So you want to learn about chickens... Okay. Here is a brain dump of everything I know about these fantastic dinosaurs.
CHICKS:
When chicks hatch, they do not need food or water for 24-72 hours afterwards. They absorb the egg yolk in their growing process which provides them enough energy to grow and develop into chicks, then break out of their shell with enough left over to survive a few days without eating or drinking. This is why hatcheries are able to mail out hours old chicks without food or water. They are cute little balls of fluff on toothpick legs, but man they are fragile. Chicks need a constant supply of fresh, clean, lukewarm water. They also need to be started on medicated feed. I will go more into their dietary needs later on in this post. Chicks also need a consistent temperature in their brooder. The ideal temperature for week old chicks is 95° F (35°C). This temperature can be lowered every week of the chicks lives until they are fully feathered. Please see the chart below for more details on this.
0-7 days | week 2 | week 3 | week 4 | week 5 | week 6 | week 7- beyond |
95°F/35°C | 90°F/32°C | 85°F/29.5°C | 80°F/26.6°C | 75°F/24°C | 70°F/21°C | Ready for outside |
BROODERS:
I have seen a variety of things used as brooders. From big wooden crates to pack and plays. I think this one is really up to individual preference. Chickens are one of those things that you can spend a lot of money on, or you can choose to upcycle things and make things for them for close to free. We have used clear plastic totes for our chicks. We liked that we could see in the sides of the totes and easily drill through the plastic to secure things inside the brooder. I would recommend you have a top to your brooder. Chicks learn to fly very early on, and corralling baby chicks back into the brooder is not as fun as it sounds. We used the lid to the tote as the top of our brooder. I used an oscillating tool to cut most of the inside of the lid out, leaving the outer frame, so we could lock the lid down. (You could also use a utility knife, it would just take longer) I then attached hardware cloth to the top of the lid. I went a little overboard with the security of the brooder, in hindsight, chicken wire would have been just fine. I drilled holes along the interior of the plastic frame of the lid, then used zip ties to attach the hardware cloth to it. This brooder lasted us a long time! You could honestly use an XL long tote and use it until the chicks are ready to go outside. As far as bedding for your brooder, you want to avoid cedar shavings, or anything your little chicks may eat. We used regular pine shavings and it worked great. You will want to clean out your brooder at least twice a week (chicks poop a lot).
Diet:
I know there is some controversy on this... but I have always started our chicks on a medicated chick feed. I just don't want them to come down with coccidiosis (this sickness can kill chicks very easily). After one small bag of medicated feed, I switch them to unmedicated feed for the remainder of their lives.
You can start giving chicks some fruit and vegetables pretty early on but remember to give your chicks chick grit when you start this and be sure they have it every time you give them anything other than chick feed. Their tiny bodies use this small grit to break down food. I usually feed my chickens chick starter until they are about 16 weeks old. At that point I switch to a high-quality layer feed, and regular chicken grit (if you keep your chickens in a run, I would make sure they always have grit available). Chickens can eat just about anything. The only exceptions I know of are garlic, onion, and rotten foods. Usually, they are pretty discerning when it comes to what they should and shouldn't eat. I would also encourage you not to ever feed them raw eggs. This could create chickens who eat their own eggs before you get a chance to collect them!
PROBLEMS:
Sometimes life isn't perfect, this is where I'm going to tell you some of our struggles with chickens and how we overcame them. The very first problem we encountered was poopy butt! Pasty butt can happen to chicks after a stressful event or when they don't have stable temperatures in their brooder and water. To fix pasty butt, we take a q-tip and some olive oil and gently rub until the chick is clean of poop. Another thing we struggled with is how to keep their waterer clean. The chicks love to throw bedding into their water and poop in it too. The best solution we have found for this is keeping the food and waterers elevated or hang them from the lid.
MOVING THEM TO THE COOP:
Moving our chickens to their coop was interesting. It probably would have been a lot easier if we would have had the run set up right away. Learn from us. Because we needed to free range them at the beginning, we ended up keeping them in their coop for about 5 days at first, so they knew that was home. Of course, we gave them fresh food and water daily, but we pretty much just left them alone. One amazing thing about these creatures is that once they know that is their home, they return there on their own each night! It makes putting them to bed so easy.
Mable trying to convince us she belongs in the chicken coop
Eggs:
Hens can start laying anywhere from 16-25 weeks old (or even older). I have been unsuccessful in teaching our hens to come back to the nesting boxes to lay if they are free ranging. Maybe after a winter in the coop and run they will do better, but this summer was like a never-ending Easter egg hunt. We have found that putting fake eggs in the boxes help them to associate them with laying eggs however! I get a lot of questions regarding how to handle farm fresh eggs. What it really boils down to is if they were washed or not. When a chicken lays an egg, an oily substance is coating it. This substance is called the Bloom. The Bloom filled the pores of the eggshell sealing it from air exposure. therefore, you can keep unwashed eggs on your counter at room temperature for about three weeks before they go bad. You can also keep unwashed eggs in the refrigerator for about 3 months. So next time you buy farm fresh eggs you should ask them if they've been washed and how fresh they are. I like to wash my eggs right before I crack and use them!
Cold Weather:
Many people decide to heat their coops with heat lamps or radiant heaters. I am of the opinion that God made these creatures out of downy for a reason. This has been our first winter on the farm and we had a huge cold snap (like 3° during the day, cold), and our chickens faired amazingly well. I can see where people could argue that a heater certainly can't hurt anything, but what happens when that winter storm cuts off your power? Animals use the sun and the weather to tell their bodies how to prepare for the upcoming season. If you supply heat to the coop, you aren't letting their bodies know that they need to make downy to survive the winter. The only things we did for the cold snap were to make sure they had drinkable water, food that was easily accessible and roost bars that their feet could sit flat on. The roosting bars are very important for cold climates so they can keep their toes from getting frostbite.
I am positive there is more information in this brain of mine that I've forgotten to write down. The great thing about this platform is that I can always come back and add, edit or delete in the future. For now, please know that chickens aren't as complicated as most people think, and you can do this! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me! I would be more than happy to talk to you about these lovely creatures.
Chicke' Diem,
Kiona
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