An Experts Guide to Raising Healthy Chicks (and Surviving Chick Days)

L. Holloway is an experienced keeper of chickens and other fowl who has spent nearly a decade educating others on their habits and care.

Whether you have dedicated yourself to extensive research before getting chicks, or unexpectedly found yourself the new owner of baby chickens with no idea what to do, getting baby chicks for the first time can be a daunting process. Not to worry, as caring for chickens is actually quite simple.

Baby chicks will need food, water, warmth, bedding, and security to thrive. They will grow quickly, so be prepared to transition them to a larger living space sooner than you imagined. If all else fails, do not be afraid to reach out to the chicken-keeping community for help. There are several helpful groups online, so check them out.

What You'll Need Before You Buy Chicks

Before you even go to the store or hop online to purchase your chicks, you need to have certain things prepared ahead of time.

How to Choose and Set Up a Brooder

• You should already have a brooder set up and ready to move chicks into as soon as you get them home. Brooders should be secure on all sides, top, and bottom. If your brooder is indoors, you will need to ensure household pets will not be able to access it or harm the chicks inside. If it is outside, you will need to secure it against predators both wild and domestic.
• Brooders will need to be large enough to accommodate the number of chicks you plan to raise until they are large enough to be transitioned to their permanent coop. A lid or cover on the brooder is crucial, even if you don't have pets who may threaten the chicks, because chicks are excellent jumpers and will be able to hop out of most containers by the time they are two or three weeks old.
• Your brooder should be something that will be easy to clean and access. Dust will be an issue, so do not set up your brooder near sensitive electronics. If you are setting up your brooder outdoors, consider the ambient temperature and overnight lows, as well as any challenges in running electricity to the brooder to operate a heat source.
• Your brooder will need a bedding material to absorb the moisture of your chicks' abundant poops. Pine shavings are a popular choice, but you might also opt for sand, pine pellets, corn cob bedding, or straw. There are pros and cons to all of these methods, so research and ask around to figure out what will work best for you. From personal advice, pine shavings and straw are a nightmare if they stray onto carpeting—and they will. If you are brooding your chicks indoors, avoid these materials. Sand may produce extra dust in addition to what the chicks already do, so plan for that as well.

Supplying Food and Water

• Chicks will also need appropriate feeders and waterers. To prevent chicks from kicking their waterer full of pine shavings, you might consider a horizontal nipple waterer. Horizontal water nipples can be purchased at a variety of online retailers, and can be used to convert a variety of containers into chick waterers, making them far more versatile than the traditional vacuum-style chick waterers.
• Chick feeders should be something they can easily reach, but that they cannot stand in and kick all of the feed out. For this reason, using a food dish as you would for a dog or cat isn't recommended. Chicks should be fed a commercially-produced chick starter for their first few weeks of life, then transitioned to all-flock or flock-raiser feed. Chicks should never be fed layer feed, as this feed contains supplemental calcium which can be harmful to birds who are not using the calcium to produce eggs.

Supplemental Heat Source

• One thing chicks need that adult chickens do not is supplemental heat. Heat sources are a tricky issue, because some can pose a fire hazard. Heat lamps in particular are extremely hazardous, even when used properly, so it is the advice of this author to avoid using them if at all possible.
• Alternatives to heat lamps include brooder plates such as the Brinsea Ecoglow or a "mama heating pad," which is essentially an improvised version of the brooder plate. Research your options thoroughly and choose the one that will work best for you. Remember in your planning that chicks will need a place to go in the brooder to cool off as well as a place to warm up. The entire brooder should not be kept at temperature for this reason.

Before you bring your chicks home, it is strongly recommended that you have your permanent coop built and ready to go. You may think you have time to finish the coop after you get the chicks, but you don't. You really don't.

What You Need to Know Before Purchasing Baby Chickens

Once you are ready to bring your chicks home, you have a few options as to how to go about getting them.

