Basic Chick Care (by Joshua Duvauchelle)
Index: poultryOne.com / Chicken Articles / General Chicken Articles / Hatching and Caring for Chicks /
Take a few minutes to read this article on hatching chickens, then join our online community of poultry hobbyists.
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Raising chicks is fun. Watching them chirp and shake their fuzzy, yellow down...ah, the joys of parenthood. However, raising chicks is not a piece of cake! Nor is it hard. With our guidance, you'll have fun raising your little chicks into proud hens and roosters!
Unless you are using a broody hen to raise your chicks, they will definitely not survive without human intervention. Not only do they need heat for proper growth and vigor, but these young chickens also desperately need protection from predators. Your little chicks also depend on your for providing basic food and water requirements. Basically, newly-hatched chicks are completely helpless.
More info on hatching chicks below this ad:
First, let's look at the space requirements that chicks need. When they hatch, your fluffy balls of joy will require about one half (0.5) square feet. Then, from when they become feathered out (around 6 weeks) to about 2 months, the chicks will need one square foot. As they mature they will need increasingly more room until they reach maturity.
After they're a few weeks old, your chicks can start learning to roost like grown up chickens. Don't be worried if they don't get a hang of the whole "sit on a stick" act. Sooner or later, they'll get used to sleeping on a roost. After all, it's in their instinct!
However, before you start bothering about building perches for your chicks, you'll need to provide them with three of the most vital factors in a chicken's childhood: Heat, food, and water!
Heat can be easily provided using a brooder lamp found at most feed/farm stores. Ask the clerk for their suggestions on what to use. Thanks to technology, there are a whole host of options for any new mother or father to choose from, depending on how many chicks you have and how big your wallet is.
Water should be placed in a shallow waterer. Commercial waterers are fine, or you can build your own! Simply get a small tomato sauce can, poke two small holes on opposite sides of the can about one inch from the rim, fill with water, and invert in a shallow saucepan. The reason the dish must be shallow is because a curious chick will often venture into areas he doesn't belong, and there's nothing more awful than finding a drowned baby chicken! Think of it as child-proofing for a midget.
Food should be provided as commercial chick starter. You could potentially formulate your own chick feed, but why reinvent the wheel? Chick starter is extremely high in protein, which helps all those little chicks to grow up into big, healthy kings and queens of the coop.
This article is a great starter for those beginning to raise chicks. We're working on a more in-depth feature, but in the mean time...
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