What to Do with Those Easter Chicks?

Easter is long gone. You and your kids have devoured the chocolate bunnies and candy eggs. But what about your peeps? No, I'm not talking about the sugar confection. I'm talking about those chicks you bought for the kids on Easter. Assuming your kids haven't killed them with kindness and shown way too much affection, those baby chicks are probably no longer the cute balls of fluff you picked up.

The Reality of After Easter

If you're one of those parents who have made the mistake of purchasing a chick, but have no idea what to do with a chicken, owe up to your mistake now and promise you won't buy chicks (or baby bunnies, for that matter) in the future. Chicks are living, breathing creatures who can feel pain and fear like we do. And while many chicks make it to the roaster, there's no reason to be cruel or inhumane to them. Unless you're committed to owning chickens, you probably shouldn't buy your kids a baby bird that you're planning on disposing of in the near future. Think about what lesson you're teaching your kids: that life doesn't really count and that animals are disposable. Do you really want that to be the object lesson here?

Now that you have that chick, it's time for making responsible decisions. Don't turn the chick loose when it's no longer cute - it'll freeze or starve to death, get squished by a car or underfoot, or become a meal for an erstwhile cat or dog. And while cats need to eat too, this isn't very responsible. Some municipalities down south have chicken problems because people turned their baby chicks loose when they were no longer cute. Now, people have problems with feral chickens and roosters.

Options for the Chicken Bound

You've got a young chicken instead of a chick now and the critter is getting a bit antsy. At this point, you have a serious decision to make: are you going to keep the chicken or find an appropriate home for it? Some municipalities allow urban chickens, so don't despair and think you can't have a chicken or two. Check out BackyardChickens.com for local ordinances and see what your municipality has on file for chickens. In many areas pullets (hens) are allowed whereas cockerels (roosters) are not. If you can't (or won't) keep chickens, then you'll have to find an appropriate home for them.

Should You Keep Chickens?

The million dollar question is whether you should keep chickens at all. In terms of pets, chickens are pretty low maintenance animals. They require being fed and watered daily and their waste cleaned up. A few chickens don't really make a lot of manure and the hen house can be cleaned out once a week if you only have two or three birds. The amount of time necessary to care for chickens is probably around 15 minutes a day. However, chickens are vastly entertaining pets and you may find yourself sneaking a peak and spending more time just watching them than you would expect.

Obviously, much depends on the ordinances in your area concerning chickens, but in these enlightened times, many municipalities are allowing chickens as both pets and egg producers. I personally would recommend raising a small flock and trying it out, but if that's not for you, you can always place your birds.

Where to Place Your Chicks

For those who are looking to place their chicks, consider looking online or posting an ad on Craigslist for free or low-cost chicks. Subscribe to BackyardChickens.com and post a free chicks posting there. Try to put as much information as you know about the breed of chicks and whether you got pullets or a "straight runs." Pullets are hens; whereas, chicks from "straight run" bins can be either pullets or cockerels.

Be careful who you place your chicks with. Bad people often look for small animals to torture or, if you have cockerels, end up in cock fights. Ask questions and look for references. See if you can visit the person's coop and see their other birds. If you know your birds are going to a good home, then give them away. Otherwise, put a dollar amount on them to keep the miscreants away.

Keeping Urban Poultry

Having a couple of hens has its advantages - namely eggs - but it takes about 5 months for a hen to start laying from when it hatched. If you purchased the chicks when they were fluffy and cute, chances are they were only a few days to a week old tops. If you purchased the chicks in the first week of April, you'll probably won't have eggs until September.

If you only have one chicken, you're going to have a lonely chicken because birds need flocks. Two hens or a rooster and a hen are ideal - it doesn't really matter what breed they are. So, plan on at least two and you may want three (three hens or two hens and a rooster) for your chickens. Two roosters are not a good thing - they will fight. Chickens don't need a lot of space - about 2 to 4 square feet per bird when they're grown up. Bantam chickens (miniature chickens) need less space than full sized chickens.

Chickens will need a place to roost plus nesting boxes of about 12 inches square. You'll need one nest box for four hens. You don't have to be fancy with the boxes, but it does have to be comfortable enough for them to move around in and lay their eggs. Chickens need a ready supply of chicken feed, clean water, grit and oyster shell (when laying for calcium). Use chicken feeders and waters available at feed stores or poultry supply houses.

Chick Care

If your chicks are still small, it's a good idea to have them in a brooder. A brooder is a place where the chicks can stay warm and safe to grow up. Brooders have a heat lamp (called a brooder lamp) that keeps the chicks at a constant 90°F for the first week. Each subsequent week you lower the temperature about 5 degrees until the temperature is at 70°F and you can remove the heat lamp. Chicks should be fed chick feed until they're old enough to go on adult feed (usually 4 months or more). They will need fresh water, feed, and chick grit.

References

Raising Chickens for Dummies, Kimberly Willis and Rob Ludlow, 2009.
ABC of Poultry Raising, J. H. Florea, 1977.
Storey's Guide to Poultry Raising, Leonard S. Mercia, 2001.