Raising Baby Chicks: Beginners Guide to Chick Care

This beginner’s guide to raising baby chicks will give you the information and confidence you need to bring your own chicks home for the first time.

Raising baby chicks for the first time might feel a bit scary, but I promise, it’s much easier than you think.

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Buying Baby Chicks

The first step in raising baby chicks is deciding things like how many to buy, choosing the right chicken breed for you and your family, and where to buy them from.

Sounds simple enough, right?

Well, it can be, if you know all the options to make choices that are right for you!

How Many Baby Chicks Should You Start With?

Choosing how many chicks to start with is the most crucial step in starting your chick journey.

If you’re looking to raise chicks into laying hens, you’ll want to think about how many eggs per week your family will use. Different breeds will lay different numbers and colors of eggs, so the ultimate number will depend on the breed, and how many of them you have.

Most chickens lay between 4-6 eggs every week.

Our family uses about 2-3 dozen eggs per week in a normal week, so in theory, we would need a minimum of about 9 chickens if they laid 4 eggs per week each.

I usually round up because… well… chicken math! And during the winter, they tend to slow down or stop laying, so adding an extra chicken or two can help make up for that.

How to Choose Baby Chick Breeds

Chicken eggs vary depending on the breed of chicken that lays them.

Chickens like White Leghorns lay large white eggs up to 6 every week! They are a heavy egg production bird that lays consistent white eggs.

However, if you are wanting a colorful egg basket, you might consider breeds like Americanas, Copper Marans, Welsummers, or Barred Rock chickens.

Keep in mind that many chickens known for colorful eggs, lay slightly fewer eggs per week at a rate of about 3-4.

Depending on how you’d like to balance your egg basket, between colors and production, you’ll need to research which breeds will work best for you.

If you are wanting egg layers, stay away from straight run chicks as these will include both male and female chickens. Instead look for chicks labeled as pullets.

Buying Baby Chicks from Local Farms

If you live in a rural area, you might have great luck finding baby chickens quite affordably from local farmers.

Local farms are a great place to buy chicks if seeing where your chicks come from is important to you.

Check out local facebook groups and even the classifieds to connect to a local farmer who has chicks for sale.

Buying Baby Chicks from Hatcheries Online

Buying chicks from hatcheries online is extremely convenient if you are looking for particular chicken breeds.

Most online hatcheries prioritize quality stock that will meet breed standards. If you are hoping for a colorful flock of unique chicken breeds, buying online might be the best choice for you.

We buy all of our meat chickens from Meyer Hatchery online every year. The chicks come to our local post office for us to pick up on a date we set ahead of time.

Buying Baby Chicks from Feed Stores

If buying from a local farm or a hatchery seems intimidating to you, check your local feed store like Rural King or Tractor Supply if you’d like to go check out chicks in person.

It’s pretty convenient to have feed, supplies, and chicks all in one place if you’re just getting started. Especially if you prefer the in-person shopping experience.

The downside to buying from a feed store is that stock is often limited. There aren’t always many different breeds to choose from at once, so you might have to make a few trips. You can also call ahead for the list of chicken breeds they have at any given time.

Setting Up a Chick Brooder

Chicks need a clean, dry, safe place to grow when they are just tiny, day-old balls of fluff. You’ll want an area that is protected from threats like house cats or other pets, as well as keeping them contained and warm.

A feed trough or plastic tub that accounts for the space your chicks need works well.

Provide bedding on the floor of the brooder for your chicks like pine shavings to keep things clean and dry. These shavings are great to use as compost later, too!

We’ve even built a makeshift box out of scrap plywood.

If you’re wanting something you can purchase and set up right away, a brooder like this works great as well!

How Much Space do Chicks Need?

When raising baby chicks, you need to consider the amount of space they need to be happy and healthy.

Day-old chicks need fairly minimal space. Unless you want to swap brooders to larger sizes as they grow, it’s helpful to calculate how much space they’ll need at their largest size.

Each chick needs about one half square foot of space during the first week of their life.

