How to Care for Baby Chickens

Those adorable peeping yellow balls of fluff at the farm and garden store are hard to resist. If you're thinking of bringing some home, here are a few things you need to know. Caring for baby chicks requires a bit of preparation.

First, the chicks will need a secure area to keep them contained while they grow and feather out. A large sturdy box or plastic storage bin makes a good brooder. It should be covered with a material that will allow plenty of fresh air without drafts and keep the chicks from getting out as they grow. Keeping them safe from animals (like cats) and the hands of small children is also a consideration. They are very easily injured. Half-inch hardware cloth works well to cover the brooder.

The bottom of the brooder should be covered with easily removed and replaced materials so that it can be cleaned daily. A good choice is to cover the bottom of the brooder with several whole sections of newspaper, then cover the top section with shredded pine shavings. To clean the bin, simply remove the top section with the soiled pine shavings and discard. Then add clean pine shavings to the next section of newspaper.

Baby chicks need to be kept warm. Suspend a heat lamp above one end of the brooder. The brooder should be kept at 95°F for the first week after they hatch. You'll need to adjust the distance between the lamp and the bin to achieve the correct temperature. Reduce the temperature by 5 degrees each week. It's best to place the heat source at one end of the brooder so that the chicks can move away when they are too hot and closer when they are too cold.

Use a chick watering container. They are inexpensive, and somewhat prevent the chicks from walking around in the water. Of course, the chicks will make a mess of the water anyway, and it will need to be freshened as needed. They must always have access to fresh water. As the chicks grow, you can elevate the water container by placing a piece of wood under it to keep it up out of the pine shavings.

Feed them chick starter crumbles for the first 60 days. An inexpensive chick feeder is also a good investment. This will limit the amount of poop that will end up in the food and the amount of food that will end up in the pine shavings so that less is wasted. Chickens also need grit to digest their food properly. Chick grit can be purchased at the feed store. Chick scratch is a nice occasional treat for your chicks but is less nutritious than starter food. So it should be given to them sparingly.

Baby chickens grow unbelievably fast. It will seem like no time before they are fully feathered little pullets ready to move out into the coop.