Getting chicks need advice

[mapel walnut]

Hello I am getting chicks for the first time. I have had chickens for awhile now but never baby chicks wondering what I could do for a brooder and just basic stuff about raising chicks. Please send advice. I live near a small town in Alberta Canada and am going to order from a hatchery hopefully this will work out.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Hi, welcome! Check out our Learning Center, everything you need to know is there. Just go to our Home Page and you will see it.

 

[ChickenShepherd_6116]

Welcome to BYC! My best advice is make sure you have space for them to grow a lot in the brooder! Chicks are pretty easy (until they aren't lol). If you give them food, water, shelter, and be a loving care-taker, they will be happy. Having a game plan for the first couple weeks of life is super helpful. Make sure you have an outdoor coop and run setup for them; they grow fast! And as always, ask if you have any questions!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Food, water, shelter yes... but you also need to be able to keep them warm the first few weeks until their feathers grow in. They will need chick starter crumbles for feed and not much else, but if you start feeding them anything else, like mealworms for treats or even a bit of lettuce from the table, you'll want to start giving them Chick Grit. Grit is very important because chickens have no teeth. Instead they have a very strong muscle inside called a gizzard. And if that gizzard has grit in it, it can grind up very tough food your chick might get hold of. But without grit, your chicken can get very, very sick. So keep a bowl of grit handy, always!

 

[mapel walnut]

Thanks so much

 

[Debbie292d]

Here's a link to the Learning Center in case you hadn't found it yet. There are tons of articles there that will help you!

Wishing you the best!

 

[saysfaa]

How many chicks have you ordered?

A brooder should have solid sides at least three quarters of the way around so the chicks can get out of the wind. It can be solid all the way around or have a side that they can see through but not fit through or get heads or toes caught in. Or have an open side into a larger enclosure. It doesn't need to be very strong to keep the chicks in but does need to be strong enough to protect them from whatever might be attracted by their noise or movement (children? pets? chickens? predators? -depending what is around where you place the brooder.)

If you have more than a few chicks, rounded corners help keep any chicks from being trapped in the corner and smothered by the other chicks.

The brooder should provide a way for chicks to warm up. Common options are a heat lamp or a brooder plate. A less common option is a wool hen. I like the options that allow dark at night but billions (trillions?) of chicks have been successfully raised under a heat lamp. If you use a heat lamp, secure it very carefully.

The brooder should provide a way for the chicks to cool off - that nearly always means distance enough from the warming zone.

I don't pay attention to a thermometer. Instead, I watch the chicks. They will pile up together and cheep loudly if they are cold and can't get to warmth. They will sprawl out flat and pant if they are too warm and can't get to a cooler spot. Occasionally "can't get to" means they don't know where it is rather than it isn't physically possible to get to it.

You might consider encouraging the chicks to spend time in colder temperatures by putting the feed and water in areas as cold as you can practically provide - set up in the coop or garage rather than your house, for example. At the very least, place the feed and water in the cool end of the brooder rather than the warm end. This is because exposure to cold results in developing more of the type of muscle tissues that generate body heat (the chicken version of what brown fat does for people). This will help them next winter.

The chicks need a dry environment. Most types of bedding for chicken coops work well when they are changed regularly but chicks can eat too much of the bedding in the first couple of days before they have a good idea of what food is. So, something without pieces is better for those first couple of days. Newspaper is not very absorbent and is too slippery for baby chicks. Puppy pads work extremely well. I'm not sure how well other options work.

Chicks fall into waterers quite easily, even the small chick waterer that screw onto a mason jar. I think the mason jar chick waterers are still worth getting. Marbles in the water help prevent the chicks falling into the water. As do nipple water systems -I think I have heard. Chicks are messy so it is best to change their water often.

Chicks are also messy with their food even with small feeders. It helps to raise the feeder to the level of their backs but it is still best to change it often.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

As soon as you get the chicks home, grasp each one and dip its beak in your warm sugar water, and then dip its wet beak in the feed crumbles. Yes they will protest, loudly, but only for a second. Then they will go, hey, yum, what is this? And continue drinking the sugar water and eating. Shortly after that they will collapse into a happy cuddle puddle and start softly telling each other how fortunate they are to have landed in their new place, and take a nap.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Oh - the sugar water is one tsp sugar to each cup of warm water. Use measuring cups and spoons. After the first day, go to plain water.

 

[North_FL_Coops]

Like others have mentioned, check out the resources they linked. I’m a newbie, as well and just picked up my first four chicks recently.

I’m currently using a large Amazon box as my brooder with puppy pee pads at the bottom covered in pine shavings. I also have garden netting over the top since they are getting feathers and testing them out.

Good luck!