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Chicks & Brooding

Once hatched, a chick has no need of food or water for 24/48 hours. The last thing it does before hatching is to absorb the yolk, giving it enough nutrition to be entirely self-sufficient for up to two days. It is for this reason that many commercial chicks are transported as day olds, allowing continuous journeys, where older chicks will require breaks for food and water. If you are lucky enough to see a wet chick emerge from the egg you will notice that it has an extended belly where the yolk has been absorbed in its entirety.

The newly hatched chick has no immediate need for food or water, but it does need a warm, moist environment in which to dry out and fluff up. Care also has to be taken for its siblings still preparing for the task of chipping out. They also need a warm moist environment to allow them to get out of the shell. If the surrounding air dries out, the inner membrane dries out and becomes a strong tough barrier, making it almost impossible for the chick to break out. If you notice chicks hatching with bits of dry shell stuck to them, raise the moisture level immediately. Continuously lifting the incubator lid to see how they are getting on will allow the moist air to escape and result in the later hatching chicks becoming imprisoned in the shells. Dead in shell chicks will result. There are many reasons for dead in shell chicks, but this is one that is completely avoidable.

When they first hatch they can lie immobile for long periods as they recover from the exertions of hatching. Wait until they are all fully mobile, dry and fluffed up before moving them to the brooder.

A brooder can come in any number of shapes and sizes, but the common factor is provision of a heat source, with food and water easily found nearby. Whatever the source of the heat, the chicks should be able to move away from it if they want to. An ‘electric hen’ type pad gives the chicks warmth and shelter underneath it. A protected heat lamp provides heat, but no shelter. The chicks need to be in an area large enough to house the heat source and keep the food and water in an area away form it. Chicks like warm water no more than you do.

They also need to be in an environment where they can distinguish night from day. A heat lamp in a permanently lit room, for example, will not allow them the night time rest and sleep that they need. A heated pad or ceramic bulb, both of which give off heat, but not light are best. Natural daylight in their surrounding environment will give them the best start.

Having decided on the type of heat source, attention needs to be turned to the container. It will need to have enough floor space to get away from the heat, so the floor surface is the next consideration. A flat, slippery surface is to be avoided at all cost. The chicks will slip and slide about and will be prone to ‘splayed legs’. One this happens it is very difficult to get their legs back into position and will result in the chick being culled out of kindness. Wood shavings on the floor will help, as will rubber matting, such as car mats for example. Most commercial brooders use a mesh floor, either plastic or metal and I have certainly found that this works best. Consider also the floor in the incubator used for hatching as this also must not be slippery. A newly hatched chick needs as safe an environment as possible.

Next, consider the sides of the brooder. At first the chicks will stay on the ground, but they will be growing feathers from day one and will soon be able to jump and flutter. An open box, or cardboard surround will work for the first week, but a lid of some sort will soon need to be found. The metal cages sold for dogs are ideal as a brooder.

Finally, find a good place to put the brooder. The downstairs toilet seems a popular option! It needs to be in a draught proof location, with a fairly constant temperature and access to light, preferably daylight. I keep mine in the summer house, which works well. When the chicks are ready to be transferred to the brooder make sure it is ready for them in advance. Heat lamps do not need start up time, but the heat pads do. Put the water and chick trough full of chick crumbs in the brooder and you are ready to introduce the chicks.

Introduce each chick individually. Hold its head between your thumb and forefinger with its body in your hand. This will enable you to dip its head into the water in the drinker as you introduce it to its new home. This makes it easier for them to find the water again. They should have a look around their environment after a few minutes and will peck experimentally at the chick crumbs. It usually only takes one to start and the others will follow. If they show no interest in the food at all, take pinches of it and drop it back into the trough. The sound and movement will soon attract their attention and curiosity will take over.

Chicks are attracted to the colour red, which is why most small plastic chick drinkers have a red base. It is best to get a chick trough for the chick crumb, rather than a bowl as the chicks will scratch in a bowl and fling the chick crumb all over the place. Unlike older hens, they will not clear up around the bowl and the food will be wasted. A chick trough has a bar section across the top which prevents the chicks from scratching in it. It also encourages a more orderly feeding time as each chick has a space to itself, rather than a free for all in a bowl.

It is best to raise the drinker and trough off the floor, especially if you are using wood shavings, as the shavings will end up in the drinker base and make it unusable. The same will happen to the trough. If you put the trough and drinker on big enough platforms even the smallest chick can jump up on to it. I use bricks to support the drinker and trough and they work well. The chick needs to be able to jump on the platform, as it will not be able to reach up to a raised drinker if it has to stretch up from the floor.

As the chicks grow the heat pad or lamp will need to be raised to take account of their growing height. Their behaviour will have told you at the outset where to set the initial height. If they are all huddled together under it, it is too high, if they are scattered away from it, then it is too low. Some heat sources come with adjustable heat and the same rule of thumb applies. Find the right heat where the chicks come and go with comfort, not too hot, or too cold or too squashed.

After 4 or 5 weeks the chicks will be very nearly fully feathered and almost ready for the big outside. Now is the time to wean them off the chick crumbs and on to grower pellets. These look exactly the same as layers pellets, so be sure to keep them in distinct containers once they are out of the bag! Start to mix the pellets in with the chick crumbs and reduce the chick crumbs accordingly. The pellets will be left in the trough to begin with, but hunger will get the better of them and they will eventually try them. Sometimes I have had to withdraw the chick crumbs completely and enter into a battle of wills over the pellets as the chicks resolutely refuse to try them. It only takes a day for them to change their minds!

Letting them go outside will depend on the time of year. At around 6 weeks they will be fully feathered and no longer need heat, so the lamp can be turned off. It is best to give them at least a week indoors without heat, even in the summer, to acclimatise them slowly, before putting them out. In the winter months you may have to keep them in even longer. This means you will have to plan to accommodate your chicks for anything up to 10 weeks. Chicks have terrific throughput and you may find the family complaining about the smell in the downstairs loo after a while, so it is worth giving their accommodation a lot of thought at the outset.