In this post, learn all the of basics of raising baby chicks – from how to set up a brooder, what to provide, how to keep them clean, and how to get their coop ready for their move outside.
In today’s post, I’m sharing with you my complete guide to raising baby chicks! Adding some chicks to our family and farmhouse this last spring has been the biggest treat – they are so entertaining, fairly low maintenance, and hello – fresh eggs!!! They are not laying quite yet, but we should be collecting some farm fresh eggs each morning within the next two months or so.
Brooder Setup
When you bring your sweet, fluffy baby chicks home, you will need to have your brooder all set up and ready to go! This is where they will spend all of their time until they eventually move outside into their coop. We started off with a 45 gallon storage container, and then when they outgrew that, a handcrafted wood box with a chicken wire lid (Matt basically through this together with large wood planks and some scrap wood lying around). Once you have your container aka brooder, there are just a few things you need to fill it with to take good care of your baby chicks.
- Heat source: you have two options here.
- Option 1: use a heat lamp with an infrared bulb. Pros: inexpensive. Cons: slight fire risk, and you will have to come up with a way to move/hang the bulb further and further from the brooder so that you can decrease the temperature each week by ~5°. Speaking of temperature, you’ll need a thermometer, and you’ll want to start off at about 90-95° on week 1. Tip: Make sure to direct the heat lamp to one side of the brooder, so that the chicks have access to a non-heated space. If your chicks are constantly huddled together, they are too cold. If they are constantly avoiding the heat, they are too hot.
- Option 2: use a brooder heater. These are a bit more expensive, but can also be used later as a heat source in the coop as well. Chicks will tuck under when they need to warm up, and then leave as they please. These are a bit more straightforward (also no fire risk) so we ended up switching to these pretty early on. Worth the extra money in my opinion!
- Water: We used this waterer in our brooder and it worked great. We made sure they always had access to fresh clean water, which sometimes meant cleaning it out and refilling a couple times a day. I also added apple cider vinegar to give them a little immune boost!
- Food: We used this feeder and had no complaints! Before you bring your baby chicks home, you’ll have to decide if you want medicated or unmedicated feed. Medicated feed will help protect your chicks against coccidiosis, which is a parasite chicks can get infected with and unfortunately can be lethal if not treated early enough. It is a personal decision! Since I was a chick novice, I decided to go with medicated, although I suspect one of my chicks did get coccidiosis.
- Bedding: we started off using paper pellets, which we really liked, but they are pricey. We ended up switching to pine shavings (seems to be the standard choice for brooder bedding) and while they are a bit messier, they are a great option.
Baby Chick Health
- Coccidiosis: can be lethal, however if treated in a timely manner your chicks can go on to make a full recover! I believe one of our chicks Lizzy, did get this parasite. She became very lethargic, we barely saw her eat or drink, and her beak became pale. We picked up this medication and started adding a bit to their water each day, and within 24 hours she was on the rebound. Phew! Tip: coccidiosis can spread throughout the flock, which is why you add it to the water so they each get a bit of the medication.
- Butts: Yes, you read that right. Time to talk about chick butts. When you get your chicks, you need to be checking their butts daily! You are checking to make sure they do not have any poop stuck to their rear ends – this could cause blockages that could end up being fatal! We did have a few chicks that would get all mucked up, and I would just use a paper towel with warm water to gently loosen everything up and clean it off.
Housekeeping
When it comes to your baby chick’s brooder, you want to make sure to keep it clean. Chicks poop a lot, and you don’t want them living in filth or tracking that into their food/water supply! We would ‘spot clean’ our brooder everyday to pick up any visible poop. Every few days or so, we would completely switch out the pine shavings and lay down a fresh layer. We also made sure to keep the their feeder and waterer clean, which typically meant dumping out whatever leftover contents they contained and giving them a quick clean on a daily basis or so.
This might sound like a lot to learn at first, but I promise it’s so easy! It only takes a few minutes each day to make sure your chicks and their environment are clean and cared for (this is in a addition to all the time spent snuggling them, of course!) You will get the hang of it so quick, and soon learn they truly are so low maintenance.
Watch the video here!
Chicken Coop Prep
Since I truly want this to be a complete guide to raising baby chicks, I would be remiss if I did not touch on coop prep! No mater if you build your own coop or hire out, you will definitely need to add a few things so that your coop is not vulnerable to predators. There are lots of different wild animals that could prey on your chickens, so you want to make sure your coop is their safe haven! Your baby chicks should be ready to move out around 6-8 weeks, so you’ll want to make sure you leave some time prepare your coop for their arrival!
I showed complete step-by-step guide to everything we did to ready our coop in the video above, but I also wanted to make sure I include a list of all the materials used here.
Hinge hasp (similar)
Screw-in hook (similar)
Chain (similar)
Once your coop is all set and your chickens are fully feathered, it is time to transfer them to the coop! We would let them out to check out the run and coop for a few days before we actually transferred them full time – I think this helped them adapt to their new digs a bit before it was permanent.
Overall, raising our baby chicks has been so much fun! This has been truly one of the greatest additions to our farmhouse and we are enjoying them so much. Just one step closer to my homestead dreams…now, bring on the farm fresh eggs!! If you’re looking for some other homestead related posts, check out my complete sourdough starter guide, how to start seeds indoors, and a little backstory on our 1760 restored farmhouse.
PIN IT!
Where did you get your coop from? Am I just missing the link?
Thank you!!
We purchased it from a local Amish retailer 🙂