The Beginners Guide to the first week with your chicks

Ok so you’ve decided…or the feed store chick bin sale has decided for you...that you are starting your own little flock of backyard chickens. Yay! Good news whether layers or meat birds they’ll start the same.

Supplies needed:

-Draft free brooder

   -hardware cloth & 1x2’s to make cover.

-Large flake Shavings

-Chick feeder & waterer- for smaller batches: https://amzn.to/3YkHCFT     for larger batches of chicks: https://amzn.to/48XCA6N   feeder: https://amzn.to/3YkHCFT

-marbles - https://amzn.to/4pGm9CZ

-Chick feed

-Brooder heat lamps- 2 w/extra bulbs

-zip ties

-digital thermometer -https://amzn.to/48TLFxC

*Shop your local feed or farm store y'all! 

**I did attached my amazon affiliate link so you can see what I'm talking about and if you click and shop thru the link I may make a small commission. In that case thank you thank you! It'll help pay for: feed, tarps, & zip ties ;) but first check your local farm stores and tell them I sent you :)) Support local and small when you can! 

Some of these things you can find on craigslist or FB marketplace. That stock tank/water trough or a wood shipping box can be your new brooder just frame up a lid with hardware cloth to keep critters out and in.  Chick feeders or waterers…sure just give them a good wash and sanitize before using for yours. 

Yes this is an investment but it’s an investment in new homesteading skills and food security. Put a price on that when the next pandemic happens or the government shuts down. You’ll be thankful that you started now rather than in the middle of it again.

Draft free brooder- You’re gonna want a draft free place for your chicks. We have ours under a covered hoop house so it’s protected from weather. The sides of the brooder itself though are solid to prevent the draft. Important for those little new chicks.

Bedding- Large flake pine shavings are my go to. Do NOT get cedar shavings…yes they smell good but they are toxic for chicks. Pine shavings only. Large flakes are easier to clean up and out of the waterer than small flakes. Chicks love to throw up the flakes and if they get the large flakes in their water they may still be able to drink out of it despite the flakes until you can get them cleaned out of the waterer. With small flakes they are without water until you get it cleaned out.

Waterer & Marbles- depending on your waterer (deep trough or shallow) you may want to add marbles to your water trough. Those birds…especially in the first couple days may decide they wanna try swimming and I hate to break it to them but they are horrible swimmers and are very likely to drown if the trough is very deep. I add marbles to the troughs so that if they do stumble in they aren’t completely soaked and they can still drink with the marbles in the trough.

• - *Should your birds attempt the backstroke before you’ve gotten the marbles in I’ve used a hair dryer on low and low heat to carefully dry them off back to their fluffy selves. Don’t leave it blowing directly at them. Indirect…lets not shock them with a bunch of hot air to the face.

When you get your chicks I always dip their beak in the water the first time... that assures me they know where the water is and they can get hydrated quickly.
Some add ACV to their water (1tbls=1gallon water). Others would use the electrolyte packets you can get at your local feedstore. Either of those are optional. I do want to make sure the water isn't a freezing cold shock to them though either. 

Heat lamps- Secure the heat lamp overhead. Secure it. Use those zip ties. Heat lamps have caused fires when put too close to flammable things or fallen into brooders. Thankfully we’ve not had that happen and I’m extra cautious to make sure to have it secured in place to prevent such incidents. That is where the zip ties come in. I’ll secure to a bar above the brooder so it won’t fall down but can still be adjusted. I’ll attach a pic of what my brooder lamp set up looks like. *This is what works for me and has worked for me for several years. Some may not be comfortable with the brooder lights and choose to go with the brooder plates. Find what works for you and what you are comfortable with. ** Keep at least 2 in hand with extra bulbs. You don’t wanna stress if a bulb goes out or lamp stops working for whatever reason and they’re left in the cold dark abyss.

Digital Thermometer- My nights got less stressful when I got a digital thermometer for the brooder. On the cooler nights when I was worried I’d be out there every hour or 2 to make sure they were comfortable I put a couple of thermometers out right under the heat lamp set ups so I knew what the temps were. I adjusted the heat lamps heights so that it hit the right temp range then went to bed knowing they’d be ok the next morning.  

       *The brooder temperatures need to be consistent thru the brooder. When you see chicks huddle up in a pile they’re saying they are cold. Spread out away from the heat lamps and/or panting..they are hot.  Another issue is if they are going between hot and cold temps they are more likely to get pasty butt. Which is a pain in the butt to clean off.  Warm water and a wash cloth to gently gently dissolve off the poop. Don’t rush and pull it off as that can removes skin/feathers or worse off of them. Then get them dried off before returning to the brooder and adjusting those heat lamps. Depending on the size of the brooder you may want to have two lamps over it to help keep temps consistent.

Chick feeder- I like the long trough= less crowding and less opportunity for the feed to get clogged up in the top.  When they are little I even pop off the top of the trough for easier access. I want less barriers for them to get to the feed and less ways for them to get stuck in the little separators.

Chick feed- chicks need a good starter/grower feed with a higher protein. I choose an unmedicated crumble with 22% protein.

        -Medicated feed is treated to help prevent coccidiosis. (Learn more about that here in a post from Grubbly Farms:  https://tinyurl.com/4rmezz8n )

*If you purchased your chicks from a feed store they likely have been vaccinated and it’s not recommended to use medicated feed for them either. While I personally choose unvaccinated chicks I will still go with the unmedicated feed and feel comfortable with that choice.

On to more about the feed. You get to decide what your birds are going to eat or not eat. Medicated/non medicated, organic/non organic, non gmo, no corn/soy options…this/that…it’s a lot when you start looking into the different options. I recommend you find your local feed store and ask questions. Talk to them about what feeds they have and what they recommend can really help. And don’t be afraid to try different types. With my broilers I have a favorite that doesn’t make me want to run from the property with my hand over my nose. (If you’re in the Houston area and need feed store recommendations leave a comment or send a message!)  Other feeds I thought I might have to hang it up. If the smell is disproportionate to the amount of birds you have…look at the feed.

Ok I think that covers that first week with your chicks!  I’ll link the items that I mentioned and recommend below. Leave me a comment if this post helps!

Have a blessed day!