The ideal time to start it is when you bring them home. The electrolytes are helpful with shipping and hatching stress. Also a life saver when birds are over heated in the summer heat. The most important thing in my poultry keeping tool box (and practically the ONLY thing!) is a bottle of Poultry Nutri-Drench. It gives the chicks an extra boost, helping to provide nutrients missing from feed that may not be as fresh as it should be. (you'd be surprised at how many feed stores sell old feed!) I never buy a bag without checking the mill date, and will dig through a pallet of feed to get a fresh bag.
An other good thing to give them within the first 2 weeks of life is a clump of sod from a yard that has not been treated with insecticides/herbicides. This will give them: early exposure to the bacteria they will be encountering in your yard (helpful for jump starting their immunity) Will also give them a healthy dose of beneficial bacteria and fungi to jump start their gut flora and immunity. (Mama sees to this when she takes her brood out for their first excursions. Baby chicks eat chicken poo which gives them plenty of jump start!) Also in that sod will be a bit of grit (necessary for proper digestion), plenty of minerals, some small insects and worms, their first greens, and they will delight in playing king of the hill and have their first dust bath. I like to put the sod upside down, just lay it down in a corner on the shavings.
