baby chicks & treats

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

Good Morning all you wonderful Chicken people

My 6 girls are doing well. They were born on 04/28/21. They do not have all of their feathers yet. My question is, can i offer them a small patch of grass including roots and sod? I have them in a playpen with tons of space. They are running around chasing each other and playing the whos top bird game. I love when they do their little curious referee whistle! They all stop right in their tracks, its so funny. They are SO curious
Thank you kindly for your expertise

 

[azygous]

They need grit if you offer them anything besides chick feed. Chicks as young as a week old can have treats as long as grit is supplied.

If you want a hilarious experience, give them a meal worm.

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

They need grit if you offer them anything besides chick feed. Chicks as young as a week old can have treats as long as grit is supplied.

If you want a hilarious experience, give them a meal worm.

To be clear, when I go to Tractor supply, shall I look for a grit to add to their starter feed or give separately? Also, shall i purchase live meal worms?

 

[azygous]

You will look for chick grit where you find the chick starter. You will sprinkle it on the ground and they will look for it there as they scratch around.

Live meal worms are best as dry meal worms are harder to digest, even for adult chickens. You get live meal worms at pet stores. They are expensive. I bought 100 in a carton ten years ago for $8. I fed a few to my chickens and started my own worm colony from the left over worms. Now I have thousands for free.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Personally I don't buy grit for chicks or adults. One of the first things my broody hens do when they bring the chicks off of the nest is to take them to a spot where they can peck at the ground. The chicks are getting grit from the ground, like chickens were doing long before they were first domesticated.

For my brooder-raised chicks I take some dirt from the run and give that to the chicks. They will eat it and get grit from that.

Some people cut a piece of turf including roots and put that in the brooder. The chicks get grit from the dirt attached as well as enjoy eating the grass and roots and scratching that to pieces. Great fun.

Or if your playpen is open-bottomed, set it on the ground (on grass is OK) and let them find their own grit. You have all kinds of options.

All this assumes you have dirt that has small rocks in it. Almost all of us do. If you have big rocks you have little rocks. But anything is possible. There are always exceptions.

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

Personally I don't buy grit for chicks or adults. One of the first things my broody hens do when they bring the chicks off of the nest is to take them to a spot where they can peck at the ground. The chicks are getting grit from the ground, like chickens were doing long before they were first domesticated.

For my brooder-raised chicks I take some dirt from the run and give that to the chicks. They will eat it and get grit from that.

Some people cut a piece of turf including roots and put that in the brooder. The chicks get grit from the dirt attached as well as enjoy eating the grass and roots and scratching that to pieces. Great fun.

Or if your playpen is open-bottomed, set it on the ground (on grass is OK) and let them find their own grit. You have all kinds of options.

All this assumes you have dirt that has small rocks in it. Almost all of us do. If you have big rocks you have little rocks. But anything is possible. There are always exceptions.

Thank you for your time Ridgerunner Tractor supply keeps telling me that I need to wait until all feathers are there before i even give them anything other than the starter feed and the starter grit. they are just under 3 weeks and my instincts tell me that throwing a hunk of turf with the roots would be good for them, but this is my first time, so I cant go entirely based on my instincts. I just want them to be as healthy and happy as possible. Thank you again Ridgerunner. Fortunately for me, I live on a bunch of land with rocks EVERY where, lol