1. Brooder
2. Bedding
3. Heat lamp with bulb
4. Chick waterer
5. Chick feeder
6. Chick feed
7. Roost
*optional. Something for the chicks to play on.
for a brooder, you can use a plastic tote, or something. We use a old metal cattle stock tank, and we fixed up the top with metal screen. Works wonderful! Make sure you have your chicks where no cats or anything can get in. Snakes, etc.
For bedding, I like to use pine shavings. They are very absorbent, and work great. I suggest buying them advertised for horses or something. Much cheaper. It's silly how they sell the same thing, but if they advertise for chickens, they can up the price. A good place is
TSC. They have a nice big bag that's around five dollars.
You need a heat lamp you can hang from the top. I know some people use red bulbs, but I prefer the white ones. I use 250 watt.
You'll need a chick waterer and a chick feeder. You want to use quart feeders. Reason is, so the chicks don't drown in the water, and so they can fit in the bigger holes Ina bigger feeder, and poop all over it.
I usually buy a 50 pound bag of chick starter. It will usually last until eight weeks, when you start feeding grower. I don't get the medicated. There are articles about the two, if you want to read, but in my opinion, it's just filling them up with stuff that doesn't need to go in.
You will need a roost. I built a little one out of wood, and put it in close to the lamp, so they would not get cold. It teaches them to roost on it, Instead of the ground. Just a good thing for them to be used to, when you move them out.
I built a little thing out of wood, that the chicks could climb up on, and they really enjoyed it.
You'll need to move your chicks outside, or Into a bigger coop, around six weeks. At around four weeks or a Little after, you can start just turning it on at night. At six weeks, they won't need it at all. But you start turning it off before, to get them used to it. They will cheep at first, but will get used to it. I move ours out into a chicken tractor, so they can enjoy the grass. Then I move me I to the big coop when they are fully grown,around fall.
