Home to Roost Helping city folks raise chickens!

Here are a few tips for your new chicks!

1. Mail-order chicks may have trouble recognizing food and may eat their bedding, which can make them sick. Use white paper towels (rather than pine shavings or other material) as bedding for the first day or so. Drop some chick starter on it. They will start pecking at the food. Then put the food in a dish. When they have learned where the food is, you can put them on normal bedding.
2. Set up your brooder a day or so before bringing your chicks home. The brooder should be in a room with a consistent temperature (like a basement, NOT a garage or unheated sunroom). Observe the temperature and adjust as needed. This way your brooder will be at the right temperature for when they move in!
3. Heat your chicks’ brooder box at 95 degrees F for the first week of life. Then reduce the temperature by 5 degrees each week.
4. Place your heat source at one end of the brooder so they can move away from the heat if needed.
5. Use a small kitchen thermometer to gauge the temperature.
6. Be prepared to move your babies to a larger brooder as they grow. They will need about a half square foot per bird from ages 0 to 4 weeks and 1 square foot from 4 to 8 weeks.
7. Move your chicks out to the coop when they are fully feathered and the temps are 65 degrees F at night.