Brooder Space
A brooder is the space in which young chicks are raised until they have enough feathers to keep themselves warm. A brooder should provide adequate space, a reliable heat source, protection from predators, be free from drafts and offer good ventilation. Brooders come in many styles, and will depend on how many chicks you plan to raise, as well as how often you anticipate raising chicks. Large cardboard produce boxes, like those for watermelon and pumpkins, can be obtained for free and used one season, while a plywood or metal brooder box can be built or purchased to last for many seasons of chick raising. The location for your brooder should be indoors, although best not in a living area as chicks generate a large amount of dust over the time they are in the brooder. A utility room, garage, shed or barn can all be successfully used for brooding chicks if the above components are properly addressed.
Some examples of successful brooders include metal stock tanks, extra large cardboard boxes, and wire topped plywood boxes. We don't recommend plastic totes for more than a week or two at most. They tend to be too small, hold moisture, lack adequate ventilation and get overheated too easily. The size of your brooder needs to increase as your chicks grow. They need room to move and exercise, and to be able to stretch out and sleep. If the brooder is getting dirty very quickly, they need more space. If they start running out of food and water, they need larger feeders/waterers and that also requires more space. If they exhibit any bullying towards each other, they need more space and environmental enrichment. Adding three dimensional space as they grow, such as branches or roosts to the brooder, is a great way to increase the available area for your chicks, as well as giving them things to do to relieve boredom.
Brooder Heat
Chicks will need a constant heat source until they grow their feathers at around five to six weeks. While one can use a traditional heat lamp, we recommend the safer and more natural method of brooding with an electric brooder plate. This heated plate stands on four adjustable legs and mimics the heat of a mother hen, while also allowing the chicks to experience a natural light cycle. It is also much less of a fire hazard than a traditional high temperature heat lamp, and uses much less energy. Another heat option is called a hover plate. These are large radiant area brooders that hang, or hover, over the chicks and is ideal for brooding birds in the same place, like a large coop, that they will grow to maturity. An older version of this type of brooding setup is called an Ohio Brooder. Directions for these old farm standbys can be found online.
Normal guidance is to start brooding temperature at 95 degrees F. the first week of a chick's life, then decrease it by five degrees each week until the brooder temperature is the same as the ambient air. Whatever heat source you chose, it is vital that you watch the chicks body language for information on whether the temperature is good for them. Chicks that are not warm enough will crowd near the heat source, peep loudly and may exhibit sticky bottoms due to diarrhea. They will pile up in an attempt to stay warm, especially as night nears, and may actually smother each other. Chicks that are too warm try to move away from the heat, spend less time eating and grow more slowly. They may pant and crowd to the brooder's edges. Chicks that are just right will wander freely throughout the brood area, peep softly to themselves and sleep sprawled next to each other, not piled.
Bedding
We recommend pine shavings as bedding for your new chicks. It should be about 1-2 inches deep in order to provide good footing and ample opportunity for scratching and dusting behavior. Change any bedding as needed to keep the brooder dry and as clean as possible. Do not brood chicks on newspaper or other slick surfaces as it can lead to difficulty in standing for the young birds.
Food and Water Containers
Chicks need chick-sized food and water containers. Food containers should not allow the chicks to walk through the food, as they will soil it. Waterers may need to be elevated, such as on a brick or block of wood, in order to keep the chicks from kicking pine shavings into them. Even with that precaution, you will end up needing to change the water several times a day to keep it clean. As your chicks age, their feed and water containers will need to get larger as well. Chickens of all ages should be able to feed as a flock all at the same time. Limiting feeder space leads to birds monopolizing the feeder and not allowing weaker birds access to food.
Selecting Feed
Chicks need to eat "Chick Starter". This is a finely ground, high protein food mix that meets their rapid growth needs. Excellent brands of organic chick starter are available from local/regional companies such as Scratch and Peck out of Bellingham and In Seasons Farms from British Columbia. For heritage and standard bred birds, a protein level of 22%-24% is best in a starter, with a minimum level of 20%. We don't recommend feeding medicated feed, which has additives to help prevent coccidiosis. By merely keeping your brooder clean and your chicks' water fresh and free of manure, you should be able to avoid undue exposure to this pathogen.
