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The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and spring is springing up everywhere! Time to think about getting ready for those chicks arriving soon from the feedstore or from our favorite mail-order hatchery.
For those new to chicks, it’s best to clear your calendar – don’t plan on going away and leaving your new brood to fend for themselves for even a day for the first 4 weeks. Apart from the need to constantly check on the safety of the heat-lamp, chicks need constant monitoring. Plan to check on them at least 5 times a day. They need to have access to water and food at all times. It’s amazing how much food they can get through and how quickly--and how often--those water bottles need refilling.
Chicks are pretty easy to keep once you have them started, but the first few days are critical to success. Their needs are simple:
First, prepare a draft-free warm place where they are secure from predators. We start ours in the garage, in a metal feed trough covered with small-mesh chicken wire. They will need at least one red heat-lamp to generate the 95⁰ temperature they need for the first week. A red lamp is better than a clear one as it allows them to sleep better. You can tell if they’re cold as they will huddle together, and if it gets too cold, they will start dying. Raise or lower the lamp to control the temperature, making sure there’s nothing close enough to the heat which might catch fire.
Get a chick-waterer: newly arrived chicks need IMMEDIATE access to water. Help them find it by gently dipping the tip of each chick’s beak into the water for no more than a second. This is usually enough to give them the right idea. Don’t try giving them water in a syringe as this can drown them. You’ll need at least two small plastic waterers for 25 chicks. Open dishes aren’t a good idea – the water spills easily and chicks are quite good at drowning themselves. A couple of chick-feeders will keep them content with fine-ground chick-starter at first, and then fine crumbles.
When you first bring them home, watch them for a while to make sure they are all eating and drinking. It’s natural for chicks to start pecking at the ground as soon as they can run about, but sometimes they need a little help before they know what food is. Guide them gently towards it and tap the food with your finger imitating a mother hen’s action when she feeds. They will soon get the hang of it.
Baby chicks poop a lot. Pine shavings make good absorbent bedding for them. Never use cedar shavings as these will irritate their lungs and cause them to get infections later on. For the first week or two, we lay newspaper over the top of the shavings as very young chicks often eat the shavings instead of their food. Newspapers alone can cause splay-leg, a condition you don’t want to let your chicks develop. We like to keep our chicks clean and dry so we change the papers and take out any wet sawdust at least once a day. As an extra precaution against splay-leg, we also provide our chicks with low perches – this strengthens their legs and keeps them from perching on top of the feeders.
If you’ve never kept chicks before, you may be surprised at how much fine dust the baby chicks manage to create as they go about their busy lives, so be prepared for this.
One last thing, for the first week, “pasting up” can be a problem. This is a condition where little chicken butts get caked up by their own droppings, blocking their vent opening and preventing them from passing any more droppings. This problem will be pretty obvious; the dried poop will be stuck to their rear, totally or partly covering their vent. This is a deadly condition and must be dealt with immediately. Gently apply a warm, wet paper towel to soften the dried poop which can then be then gently picked away. In especially bad cases you may have to dunk the chick's rear in warm water before the paste will loosen up enough to be removed. Once clean, carefully blot the chick dry with a paper towel and immediately return her to the warmth of the brooder with the others.
A bit of extra work and care in the early days of your chicks’ lives will repay you amply later on with good layers and plump healthy chickens for the table.
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