Welcome to Chick Quicks, a series that chronicles the lessons I've learned as a chicken keeper — all in 5 minutes or less! Many topics will be geared towards novices and smaller flocks, with links included throughout each article for additional reading.
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We’re traveling back to 2023. It’s Day 2 of having baby chicks in my house, and I’ve finally gotten them settled into their new brooder tote when I notice something peculiar:
One chick keeps scratching desperately at the feeder.
Little Nutmeg
Wow, I think. That chick really loves to scratch! I watch a bit longer, then realize it’s because she’s struggling to consume the MASSIVE CHUNKS that are intended to be chick food. Have I accidentally been starving the poor things?
Now there’s two schools of thought on this scenario.
- Let it be. The chicks can handle it, and will eventually break off bits to eat.
- Fuss over them and make the food less challenging.
Can’t you just find a better chick food?
That's where I started. And I did, in fact, find brands with smaller crumbles — specifically, Blue Seal and Nutrena. The problem is there’s no consistency from bag to bag. One will have a finer texture that’s perfect for young chicks. The next will be full of gravel-like shards, akin to swallowing horse pills.
Also, the chicks refused to switch brands. They practically imprinted on the first food they were given, forming a permanent bias. I needed to improvise...
Oh no. You put the crumble in your fancy blender, didn’t you.
Nope. I couldn’t get past the idea that I’d be ingesting trace amounts of wheat “middlings” and amprolium (from medicated feed) with my smoothies. Instead, I did what any sensible person would do after fruitlessly trying to crush the crumble in a ziploc bag with a hammer over a warped 2x4 in the basement: I got the chicks their own blender!
Enter the Magic Bullet.
Anything marketed as a “personal blender” will work here, and honestly, the cheaper the better. Personal blenders are meant for making a single-serving smoothie. They can process about 1-3 days worth of chick crumble at a time (depending on your brood size) and usually come with nice lids to keep the contents fresh. More importantly, they're compact. Not only is this convenient from a storage perspective, but it's essential for HOW we're going to break the crumble down without turning it to dust. A feeder full of dust is not ideal. It gets snorted into their tiny chick nostrils while they're eating, which causes them to sneeze, and no one wants that.
Personal blender, no dust. Got it. Can you walk me through the steps?
Let's do it.
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STEP 1 | STEP 2 | STEP 3 |
- Fill the container about half full. We need space to maneuver the crumble while it's "blending".
- Connect the container to the base and plug it in.
- While FIRMLY holding the container to the base, hit the power button, and start shaking that thing like a bartender. Now as much as I enjoy a good guffaw, this is no joke. It's the closest approximation I could find to what I do, without having to film myself doing it (and I used the official BYC GIF button database, so please don't make me take it down
). I only power the blender for about 1-2 seconds at a time. Crumble breaks down FAST! - In between blender bursts, I flip the container upside down and jostle the larger pieces to the top for better contact with the blades. You can see the gradient of large to small pieces.
- Repeat steps 3 and 4 until most of the large pieces have been broken down into smaller crumble. Remember, we're trying to minimize dust, but some can't be avoided.
- Fill up your feeder and serve those hungry chicks!
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STEP 4 | STEP 5 | STEP 6 |
This is ridiculous. There must be a better way to deal with large crumble.
- You can turn the crumble into wet mash.
- Maybe try sifting out the larger particles?
- Or don't be a quitter, like me, and just keep hitting it with a hammer!
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Thank you for reading! If you have questions, leave them in the comments section, and I'll be happy to answer. Up next... Episode 4: How to Clean Pasty Butt!