Feed is purchased at most local feed and farm stores. With all types of feed, you will need to make sure that your birds always have access to a clean, ample water supply. You will also want to start providing your chicks with chick-sized grit. Since birds don't have teeth, they need to ingest small stones in order to properly digest their food. Chick grit can be purchased at the same feed stores at which you purchase feed. While adult birds will eat grit alone as they need it, chicks do best initially if you sprinkle small amounts on their food as if you were salting it. After a week, grit can be offered in a separate container and chicks will take what they need. You will want to provide feed and grit full time and free choice to your chicks until they are fully grown.
In addition to their basic feed, chicks can be offered small bits of greens, small worms and other bugs from the garden after they are fully acclimated to their new home. But at this stage, consider those like dessert, not the main course. Starter feeds contain everything chicks need to survive and thrive, and filling them up with too much other foods can throw off their nutritional balance.
Keeping Them Healthy
Happy and healthy chicks will be active and eat heartily. They will be quiet when they are sleeping, talk softly amongst themselves when content, and peep loudly when cold, lost or lonely. Watch their behavior in order to gauge how comfortable they are and whether their brooder is comfortable for them. Baby chicks can be fragile, so make sure to limit the amount of time they are handled for the first few weeks and only allow children to have supervised access to them.
Predators come in many shapes and sizes for chickens of all ages. Even indoors, household pets can be a risk so limit access by dogs and cats to the brooder area. Once chickens reach adult size, most cats are not a hazard. However, dogs need to be properly socialized and monitored to ensure they don't follow their natural instincts to chase and capture a swiftly moving chick. If brooding your chicks in a shed, garage or barn be sure to contain them in a rat proof enclosure. Rats have killed many a brood of chicks and protection must be offered until the young birds are fully feathered and roosting at night.
Common signs of illness include listlessness, fluffed feathers, sitting hunched with eyes closed, poop encrusted vent and diarrhea. All these indicate a need for a quick response to determine the cause of the illness and treatment. Environmental stress is the primary cause of illness and death in young chicks, which is why temperature control, eliminating drafts, keeping a clean brooder and always ensuring a clean water and food supply is critical. Shipped chicks, which includes those found in feed stores and ordered online, are at a much higher risk of experiencing these factors and should be watched very closely. Locally sourced chicks from responsible breeders should not only have a health guarantee, but should prove to be more robust than those spending three days being shipped across country.
One very important word of advice is for all members of the family to thoroughly wash their hands after handling the chicks or cleaning their brooder. This advice should be followed throughout the bird's lifetime.
Moving Outdoors
By the time your chicks are fully feathered and roosting they are ready to move out to the chicken coop. There are a number of variables that should be considered. Ambient air temperatures are best if mild. The coop should be draft free and predator proof, yet have good ventilation. The chicks themselves should be feathered, and not still sporting tufts of down. Their backs, necks, heads and under their wings are feathered. For most chicks, this will occur around 8 weeks of age. In some situations they may move outside sooner, such as having their heat plate with them should they feel chilled. In some situations they may need to stay inside longer, such as during cold wet weather. In any case, monitoring their behavior will help you determine how they are faring. When moving outside, it is a good idea to confine them solely to the coop for several day/night cycles. This helps them learn where to sleep at night and orients them to the inside of the coop. Once they are released into the enclosed run, having this familiarity with the sleeping space will help them know where to go as night begins to fall. Even so, make sure to check them in the evenings to ensure they have returned to sleep in the coop. Developing the habit of sleeping outdoors is both dangerous for the chicks, and inconvenient for flock keepers.
