should be noted that when you purchase your chicks you can buy them “sexed” which means that they guarantee that 95% of the chicks are hens. If you choose non-sexed chickens then you won’t know if you are getting hens or roosters.
We had several roosters from eggs that we hatched ourselves but we ended up having to get rid of them because my husband is not a fan of roosters crowing in the very early hours. This is the first disadvantage of having roosters, they will crow in the early morning hours and if you are a light sleeper and don’t like the sound of this then this can be bothersome. Secondly some roosters can be mean and attack hens or even humans.
Some of the advantages of having a rooster is that they can help protect your flock. Roosters can be known to help attack potential predators like raccoons, coyotes, or hawks. Another advantage is that your eggs would be fertilized which means you could hatch your own eggs in an incubator.
Happy Hens
Raising chicks to hens is a fun and rewarding experience. They are an easy animals to raise and I find them to be entertaining to watch. And the rewards are fresh eggs for breakfast, lunch and dinner daily! In addition to their normal feed I like to buy my hens party snacks that I give to them occasionally as a fun treat.
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