Chicks: The 1st 4 Weeks
It’s that time of year again. Chicks are available everywhere, it seems.
Is it ok for chicks to be an ✨impulse purchase✨?
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The short answer is yes…. if you have plenty of money. 🙃
Most of the feed stores that have chicks available this time of year also have all the supplies you’ll need. Chicks are a forgiving animal to impulse shop for, compared to a cow or sheep or pigs… so if chicks are your impulse buy, go for it. Just impulse buy everything else you’ll need! Here’s your shopping list. I use my local Tractor Supply Co., for all of our farm needs, so everything I mention here you can get at just about any store!
HEAT:
Lamps can be a fire hazard, try a brooder plate instead. If you do not provide heat for your chicks, they will die either of cold or suffocation. When chicks are cold, they pile together to stay warm; in a small brooder box, low air circulation means they don’t have enough oxygen.
Chicks need to be 99°F to thrive. The temperature can be lowered by one degree every week until they’re fully feathered out.
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/producers-pride-brooder-and-coop-heater
WATER: provide fresh water in a clean vessel every day. Clean it daily with a 10% bleach solution. Put marbles in the bottom of the poultry drinker so newly hatched babies can’t fall asleep with their little head in the water, they have poor muscle control in the early days.
FOOD: unless your chicks have clearly indicated they have coccidiosis (a parasite), use NON-MEDICATED food. Medicated chick food starves the body of thiamine, which the parasite relies on to survive.
While this is an effective way to treat this parasite, if your chicks don’t have it, you’re starving the chicks of an important vitamin and they will become VERY weak!
Lack of thiamine leads to polyneuritis, known as star-gazing or wry neck.
SHELTER: if you purchase chicks and have no coop, don’t stress (yet). You’ve got a 4 weeks to buy one/ build one. Chicks need to stay in a brooder with heat for at least 4 weeks while they feather out. The brooder you can get last minute from TSC could be a large black tote that fits a heater plate, waterer and feeder. Keep them in a bathroom, a basement, a spare room or a secured area in a barn stall. Check out this video on how what a coop needs. https://youtu.be/0XGPpwuuaA4?si=BsS-KDzo7KcwQsFx
CLEANLINESS: doggy pee pads or paper towels make clean up in the first few days make for super easy clean up in your little brooder. After a week, pine shavings make a little more sense as they’re eating more and pooping more. Cleaning up regularly will keep their feet clean and avoid infections and sickness.
If you have no means or no intention of buying a safe coop that’s large enough for your flock, don’t get chicks. It’s that simple. Chicks are easy and forgiving if you follow the above steps, but older chickens will need to leave that bathroom eventually and have a safe place to live. If you don’t have the intention to provide shelter, food, water and medication to any of your animals, find another hobby.