Good Book Resources
Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow
The Small Scale Poultry Flock by Harvey Ussery
Chicken Health Handbook by Gail Damerow
A brooder is the space in which young chicks are raised until they have enough feathers to keep themselves warm. A brooder should provide adequate space, a reliable heat source, protection from predators, be free from drafts and offer good ventilation. Brooders come in many styles, and will depend on how many chicks you plan to raise, as well as how often you anticipate raising chicks. Large cardboard produce boxes, like those for watermelon and pumpkins, can be obtained for free and used one season, while a plywood or metal brooder box can be built or purchased to last for many seasons of chick raising. The location for your brooder should be indoors, although best not in a living area as chicks generate a large amount of dust over the time they are in the brooder. A utility room, garage, shed or barn can all be successfully used for brooding chicks if the above components are properly addressed.
Some examples of successful brooders include metal stock tanks, extra large cardboard boxes, and wire topped plywood boxes. We don't recommend plastic totes for more than a week or two at most. They tend to be too small, hold moisture, lack adequate ventilation and get overheated too easily. The size of your brooder needs to increase as your chicks grow. They need room to move and exercise, and to be able to stretch out and sleep. If the brooder is getting dirty very quickly, they need more space. If they start running out of food and water, they need larger feeders/waterers and that also requires more space. If they exhibit any bullying towards each other, they need more space and environmental enrichment. Adding three dimensional space as they grow, such as branches or roosts to the brooder, is a great way to increase the available area for your chicks, as well as giving them things to do to relieve boredom.
Brooder Heat
Chicks will need a constant heat source until they grow their feathers at around five to six weeks. While one can use a traditional heat lamp, we recommend the safer and more natural method of brooding with an electric brooder plate. This heated plate stands on four adjustable legs and mimics the heat of a mother hen, while also allowing the chicks to experience a natural light cycle. It is also much less of a fire hazard than a traditional high temperature heat lamp, and uses much less energy. Another heat option is called a hover plate. These are large radiant area brooders that hang, or hover, over the chicks and is ideal for brooding birds in the same place, like a large coop, that they will grow to maturity. An older version of this type of brooding setup is called an Ohio Brooder. Directions for these old farm standbys can be found online.
Normal guidance is to start brooding temperature at 95 degrees F. the first week of a chick's life, then decrease it by five degrees each week until the brooder temperature is the same as the ambient air. Whatever heat source you chose, it is vital that you watch the chicks body language for information on whether the temperature is good for them. Chicks that are not warm enough will crowd near the heat source, peep loudly and may exhibit sticky bottoms due to diarrhea. They will pile up in an attempt to stay warm, especially as night nears, and may actually smother each other. Chicks that are too warm try to move away from the heat, spend less time eating and grow more slowly. They may pant and crowd to the brooder's edges. Chicks that are just right will wander freely throughout the brood area, peep softly to themselves and sleep sprawled next to each other, not piled.
Bedding
We recommend pine shavings as bedding for your new chicks. It should be about 1-2 inches deep in order to provide good footing and ample opportunity for scratching and dusting behavior. Change any bedding as needed to keep the brooder dry and as clean as possible. Do not brood chicks on newspaper or other slick surfaces as it can lead to difficulty in standing for the young birds.
Food and Water Containers
Chicks need chick-sized food and water containers. Food containers should not allow the chicks to walk through the food, as they will soil it. Waterers may need to be elevated, such as on a brick or block of wood, in order to keep the chicks from kicking pine shavings into them. Even with that precaution, you will end up needing to change the water several times a day to keep it clean. As your chicks age, their feed and water containers will need to get larger as well. Chickens of all ages should be able to feed as a flock all at the same time. Limiting feeder space leads to birds monopolizing the feeder and not allowing weaker birds access to food.
Selecting Feed
Chicks need to eat "Chick Starter". This is a finely ground, high protein food mix that meets their rapid growth needs. Excellent brands of organic chick starter are available from local/regional companies such as Scratch and Peck out of Bellingham and In Seasons Farms from British Columbia. For heritage and standard bred birds, a protein level of 22%-24% is best in a starter, with a minimum level of 20%. We don't recommend feeding medicated feed, which has additives to help prevent coccidiosis. By merely keeping your brooder clean and your chicks' water fresh and free of manure, you should be able to avoid undue exposure to this pathogen.
