After they are hatched and dry, give them nothing to eat for the first 48 hours (72 hours is not too long). This allows the chick to fully absorb the rest of the egg yoke sack that is still attached to it's navel when the chick pips. At day 2 give a teaspoonful or two of chick size grit on a piece of cardboard. This provides the chickens with teeth and encourages the peeps to scratch and peck, which is a chickens most basic instinct and is how all chickens interact with their environment. From about day 3-7 dry old fashion oat meal and a HARD boiled egg mashed up shell and all is good. By now they should be eating like fluffy little pigs so I transition over to quick cooking (not instant) hominy grits and canary seeds for a few days and then replace the baby food with whole oats and chick scratch before putting them on starter grower by day 10. The hard boiled egg is always a good idea.
I assume that you know how to fix a chick water fountain so that the biddies don't drown or give themselves pneumonia. Supply water to your chicks that is no less than a 40-60 ratio sugar to water simple syrup. You can later go to plain water at about 2 or 3 weeks but in the mean time you will be sure that the pips have all the easily digested food energy that an active chick can burn. An alternative is buttermilk or if you got it, whey.
I assume that you know how to fix a chick water fountain so that the biddies don't drown or give themselves pneumonia. Supply water to your chicks that is no less than a 40-60 ratio sugar to water simple syrup. You can later go to plain water at about 2 or 3 weeks but in the mean time you will be sure that the pips have all the easily digested food energy that an active chick can burn. An alternative is buttermilk or if you got it, whey.
Last edited:
