Sexing 3 week old chicks

Yes I have 9 hens so I'll probably have 1 rooster to all the hens.
That sounds good.

When can I give the chicks treats?
If you want the fun of giving them treats, you can get a little bit of their chick starter wet and offer it to them. They start out scared of the new thing, then they try it and wipe their beaks and think about it, but after that they usually love it.

Wet chick starter as a treat can be started at any age, because it has all the nutrients the chicks need (just like dry chick starter does.)

For other treats, you probably could start tiny amounts whenever you like, but make sure the chicks have grit available (so their gizzards can grind up whatever they eat). Chicks can be oddly picky, ignoring some things and loving others, and what they like can be very different than what other chicks like. (For example, I have read "my chicks love mealworms" and "my chicks hate mealworms" about chicks of the same age.)

Do not give large amounts of treats to chicks, because you want them to keep eating enough chick starter to stay healthy and grow properly.

Personally, I like to chop grass into tiny short bits as a treat for chicks. The short bits are so it cannot make a tangle in their crop. If they like it, they can eat it. If they do not like it, they can scratch it into the bedding and it soon dries out into tiny bits of hay. Either way, it is not rotting and making a wet stinky mess, the way some other foods might. This is my second-favorite treat for chicks (with wet chick starter being my favorite treat for chickens of all ages.) Other people have different favorite treats, and pretty much all of them are good in one situation or another.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom