As the cost of living skyrockets and self-reliance becomes even more crucial in our everyday lives, we need to become more resourceful.
One way of achieving this is by raising chickens. Whether you have chickens already and need to add members or you’re just embarking on maintaining a flock, raising chicks is an affordable way to bring home birds.
There are 10 essential things to know before you jump in with raising chicks, however. Let’s go over our top tips.
1. Choose Chicks Wisely
The first considerations are what type of chickens you require and why you are getting them. Do you want to raise them for meat, eggs, or both?
This is a significant decision, as what you decide will determine how you set up their home and care for them. It also determines which breed or breeds you choose.
If you are breeding from your current flock, you have less control over what you’ll get, unless you have purebred chickens that you’ve intentionally bred.
Then, consider where you are sourcing the chicks from. You want to find a good breeder that has healthy chicks that they can reliably sex.
Locating a reliable and recommended chicken farm that sells day-old chicks means there’s a little more control, as they tend to separate males from females as soon as they hatch.
Home-hatched eggs will potentially provide more roosters than hens; it’s the luck of the draw if left to Mother Nature. Consider what you will do if you end up with a ton of roosters.
Do you want eggs or live chicks? If you hatch fertilized eggs, do you have the resources to incubate them?
When it comes to breeds, there are many options. Isbars lay green eggs and Whiting True Blues give you blue eggs.
If you’re looking for meat birds, you can’t go wrong with Cornish Crosses. Or go with a dual-purpose breed like the Chantecler.
Beyond purpose, consider your climate. We have a guide that explains how to choose the right chicken for your climate.
2. Prepare Before the Chickens Arrive
Once you’ve picked a breed, you must ensure you have the basics to raise them. Chicks require warmth, a high protein diet (chick starter-specific food), daily clean water, shelter, and protection.
It’s never a case of getting them and leaving them to their own devices. If they are raised alongside a mother hen, their warmth needs are generally catered for. But you need to take care of the rest.
Chicks will grow and develop very quickly, turning into pullets or cockerels by week five of their lives. Pullet is a term used for females, and cockerel is the term for males who are in their teenage stages. This is pre-egg laying and puberty. This middle stage lasts until about 15 weeks of age.
At around seven weeks, identifying females from males will be easier.
3. Keep More Than One
Chicks and chickens are social creatures, so they should have friends. You should never be raising chicks individually on their own.
Chickens have a social structure that determines the lead hen and where the others sit in the flock’s hierarchy. This structure is set early on in the flock’s life and only changes if new birds are introduced or if hens are lost to illness, age, or predators.
Another rule of thumb is that if there is a rooster, there should be at least eight age-appropriate hens to sustain the equilibrium of the flock.
4. Provide the Eggs with Heat
If you have chickens and a roost already, then raising chicks by egg is easy.
The initial step here is easy if you have a mother hen or a broody hen. The distinction is that a broody hen will be focused on sitting in the nesting boxes on eggs and will be intent on staying there.
Broody hens tend to get grumpy if you try to take their eggs instead of moving away, as when you try to grab the eggs from a non-broody hen.
If a broody hen is unavailable, the fertilized eggs will need to be in an incubator. This step is essential. Failure to supply adequate heat and timely rotation of the eggs can lead to poor development and reduced hatching rates.
Incubating machines come in varying sizes, and you can buy them online or from farm supply stores. You can use elaborate incubators like the Manna Pro Incubator, which holds 22 eggs, turns them, and maintains a steady temperature and humidity.
Or choose something a bit more simple, like this affordable Buileni Egg Incubator. It also rotates the eggs and provides temperature control.
5. Determine Egg Viability
Before you set those eggs in the incubator and wait for them to hatch, you can check their viability by candling them. You can also candle the eggs as they incubate to see how the chicks are developing.
Candling is optional, but it’s free and easy, so why not? Head over to our guide to learn about when, how, and why to candle your eggs.
Eggs can stay fertile and potentially viable for one week after laying, but the longer it takes to get them set up in an incubator or under a brooding hen diminishes rapidly. Timing is everything. Don’t wait too long to get those eggs incubating to start raising chicks.
6. Set Up the Chick Brooder
Once the eggs hatch or once you bring the chicks home, you’ll need a brooder. Even if the mother hen is raising the chicks, you still need a brooder, as she will need support and an area to nurse the chicks safely.
If you plan on raising chicks every year, you might want to invest in a more elaborate set-up. Otherwise, it can be a more temporary design.
A brooder can be a small pen, box, rabbit hutch, or crate. You can find large storage bins at home goods stores or online. These are easy to clean and can be reused after the chicks have hatched.
A 27-gallon tote works well for a few chicks, while something like a 50-gallon will work better for more chicks.
There must be at least two square feet per chick, and it should be easily accessible for you to clean, feed, and interact with your growing flock. More space will be required if you include the mother hen, as she will need room to move and nurture the young.
Height-wise, the brooder walls should be a minimum of 12 inches if raising chicks without a mum. If you are putting a lid on this, there must be ventilation as chicks can die from oxygen depletion rapidly.