1. You might buy them from a feed or farm supply store, purchase them from a local breeder, or order them online and have them shipped to your post office. As with most things, there are pros and cons to each of these options. Buying from a feed store or ordering online means that the chicks will have to endure shipping, but since shipped chicks have to be NPIP-certified, you have some guarantee that they will have a clean bill of health when they arrive.
2. Local breeders can also be NPIP-certified, but you will want to request to see their certification if that is important to you. Independent breeders are not always certified, which does not necessarily mean their birds are sick, but you will want to know what you are buying before you buy it. Research common poultry ailments such as mites, lice, and chronic illnesses so that you can spot the signs in the stock you intend to buy before you bring them home.
3. Another thing you should research before purchasing chicks is the actual breed you are interested in. Look up photos of the breeds and color varieties you want to add to your flock so that you know what they look like as chicks. Look at more than just the color of the chick's down, including the color of their legs, whether or not they have feathered feet, crests, beards/muffs, or extra toes. Research what the common going rate for this breed is—for example, if you're looking for purebred ameraucana and don't want to be mislead into buying easter eggers instead, look at the price. Ameraucana will be much more expensive than their easter egger counterparts, which is an easy way to spot if you're getting the real deal.
4. It is also important to make sure you are getting breeds that are going to be a good fit for you needs. If you plan on keeping your flock confined, leghorns may not be a good choice, whereas if you plan to free range your flock in an area with a lot of predators, you will want to avoid silkies or polish. If you want fat hens that you could eventually butcher for meat, avoid lean mediterranean breeds or bantams, and if you want hens that will produce lots of eggs, avoid breeds offered exclusively for meat production.
5. Once you start shopping for your chosen breeds, you will discover the next hard truth of chicken ownership: It will be almost impossible to get everything you want on the first try. Prepare yourself mentally for the lack of instant gratification that will come with shopping for your dream flock. Hatcheries typically announce their availability for the upcoming season in December, so if you must get a certain breed, your best bet is to place an order and reserve your chicks at that time. Inquire with your preferred hatchery or breeder to find out when the best time is to reserve your chicks in order to get everything on your list.

What Kind of Chickens Do You Want? Labels, Terms, and Lingo

Once you are actively shopping for chicks, you may encounter several terms, phrases, or words you are unfamiliar with. To avoid costly mistakes, it's important to know what these words mean and plan accordingly.

Americana, Aricana, etc.

Although "ameraucana" and "araucana" are both actual breeds of chicken, they are quite rare. Ameraucana are presently available only from two established hatcheries: Meyer Hatchery and Cackle Hatchery. Araucanas are currently only available through private breeders. What most feed stores and hatcheries call ameraucana/araucana (often misspelled) are actually easter eggers. Easter eggers are still wonderful birds that will most likely lay blue or green eggs, but they are not a recognized breed, nor are they purebred. They are also much cheaper however, and so would make an excellent addition to most hobby flocks.

Cockerels

Young male chickens are identified as "cockerels". It is rare that you will see chicks labeled as such in a feed store, but cockerels can be ordered specifically through hatcheries.

Cornish Cross or Cornish X

When these cute, little fuzzballs arrive in a shipment of chicks, they don't look any different from the other cute little fuzzballs, but in just a few weeks they will will be fat and gnarly poop factories that do nothing but eat, grow, and defecate. Cornish cross are a hybrid variety produced for only one purpose: meat production. When you buy chicken meat in a store, cornish cross is what you're getting. Although they are often extraordinarily affectionate and docile chickens, their rapid growth means they suffer short lifespans even when they are not butchered for meat. Cornish cross, kept under ideal conditions, do not live much beyond a year of age and are poor layers even in the best of times.

Hatchery Choice

When an assortment says "hatchery choice" that usually means an assortment of all the extra chicks (sometimes sorted by sex, sometimes not) that had nowhere else to go.

Panfry or Fry Pan Assortment

Fry Pan assortments are a popular way for hatcheries to "dispose" of their extra roosters that hatch out. Although some retailers may label these assortments as "straight run" it's a fairly safe bet that all of the chicks in that assortment are male.

Pullets

Young female chickens are known as "pullets". Be aware when purchasing pullets that accuracy in sexing is about 90%-95%, so roughly 1/10 to 1/20 "pullets" will turn out to be a cockerel unless you purchase a sexlink breed.