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Your Ultimate Starters Guide to Raising Chicks
On Thursday of next week, we will welcome 15 chicks to our lives. Last year, in 2023, getting our chickens in February included a 3 hour wait in line at the only IFA in the state that had all the breeds we wanted, with a limit of five chicks each. We decided to plan a bit better in 2024, pre-ordering some of the breeds we didn't manage to get and a few more of the breeds that we currently have and love. That includes French Copper Marans, Olive Eggers and Tire Fire's (below) twins the Lavender Orpington.
Previous to last year, I hadn't raised chicks for nearly 10 years and at that time, I was a teenager, it was for FFA and they were Cornish cross chicks for meat production. We had them in a Rubbermaid tub in the garage and my care for them was less than ideal. I had many casualties from the cold due to lack of knowledge of heat sources, and from what I now know is coccidiosis.
Over the last few months, I have really dived into chicken care and management and want to share what I have learned in the first week of the first 12 chickens we have brought home and what we plan to do different in 2024.
Breeds
Read up below on the breeds of chickens we have and how we have liked them as first time laying hen owners:
Delaware - We had two Delaware chicks, they are a dual-purpose breed for both eggs and meat. They produce on average 4 large to jumbo brown eggs per week. They are a traditional yellow chick and will be white with black spots when full grown. Out of all of our chicks, the two Delaware are by far the friendliest. They happily approach and accept pets. They are very involved in the cleaning process and generally unafraid. The Delaware is not a broody breed. This is a very good thing if you do not intend to have a rooster and hatch chickens from eggs the natural way because broody hens do not lay eggs. One of the Delaware turned out to be a rooster and became a 8lb whole chicken which was delicious. These birds are a great option if you want both eggs and meat production.
Golden Laced Wyandotte - We also have two Wyandotte girls. If you are a first time chicken owner, this breed comes highly recommended, but the breeds below are all better, in our opinion. Our Wynadottes are pretty skittish compared to our other chickens and quite the bullies! That being said, they handle the cold well and known to be a docile breed. They are also considered a dual-purpose bird. Wyandotte's lay about four medium sized brown eggs per week and are known to be broody. Be sure to pick up eggs daily to try to combat that! Our two Wyandotte's are pretty stoic and generally ignore me which is also pretty standard for the breed.
Easter Egger - Easter Eggers are one of the easiest breeds to find in ranch supply stores and from locals who hatch barn yard mixes. They are not so much a breed as a type. They are a mixed-breed chicken that lays eggs in various colors of blue, green and pink. We have 3 easter eggers by accident - my husband liked their name when he had to pick his five chickens in the IFA store. They are the least social of our flock. It's hard to predict personality, egg color or size in this group because they are for the lack of better terms - the mutts of the chicken world. Although we appreciate their beautiful colored eggs, we would not add this type of chicken to our flock again. We would go towards a purebred chicken that has a more predictable type, egg size and personality.
Olive Egger - We have one olive egger, Shredder, who produces large or extra large eggs and is so friendly. He has super cute wild hair, too. But, again they are a mutt breed. I would recommend an Araucana or Ameraucana if you are seeking beautiful green eggs.
Lavender Orpington - This breed of chicken is, in my opinion, one of the most gorgeous breeds of chickens. In addition, this breed is know to be calm and friendly which I completely agree with. My only complaint is our Lavenders lay medium sized brown eggs (see above picture, hers is the brown one) - which are great for our family but a little too small to sell to our egg customers. She is expected to lay 170-200 eggs per year - and she does lay almost daily. Overall, lavenders are a beautiful, beginner friendly bird we would recommend to a backyard or "pet" bird flock.
Black Sexlink- These birds are another "mutt" breed of a cross between a Barred Rock and Rhode Island Red. Bjorne, our black sexlink laid all through winter and produces nearly daily - large or extra large brown eggs. She is also the most social chicken we own - we also have a red sexlink that has a very outgoing personality. This is the number one chicken we would recommend for a new flock owner - friendly, high producing birds at 250 eggs a year. Sexlinks are cold and hear hardy and do not become broody - which is a great thing if you don't intend to raise chicks.
Now that you know some of the breeds we are raising, let's talk about some chick raising basics.
Location
We have raised chickens in the house, in the garage and in the barn. Our preference is for the barn. When raising chickens indoors, you will be shocked by how much down and dust and ick they stir up. Chicks are also incredibly messy. The garage or barn is ideal for a number of reasons, but we have found the transition to outdoors is much smoother with less loss of life if they start outside. We also allow our big chickens "protective contact" meaning they can see the chicks but not reach them - this seems to make the transition into the flock much easier with less bulling occurring when the flocks combine.
Heat source
Chicks require a heat source until they grown in their first set of feathers at around 7 weeks of age. The brooder temperature that you should aim for is 95 degrees when you first get the babies, then decreased by five degrees each week until they are 7 weeks old and no longer need a heat source.
You have two options for heat source, a brooder plate or heat lamp. Brooder plates are the new thing, less of a fire hazard, but I personally have not tried them. We have had no issues with the heat lamp as long as it is very securely fixed to the side of our pen with a woodworking clamp, in addition to the clamp it comes with and a shield on it, so the chickens can't fly or jump into it, causing a fire.
Food
We feed unmedicated chick starter and grit for the first 6-8 weeks. I start adding in fresh greens and treats in week 2. This is controversial, but I have found that it greatly decreases pasty butt and makes the chickens more adventurous in what they will try as adults - which is important to us as our chickens serve as pest control free ranging in an orchard. Chickens don't like new or novel - it took us weeks to convince the chickens that grasshoppers are tasty treats last summer- I did get very good at catching grasshoppers, though.
Pasty Butt
Pasty butt is, in my opinion, the second biggest killer in baby chicks and totally preventable. It is caused by both stress - which they have a lot of when you bring them home and being cold or too hot. In summary, at least one of your chicks will have or get this. All it takes to "treat" them is a little management. We stick with twice daily warm water paper towels placed on their bum to loosen up that poop. I would advise against dunking or soaking their bottoms in water, as when they come out of the water they will be very cold. They should have a bowel movement during or right after you remove the poo paste.
Enrichment
If you are doing your research, you will read about aggression in chicks with pecking and feather plucking. I have never seen these behaviors due to a very strong enrichment protocol. If you are seeing these things happen in your brooder, it's likely due to overcrowding, stress and lack of resources or space at feeders and waterers.
We combat this with providing novel stimuli to the chickens - dig boxes with different substrate such as sand, dirt, bedding, straw, etc. , perching sticks, simple small changes in arrangement of their pen and as the chickens get older, food puzzles. This also helps to make well adjusted, happy chickens who can adapt, which is important to me in my flock.
Sound like too much fun?
We will be selling some of our flock ready pullets this year in early April. See our pullets page to get on the waitlist~!
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