Each year many people enjoy ordering chicks from a hatchery or purchasing immature chicks from a feed store. These chicks are raised primarily for home laying flocks. Some of these chickens are raised for the family table, while others are kept mainly every bit pets. Whatsoever purpose the developed chickens serve, special care must be given to immature chicks in order for them to survive and grow into healthy adults.
Care of Chicks
Chicks, or "biddies" are very frail and need special care in social club to survive, abound, and become productive adults. Thinking virtually what chicks need before they arrive will help ensure a good for you flock of chickens. Chicks need a make clean environment that protects them from drafts and keeps them at the proper temperature. Their environment must provide them with constant access to food and water; it should take proper flooring material, and be located in a safe place away from predators. A brooder is usually used to provide all of these necessities for the chick, especially in tardily winter and early spring when almost people obtain chicks and temperatures are however cool.
Brooder Requirements
Brooders tin can range from a commercially purchased metallic or wire brooder (see Figure one) to a paper-thin box equipped to handle chicks. Brooders should keep out drafts, especially for immature chicks. They should have side walls or a draft shield at least 12–eighteen" tall to keep the wind off the young birds.
Figure ane.Wire brooder, light on. Credit: UF/IFAS
Brooders should continue chicks at the proper temperature. Newly hatched chicks need to be maintained at 95°F for the get-go week of their lives. After the first calendar week, chicks can tolerate temperatures 5°F cooler for each week until they are iv weeks former. In other words, 1 week former chicks can tolerate 90°F and ii week old chicks can tolerate 85°F. The easiest way to heat a bootleg brooder is with a light bulb or heat lamp (run into Figure 2). Suspend the heat source over the eye of the brooder. Find the chick' behavior to get the brooder temperature right: they volition huddle up in the center straight under the heat source if the brooder is too cold and move to the edge of the brooder away from the rut source if it is also hot. When the brooder is at a comfortable temperature, the chicks will move about freely throughout the bachelor infinite.
Effigy ii.Oestrus lamp. Credit: UF/IFAS
Whether it is a cardboard box with a lite or heat lamp or a commercially purchased model, a brooder has to be able to keep chicks at the proper temperature. Pay careful attention if y'all are using a cardboard box and oestrus source to make certain the seedling is at a safe distance from the box so as non to start a burn.
Flooring is of import in a brooder to continue the chicks anxiety and legs healthy. Wire floors are skillful because they allow waste material to drop through. Rice or oat hulls, finely basis corn cob, or wood chips other than cedar make good bedding material. Any shavings need to be at least one to two inches thick. You can start chicks on newspaper for the first day or two and spread their feed on the paper to teach them how to eat. After that, dispose of the newspaper and use some other floor, equally the flat paper on a hard surface tin cause feet and leg problems subsequently on. Likewise, newspaper holds moisture and if not removed volition cause problems with odors and bacterial growth.
Space Requirements
Chicks should be able to move about comfortably and have access to feed and water free choice. A good rule of thumb is a half square foot of space for each chick for the kickoff two weeks. Grown chickens need at least ane.5 square anxiety of floor space in a coop, or about 8 square feet in an outside run or chicken yard. Grown hens demand 6–ten inches of roost space each if roosts are used.
When Chicks Arrive
Chicks can survive upwards to two or iii days without eating or drinking right afterwards hatching because they are able to utilize the nutrients remaining in their retained yolk sac during this time. This is how hatcheries tin transport chicks all over the land with little or no mortality. When chicks get in, they volition be thirsty. It is extremely of import to make certain each chick gets a good beverage of water upon arrival. Water should be available to chicks at all times. It is optional to add ¼ to ½ cup of sugar to one gallon of water to give chicks upon arrival to boost the chicks free energy level if they appear lethargic. Also one teaspoon of antibiotic powder especially labeled for chicks and bachelor at about feed stores can be added to water if the chicks appear unthrifty upon inflow. As chicks are removed from the aircraft box, dip their beaks in the h2o to encourage them to potable (see Figure 3).
Figure 3.Chick h2o fount. Credit: UF/IFAS
Later on each chick has taken a drink, innovate feed. I method is to besprinkle chick starter on newspaper to encourage chicks to peck at it. In addition fine grit can be added to the feed in a 1:ten ratio.
Lookout the chicks carefully for almost an hour to be sure they are finding h2o and beginning to swallow. Notice how the chicks are reacting to the oestrus source. Accommodate the calorie-free or oestrus source accordingly. To prevent chicks from pecking each other some people use a red light bulb, available at almost feed stores.
Feeding Chicks
The easiest style to feed chicks is to provide them with a pre-mixed commercial chick-starter, bachelor at any feed store, which should exist about xx% rough protein. These feeds are usually medicated. Exercise non feed iii-grain scratch or ground corn. Chicks need more protein, vitamins, and minerals than these feeds tin provide. Feed a good commercial chick starter for the first vi-8 weeks. And then switch to a craven grower feed from 9–xx weeks. At xx weeks of age switch chickens to a laying feed, such equally laying crumbles or mash. Split up roosters and hens at this fourth dimension if the goal is a home laying flock.
Every bit previously noted, 1 can start the kickoff meal on paper, and once chicks learn to eat, introduce a feeder (see Figure 4). Brand sure the feeder is large enough that each chick has a place in the "pecking order". Chicks should e'er have a constant supply of feed and water available to them.
Figure 4.Chick feeder. Credit: UF/IFAS
Keeping Chicks Healthy
Providing the correct temperature, typhoon protection, a consummate well-balanced feed and clean water will go a long manner to keeping chicks healthy. Brooders should be cleaned daily and also kept as dry as possible. Chicks need draft protection, but proper ventilation during the heart-searching period is very of import.
Raising chickens can be an enjoyable way to enjoy ones holding, too equally a way to provide eggs and meat for the table. A good for you flock of chickens begins with healthy chicks. If you accept any questions about chicken or chicks, please contact your county extension office for more than information.
Publication # AN-170
Date: 9/26/2019
Decubellis, Chris
Program Area: Animal Systems
About this Publication
This certificate is AN-170, one of a serial of the Department of Animal Sciences, UF/IFAS Extension. Original publication date July 2007. Visit the EDIS website at https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu for the currently supported version of this publication.
About the Authors
Christopher DeCubellis, Extension agent 2, four-H Youth Evolution, Department of Animal Sciences, UF/IFAS Extension Gilchrist Canton, Trenton, FL 32693.
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