7. Provide a Safe Heat Source When Raising Chicks
There must be a heat source if there is no mother hen. Chicks can’t keep themselves warm. Ideally, use a heat lamp with a red 250-watt infrared bulb. This should have a guard to prevent you or the birds from getting burned.
The red coloring is important because it can stay on all night without disturbing the chick’s sleep cycle. Imagine how tired you would be if someone shined a light on you 24/7.
A reflector with a guard is perfect for raising chicks because it amplifies the heat but protects the bulb from touching anything and catching fire.
These can be obtained from a feed and hardware store or online.
Instead of or in addition to a heat lamp, you can purchase chick-specific heaters that mimic the mother hen, providing warmth from above.
Don’t improvise with a house lamp and regular bulb, as the heat won’t be adequate, and there is a high risk of fire or failure to warm your new family members. You don’t want to burn down your house or barn while raising chicks.
If you use a light, make sure it’s far enough away that the chicks can move away if they get too hot but close enough to stay warm. If you notice the chicks huddling together, they’re too cold. If they sit far apart with their wings open, they’re too hot.
The light should be 18 to 30 inches from the brooder floor, depending on how warm the environment is while raising chicks.
If you rely on the mother to provide warmth, make sure to support her. She needs good food, water, and a place to chill and relax that is warm and safe.
8. The Right Bedding is Crucial
The right bedding is essential when raising chicks.
Pine shavings are ideal because they make it easier to clean the enclosure. The dirty bedding can be popped straight into your garden or compost bin without weeds springing up, which can happen with bedding like hay.
It’s best to stay away from anything flammable, such as hay, or anything fine, like sawdust, which can cause lung issues.
The entire brooder floor should be covered with at least an inch, but three or four is better. When raising chicks, you want them to have plenty of material to nest and scratch around in and to soak up droppings.
If you’re leaving the chicks with mum, ensure a nesting box is on the ground away from drafts and weather problems.
Nesting boxes high up could lead to the death of chicks as they try to navigate to the ground. When raising chicks, they need to have easy access to food and water from day one.
9. Choose the Right Feed and Waterer
Chicks must have fresh water and food daily, whether in the coop, garage, shed, house, or barn. Good food and water is a non-negotiable when raising chicks.
Water helps prevent disease, digestive problems, and parasitic infections while raising chicks.
Ensure the container holding the water isn’t deep, as wet chicks can lead to sickness, bedding can get saturated, and chicks may drown.
There are lots of safe chick waterers out there that you can buy that keep the water out of the bedding and provide a steady supply.
Chicks need high protein diets instead of high calcium pellets that laying hens require. This is still true for meat chicks because although they have a shorter life expectancy compared to a layer, they grow more rapidly and need proper nutrition.
Fortunately, manufacturers have come up with some excellent pre-made mixes. You can buy medicated or non-medicated chick starter. To learn about the difference, visit our guide.
I make scrambled eggs with olive oil for my little ones as an extra daily boost, and they love it. You can also crush a garlic clove and put it in the water to assist with gut health.
A great tonic for youngsters is magic water, particularly if you are raising the chicks outside with mum where there’s a risk of bacteria and viruses from wild birds and other animals.
Chick Magic Water
Magic water is a reported immunity booster for chicks in the brooder or running around with mum. Now, we’ll be honest: there isn’t any science to back this up, but our chicks always seem to do better when we give it to them. It can’t hurt, right?
You need:
- One gallon of warm water
- A clean gallon container or jar
- 1/2 cup of raw honey
- Two garlic cloves, crushed
- 2 tbsp raw apple cider vinegar, with the mother and organic if possible
Combine all the ingredients and let it steep to infuse it for at least a few hours, or overnight if possible.
10. Pullets Need Larger Housing
At approximately four to six weeks, the chicks will have outgrown their brooder box and heat source. This is the time to move them to a bigger enclosure.
If you have an established flock, don’t be tempted just to put the new members straight in. Raising chicks requires patience and this is one time when that’s extra true.
Sudden disruption to the hierarchal structure of your main flock could lead to chaos, injuries, and potential deaths of the young ones, particularly if you suddenly mix in new cockerels with an established rooster.
Even if he’s the dad, he will see them as a threat to his territory, so please don’t be tempted.
If you can, situate a coop and run within the sight of the main flock. Seeing each other helps when introducing the pullets to the larger group when they’re old enough, or if replacing the rooster.
At this stage, adding perches is smart so they can get used to being off the ground at night. Broiler birds prefer lower platforms to roost on, while lighter birds go for the highest perch they can reach.
If you have meat birds and layers, it’s advisable to keep them separate.
Meat birds won’t usually live to laying age as they are slaughtered when they’re young. Otherwise, they become too heavy for their limbs and can fracture legs or otherwise suffer. Remember, animal welfare is of paramount importance.
At this point, you can remove the heat if your area is between 50-80°F. Put the pullets in an enclosure that is safe from predators and provides at least three square feet per bird. It should have a roof, perches, and somewhere for the pullets to hide.
If you want, they can be let out into a safe, enclosed area for brief periods to forage.