Chickens are some of the easiest animals to care for. If you want to start providing your family with food but don’t know where to start? Start with a garden and some chicks. But if you’ve never had chickens before, you may not know what you need. This post is going to explain the 6 things you absolutely need when bringing home chicks.
Everything You Need To Bring Home New Chicks
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This week we brought home seven new babies to add to our backyard flock. Absolutely adorable, I can’t get enough of our sweet girls, and boys! Yep, we added some roosters to our flock.
Our friends so kindly incubated and hatched some of their eggs for us and we ended up with 7 chicks – we believe as of right now there are 4 girls and 3 boys. Although, that is bound to change as the true knowing of roosters is when they start to crow! Or, when they have very obvious features.
Bringing home chicks, it go me thinking that I would love to share some helpful tips on what you absolutely need when bringing them home.
If you are new to raising chicks, this post is for you!
In a short list, the 6 things you absolutely need for chicks are:
- A brooder
- Feeder
- Waterer
- Heat Lamp
- Bedding
- Chicken Coop
In detail…
Brooder
A brooder is what your chicks will live in for the first few weeks of being at home. Usually, they will be in this brooder for about six weeks or so or until they have their feathers and the weather is consistently at least 50/60 degrees.
A brooder is simply a temporary home that is used for the chicks to live in short term, and it does not have to be fancy. The main points when finding a brooder is that it is big enough for the chicks to grow in as well as tall enough when they start to jump.
Common brooders I’ve seen used are totes such as this or a stock tank such as this. I’ve also seen people use old rabbit hutches, dog cages lined with cardboard so they chicks don’t hop through, or it could be as simple as a cardboard box. However, if you use cardboard, when the chicks start to get messy, which they will, you will need to replace the cardboard if it starts to break down.
For us, we are using leftover material we had lying around and created a brooder in our garage. It is roughly about 3 feet high by 7 feet long by 2 1/2 feet wide, and butts up to the wall in the garage. It is not fancy, but it was free and is large enough for us to get in there with them, but will also help with not having to move them to a new brooder as they grow.
When they do start to jump around they may be able to get out, so when that time comes we will place some netting over the top.
Feeder
A feeder is simply the container that you put the chicks feed in. The first year we had chicks, we put their feed in a little Tupperware container and it was a mess! Sure, it was free since we already had it, and the perfect size for the babies. But they were constantly knocking it over and wasting food. This time we said we would spend the $12 and get the feeder lol!
It is important to note that you must feed your chicks starter feed. The starter feed as added nutrients to help the chicks grow into a healthy flock and they absolutely cannot have any scraps from the kitchen like older chickens can.
Waterer
Like the feeder, a waterer or is simply the container that you use to give your chicks water. I don’t recommend using anything but a designated waterer, otherwise you will be going through bedding like crazy from all the mess.
Heat Lamp
In the picture above, you can see we have a heat lamp also called a brooder lamp in the center of our brooder for our chicks. It is important when chicks are young to help keep their body temperature regulated as they do not have the proper feathers to do it themself.
When you first bring your chicks home, you will have to play around with the level of the heat lamp to see where they are most comfortable. If they are spaced out away from the lamp, it is too warm for them so you can move it higher. But, if they are huddled together under the light it is too far away and therefore too cold.
You want your chicks to be dispersed evenly around the brooder for that shows they are comfortable.
Bedding
Bedding is what is used on the floor of the brooder. We have only ever used pine shavings in our brooder as it is inexpensive and easy to clean out when it is time.
You can also use newspaper or paper towel as bedding, but eventually the best option is pine shavings. The bedding shouldn’t be harsh or too slippery for the chicks to sit or stand on. It should also be able to soak up messes.
Chicken Coop
The last thing that you absolutely need when bringing home new chicks, is a chicken coop.
The chicks won’t be out in the coop for a few weeks, but it is crucial to have a coop or at bare minimum plans in place. The chicks grow so fast and they cannot stay in the brooder, so before you even get chicks you should know what your plan of action will be.
The last thing you want are teenage chickens making messes and trying to fly around your basement or garage without a permanent home to move to. Yes, I am speaking from experience as we didn’t have our coop finished until the very last second due to weather and inexperience building a coop.
Now that you know the 6 most important things to have before bringing your chicks home, you can get ready to bring your chicks home!
Chickens are so easy to care for, and absolutely comical with their personalities. Yes, chickens have personalities and you will know what I mean when you have yours.
Not to mention, raising chickens is a great way to provide food for your family with very little work involved. Make to sure to feed, water, and love on your chicks and soon they will provide breakfast everyday!
Are you a beginner at raising chickens? Read this post next!
I sure hope this post was helpful in your journey in raising chicks and if you use my recommendations, please share this post, save it on Pinterest, and follow me on Instagram! Tag me with your chicks, I would love to see them!
Until next time,
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