Feed is purchased at most local feed and farm stores. With all types of feed, you will need to make sure that your birds always have access to a clean, ample water supply. You will also want to start providing your chicks with chick-sized grit. Since birds don't have teeth, they need to ingest small stones in order to properly digest their food. Chick grit can be purchased at the same feed stores at which you purchase feed. While adult birds will eat grit alone as they need it, chicks do best initially if you sprinkle small amounts on their food as if you were salting it. After a week, grit can be offered in a separate container and chicks will take what they need. You will want to provide feed and grit full time and free choice to your chicks until they are fully grown.
In addition to their basic feed, chicks can be offered small bits of greens, small worms and other bugs from the garden after they are fully acclimated to their new home. But at this stage, consider those like dessert, not the main course. Starter feeds contain everything chicks need to survive and thrive, and filling them up with too much other foods can throw off their nutritional balance.
Keeping Them Healthy
Happy and healthy chicks will be active and eat heartily. They will be quiet when they are sleeping, talk softly amongst themselves when content, and peep loudly when cold, lost or lonely. Watch their behavior in order to gauge how comfortable they are and whether their brooder is comfortable for them. Baby chicks can be fragile, so make sure to limit the amount of time they are handled for the first few weeks and only allow children to have supervised access to them.
Predators come in many shapes and sizes for chickens of all ages. Even indoors, household pets can be a risk so limit access by dogs and cats to the brooder area. Once chickens reach adult size, most cats are not a hazard. However, dogs need to be properly socialized and monitored to ensure they don't follow their natural instincts to chase and capture a swiftly moving chick. If brooding your chicks in a shed, garage or barn be sure to contain them in a rat proof enclosure. Rats have killed many a brood of chicks and protection must be offered until the young birds are fully feathered and roosting at night.
Common signs of illness include listlessness, fluffed feathers, sitting hunched with eyes closed, poop encrusted vent and diarrhea. All these indicate a need for a quick response to determine the cause of the illness and treatment. Environmental stress is the primary cause of illness and death in young chicks, which is why temperature control, eliminating drafts, keeping a clean brooder and always ensuring a clean water and food supply is critical. Shipped chicks, which includes those found in feed stores and ordered online, are at a much higher risk of experiencing these factors and should be watched very closely. Locally sourced chicks from responsible breeders should not only have a health guarantee, but should prove to be more robust than those spending three days being shipped across country.
One very important word of advice is for all members of the family to thoroughly wash their hands after handling the chicks or cleaning their brooder. This advice should be followed throughout the bird's lifetime.
Moving Outdoors
By the time your chicks are fully feathered and roosting they are ready to move out to the chicken coop. There are a number of variables that should be considered. Ambient air temperatures are best if mild. The coop should be draft free and predator proof, yet have good ventilation. The chicks themselves should be feathered, and not still sporting tufts of down. Their backs, necks, heads and under their wings are feathered. For most chicks, this will occur around 8 weeks of age. In some situations they may move outside sooner, such as having their heat plate with them should they feel chilled. In some situations they may need to stay inside longer, such as during cold wet weather. In any case, monitoring their behavior will help you determine how they are faring. When moving outside, it is a good idea to confine them solely to the coop for several day/night cycles. This helps them learn where to sleep at night and orients them to the inside of the coop. Once they are released into the enclosed run, having this familiarity with the sleeping space will help them know where to go as night begins to fall. Even so, make sure to check them in the evenings to ensure they have returned to sleep in the coop. Developing the habit of sleeping outdoors is both dangerous for the chicks, and inconvenient for flock keepers.
Good Book Resources
Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow
The Small Scale Poultry Flock by Harvey Ussery
Chicken Health Handbook by Gail Damerow