As they grow, they’ll need almost one square foot of space per chick before moving outside.

Where to Set Up a Chick Brooder

Setting up your chick brooder with proper supplies is important, but where should you set up the chick brooder?

Consider any outside threats like pets (if indoors) or predators (if outdoors). Animals like rats, snakes, raccoons, or opossums are all interested in baby chicks as snacks. Even pet cats and dogs pose a threat. Remember chickens are prey animals.

Because the temperature of the brooder is important, you’ll have an easier time managing that in a room, or area, that is close to ambient temperature. (68-70 degrees)

We set up our chicks in our basement in the spring where it is cool, but not as cold as the outdoor temperature. This gives our heat source a chance to keep up with the temperature chicks need. Because it’s inside, we also don’t worry too much about protecting them from predators while they’re in the brooder.

How to Raise Baby Chicks

Now that you know what you need for your chicks, learning how to raise baby chicks is quite simple.

Feeding Baby Chicks

Chickens are omnivores meaning they eat both plant material as well as meat or bugs if given the opportunity. Chicken feed provides a complete diet while the chicks are young which makes things easy.

You’ll need to provide your chicks a starter feed (also sometimes labeled a starter / grower feed), as well as a feeder like this to eat from.

Baby chicks need at least 18% protein in their feed, but if you can find a feed with closer to 20%, that would work even better.

Food for Baby Chicks

When choosing a feed for young chicks, look for one labeled as a “chick starter” feed. This will be in a “crumble” texture for their tiny beaks. As they enter the layer stage, they’ll be able to eat pelleted feeds instead.

Chick starter feed is often 18-20% protein, while a layer feed is a lower protein ratio of only about 17%. They need that extra protein as babies that are getting bigger, as well as growing their feathers.

Water for Baby Chicks

Clean water should be supplied 24/7 for chickens, including during the chick stage. Fresh water is crucial for their digestion and hydration.

Be sure to keep your chick waterer clean and free from bedding. It’s a good idea to create a small platform in your brooder to keep the waterer up out of the bedding.

We make a small frame out of scrap wood with the platform itself made out of a piece of welded wire screen so that as the chicks walk up to the water, the bedding is able to fall through before ever reaching the water. This is a game changer for keeping the waterer clean.

Another way to support your young chicks is adding 1 tsp apple cider vinegar to 1 gallon of their water to support their digestion. The vinegar will also help keep the waterer clean and free from algae just a bit longer than without.

Be sure to use a plastic waterer if adding apple cider vinegar, as using a metal one with vinegar can cause rusting.

Grit & Supplements for Baby Chicks

Providing grit like this is important for supporting the digestion in baby chicks. Chickens don’t have teeth and so they don’t chew their food. Instead, they eat grit or rocks or sand to grind the food within their digestive tract.

Baby chicks also really enjoy fresh grass and plant material from time to time! This can help get them ready for outside food, too!

Common Issues When Raising Baby Chicks

Unfortunately, when raising baby chicks, you might run into a few problems that you’ll need to solve to get them back on track.

Pasty Butt

Pasty butt is a common issue in baby chicks where their poop sticks to their vent, blocking their ability to further eliminate waste. If left untreated, their digestion system will remain blocked and eventually can kill them.

Pasty butt is caused by:

• Stress
• Improper temperature
• Digestion issues
• Parasites or sickness

The most common cause of pasty butt that I’ve experienced are issues with my temperature, and issues with their digestion.

If I notice pasty butt on any of my chicks, the first thing I do is adjust their heat (read the brooder temperature section above for more tips).

The second thing I do to fix pasty butt, is supporting my chicks diet and digestion. Be sure that there is enough grit and that it is easily accessible to the chicks. Consider adding apple cider vinegar to their water as well.

An added step that can be helpful is providing a fresh forage like a small handful of grass for the chicks to pick and scratch through.

Once you find a chick with pasty butt, they should be cleaned immediately. If the blockage is still wet, it can be gently wiped off easily with paper towels.

