Ok so you have hatched your chicks out and all seems well now you have to give them the kick start that they will need to live a long and happy life.

 

you will be amazed at just how fast your fluffy chick will grow and soon start to sprout feathers, but you have to start her off on the right footing, food, water and heat are the main things required.

 

Lets start with the heat, this is one of the most important things, she is going to have to be kept warm, the best thing for this is a heat lamp, this can be in the form of a quality brooding lamp or if you only have one or two chicks then a 60 watt light bulb will do the job, you have to make sure that the chicks don't have to fight for the heat. set your lamp about 18 inches off the ground and place a thermometer underneath, it might take a bit of raising and lowering but ideally you want a temperature of around the 95° F mark, if you can achieve this then alls well, we use a 250 watt infrared heat lamp and this gives us 95° F if we have it 18 inches above the chick, but you will have to give a bit of trial and error to get it right.

 

you will need to give them space to, enough room to wonder around and have a scratch and enough to get under the lamp when they are cold or to escape the heat when they are to warm, the ideal space for each day old is as follows :-

·  New born to 1 month - 1/4 square foot per bird.

·  1 month to 2 months - 1/2 square foot per bird.

·  2 months to 3 months - 1 square foot per bird.

·  3 months to 4 months - 2 square feet per bird.

·  4 months to adult - 3 square feet per bird.

 

So 20 day olds will need an area of approx 5 feet square not alot really but when your the size of a golf ball its huge, but remember that they grow so there space needs to grow to, at 16 weeks old those 20 will need an area of 60 square feet, something to remember.

 

Make sure that they have adequate ventilation but without cold draughts.

Fresh water should be given at all times, dehydration is a huge killer to newly hatched chicks.

 

Right lets have a quick look at food, the best food to give your new born has to be crumb, this can come in two forms, medicated or un medicated. Personally i choose the medicated chick crumb, this contains anti-coccidiostat. Why?

 

Coccidiosis in chickens can be a killer to very young birds, below is an extract i found explaining what it is:-

 

How to Know When Chickens are Infected?

The most easily recognized clinical sign of severe cecal coccidiosis is the presence of bloody droppings. Dehydration may accompany cecal coccidiosis.

Coccidiosis caused by E. tenella first becomes noticeable at about three days after infection. Chickens droop, stop feeding, huddle together, and by the fourth day, blood begins to appear in the droppings. The greatest amount of blood appears by day five or six, and by the eighth or ninth day, the bird is either dead or on the way to recovery. Mortality is highest between the fourth and sixth days. Death may occur unexpectedly, owing to excessive blood loss. Birds that recover may develop a chronic illness as a result of a persistent cecal core. However, the core usually detaches itself by eight to ten days and is shed in the droppings.

 

So that's why i prefer to use the medicated chick crumb, but the choice is yours. don't give your chick scraps, dinner craps should always be avoided as should things like cake and crisps, these have salt either in them or on them and this really isn't good for your birds. we boil up a mash of potatoes, cabbage, carrots rice and a few bits of fruit like grapes and give this to the adult birds in the autumn before they start their molt.

 

Right so we have the heat right the chicks are all eating well and there is a plentiful supply of fresh water, each week raise your lamp by about 2 inches, this will gradually reduce the temperature by about 5°F, keep this going until the temperature is about 70°F then your babies wont be babies anymore and they will be ready to go heat-less. If you are hatching in the winter i suggest that you leave the heat on for longer, especially if there is a hard frost.

 

When your chicks are big enough to take larger foodstuff gradually introduce them to things such as chopped corn, growers pellets, chopped maize and the odd cabbage leaf hung above them so that they can reach will keep them amused for hours.