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Are you getting (or considering getting) baby chicks this season? Be prepared with this guide on prepping for chicks as well as their transition to their coop. Check out helpinghomestead.com for other chicken keeping tips and to find sitters for your new flock when you travel!

Ordering chicks: When, where, and how

What time:

• When you order chicks, one important thing to consider is that they won’t be ready for a coop until at least 6 weeks. Depending on where you live, timing this with when you have more temperate weather can be helpful. We chose March since winters can be long here and wanted them to have a better chance at warm weather once their feathers come in. 
• If you are timing for egg production, keep in mind that chickens won’t typically begin laying eggs until they are 6 months old. However - in their first year they tend to lay more consistently vs. older hens that have a significant reduction in egg production during the winter. If you are getting new chicks to add to an existing flock, timing this out to have more eggs all year round could work well in your favor!

Where from:

• Do some research when choosing where to order your chicks. Check out local facebook groups and ask for recommendations. Larger hatcheries notoriously have more risks for disease and other issues including misgendering which could result in an unwanted (or unallowed) rooster. Check on policies for vaccinations, policies regarding illness/death of chicks.

What breed:

• I was completely shocked and overwhelmed when I first learned how many breeds and varieties of chickens there are. Before you go into a deep dive of some fabulous looking birds, you first need to consider your climate. If you have cold winters and are unable to safely or effectively provide supplemental heat to your coop, get breeds that are known to do well in cold climates. Some examples are Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks, Americaunas, Sexlinks, and Olive Eggers. 

Egg laying

• Some breeds are better layers than others. If quantity is what you are looking for, consider Rhode Island Reds, Plymouth Rocks, Orpingtons, or Ameracaunas 
• Color: buckle up if you’ve yet to discover the variety of colors you can get in chicken eggs! If you a looking for a certain color of egg, some breeds are consistent with certain colors. Some unique varieties include green eggs from olive eggers, blue eggs from Ameraucanas, deep reddish brown from copper marans, or even pink from an easter egger. 

Variety

• If chicken keeping is largely a hobby for you and you want to explore different breeds, go for it! Silkies are certainly a crowd favorite with their crazy hairstyles, but do require a bit more maintenance. Check what other “designer” breeds your local farms/hatcheries have and have fun with it! Just make sure you know any breed requirements that you’ll need to attend to. 

How many

• Before you decide how many chickens you want to get - check your local ordinances. This might answer that question for you! Check out our blog on local laws to help find this information for your town. 
• Chicken math: 
  
  • if coop size or local laws are not restricting you, think about how many eggs you want, if you hope to add to your flock in the future, or what you are hoping to yield each year if you are keeping meat birds
  • You’ve probably already been warned about chicken math and that you’ll end up getting more than you originally planned! With this in mind, build a bigger coop than you think you need to be on the safe side. 
  • Getting roosters? The recommendation is 1 Rooster for every 10 hens. Keep this ratio in mind with your total number so that you don’t end up having too many roosters which can result in a lot of issues. 

Preparing for their Arrival

Making or buying a brooder

• There are brooders you can buy new or sometimes used, but we were able to fashion one with mostly things we already had! We are storing ours in our garage which is heated - not quite as warm as the inside of our house but much better than outside! If you live in a cold climate and don’t have a heated garage or shed, you may want to try to find a space inside that you can cover the floor with a tarp and designate as brooder space for 6 weeks. 
• We used a large, watertight storage container. We formed wire mesh over the top and secured with a bungee cord to keep chickens in and pests out but allow for ventilation. 
• For the first few days, we lined the bottom of the brooder with papertowel for easy cleaning, but also to make sure the chicks could acclimate to their space and learn where their food was prior to adding shavings.
• We opted to use a heat lamp for our brooder. There is a lot of talk about fire risk and a lot of other options out there to reduce this risk. We did actually also purchase a heated pad, but we are keeping our chicks in our only semi-heated garage and we didn’t feel it provided enough heat. Some other options may be more effective, but they were very pricey. If we were going to plan on getting chicks annually, I would say it would be worth the splurge. However, we don’t plan on getting chicks every year and felt that we could safely set up our heat lamp without feeling like we were creating a fire risk. We did make sure our fire extinguisher was not expired and in an easy to access location to be safe, and regardless of your heat source I would recommend you do the same!
• Whatever heat source you end up using, it will need to be adjusted weekly. For a heat lamp, that is as simple as raising it up slightly to reduce the temperature in the coop. We tested this before the chicks came home with a candy thermometer, but you’ll also need to watch your chicks behaviour to help determine if the heat is appropriate. 
• Food: another buzzing topic is chick food: medicated or not medicated? The general recommendation is that if your chicks are vaccinated against coccidiosis, there is no need for medicated food. If they are not, you should feed them a bag of medicated food and once it’s empty, switch to unmedicated. There are a lot of opinions on this and i’ve heard plenty accounts of people using medicated or unmedicated without vaccinated chicks and stating that they’ve never had an issue. I recommend talking to wherever you get your chicks from and seeing what they recommend!
• Grit: This is something people have recommended to me starting right away in the brooder. It’s something coarse that helps them digest larger food. Without it, chicks and chickens can have digestive issues. 
• Water: your waterer for your chicks may need to be different than for adult chickens. Of course they need to be able to reach it, but it can’t be in a dish too deep that they could drown in it, and it’s good to use a waterer with a drip spout or openings to small to stand in to prevent them from pooping in it. You can put rocks in dishes to make them more shallow, or you can get one of these waters for >>>
• Make sure you show your chicks their food and water source a few times in their first days, but especially the very first time you put them in the brooder. 
• Make sure your brooder is an appropriate size for how many chicks you are getting. Keep in mind, they’ll be more than double their size from their first day to their last week in the brooder, so keep that in mind before filling it too full with chicks! There should be enough room for all chicks under heat sources, so that might mean a bigger brooder or even extra heat sources. Food and water should also not be kept on or under a heat source. They should be able to venture away from the heat source to eat, drink, and explore. 

Coop

• 6 weeks goes by faster than you think! Don’t get caught with chicks bursting from the brooder and an unfinished chicken coop. I would recommend getting the coop done before the chicks arrive to make sure this doesn’t happen! 

Time in the Brooder

• Your chicks will need to be in a temperature controlled “brooder” for about 6 weeks or until their feathers come in. If you live in a warm climate and get your chicks later in the season, you may be able to move them outside earlier if the low temps match the recommendation for their age.

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• Temperatures are guidelines! Keep an eye on your chicks’ behavior. If they are spending all their time huddled by the heat source and not venturing out to eat or drink, you should make it warmer. If they seem to be avoiding the heat source, it’s probably too hot!

Transitioning to the Coop

• Chicks should be feathered and no longer spending much time huddled together or under the heat source in the brooder. Temps should be around 65 degrees when you first introduce them outside.
• If you have other grown chickens, you may want to wait until your new flock members are about the same size before integrating.
• Show them the new source for food and water everyday so they can get acclimated to their new set up
• Watch for huddling - if the chicks spend most of their time huddled together, it’s too cold or too soon!
• If you free range, it might take about a week for them to learn to return to the coop at the end of the day. Keep an eye on where they wander so you can get that back safely each evening. 

Last step is to have fun making memories with your chicks and raising chickens! Check for more tips on raising chickens at helpinghomestead.com and don’t forget to sign up for free to find or provide sitting services near you.

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