However, if it has dried to their vent and feathers already, it will need to be softened with water before gently wiping it away.

Once clean, dry the chick gently and place them back in front of the heat in the brooder.

Note: do NOT try to pull off the dried poop from the chicks vent. It can cause permanent damage or death to the chick.

Lethargic Chicks or Chicks Not Eating/Drinking

Like pasty butt, chicks can be thrown off quite easily by improper conditions in heating or feed/water. These three are the most important part of a chicks life at the start. Balancing these first will solve most problems.

If a chick is found lethargic, first, assess their temperature. Next, assume that the chick is struggling with dehydration. Try to provide adequate hydration to them by offering water.

In severe cases, a q-tip can be used to drop small amounts of water into the chick’s beak.

If you need to hand feed a chick for their water, add a bit of honey for an energy boost.

Sometimes, unfortunately, despite our best efforts, chicks do die. It is always sad and disappointing, but remember that it is a part of keeping and caring for animals. Try to learn from every loss to improve your animal husbandry and success for the future.

Most importantly, don’t give up.

Female Vs Male Baby Chick Behavior

Once you’ve begun watching your chicks grow up, you might start to notice some pretty big changes!

As chicks grow, they will spend less and less time under their heat source. They even start growing feathers and combs and wattles (the red fleshy parts on their heads and chins).

You might even be wondering why one or two of your chicks is a bit different than the others…

Sometimes, despite buying female chicks, you might have ended up with a baby rooster, too! These differences will become more apparent as they grow to several weeks old.

Roosters may:

• Have shorter wing feathers than their female brooder mates.
• Have larger wattles and combs.
• Act more assertive trying to dominate the other chicks. Keep an eye out for pecking or kicking from one chick compared to the others. Especially around resources like feed, water, or heat.
• Once mature, will even begin to crow that classic cock-a-doodle-doo.
• Some chicken breeds have distinct differences in feather patterns and appearance between roosters and hens, so consider researching your specific chicken breeds for these patterns and changes.

Transitioning Baby Chicks Outside

Once your baby chicks have gotten some feathers, they’ll begin to be able to regulate their own body temperature without a heat source. Most laying breeds will be ready to transition from the brooder to the outdoor coop between 6-7 weeks of age.

If you are transitioning chicks outside during the spring months and the temperatures are staying relatively mild, it’ll be even simpler.

If you are using an enclosed coop, you can place the brooder into the coop without the heat source for a day or two so that only the temperature is changing, but their surroundings, food, and water stay the same.

Next allow them to explore the coop freely for another day or two, but have them sleep inside the brooder at night for security and familiarity.

Once they’ve done this without issue, you can remove the brooder completely, but consider leaving the chick food and water in the same place the brooder was before you removed it so that they know where to find it.

When your chicks are used to the coop, the temperature, and finding their food and water without the brooder, you can begin introducing them to an outdoor run space next. Follow the same considerations of exposing them gradually and things should go smoothly.

Be sure that they are safely closed in at night no matter what, though.

How Long Does it Take for Chickens to Lay Eggs

Most egg laying breeds of chickens begin to lay eggs between 18-22 weeks of age (about 4 months old or so). This might sound like a long time, but keep in mind, a chick has to reach full size, successfully move into a coop environment, grow feathers, and have adequate nutritional stores to produce your fresh eggs for you! So in the scheme of things, this time will pass in a flash.

Chickens typically lay regularly for the first 5 years of life, and will continue to lay for up to 10 years. Production will decrease after the first 3-5 years, but you can expect to enjoy eggs from your feathered friends for a full decade if you wish.

How Long Does it Take to Raise Chickens for Meat?

If you are looking to raise meat birds, read my post on raising meat chickens for more specific information.

Raising baby chicks for meat is very similar, but there are just a handful of key differences that are worth learning there.

Either purpose you have for your chicks is a valuable food source for your homestead!

If you have any further questions, please leave them in the comments so that we can have a discussion for everyone!

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