Beginner's Guide to Raising Chicks

I don’t claim to be an expert on raising chickens (the first night I had my girls, I kept asking my husband every 10 minutes if he thought they were all right).  However, I have discovered that there are some important things you need to have when you bring those cute little balls of fluff home from the farm supply store. 

 

 

Here is my current must-have list:

1.      A large container.  Right now I’m using a Rubbermaid tub from Home Depot.  The walls are very tall in comparison to the width of the box, so the chicks won’t be able to jump out for a while (I hope).  Eventually the chicks will need more space, but right now they’re doing well.

2.      Bedding material:  The feed supply gave me a huge bag of lovely sweet-smelling wood shavings. 

3.      A small water dish:  I got a large water container from the feed store (the red and white dispenser above) , but it was way too big for such tiny babies and their cozy box.  So right now I’m improvising and using a glass snack container.  It is short enough so the chicks can get the water easily.

4.   Food dish:  This has been my biggest frustration.  Like the water container, I got a container that will work really well in the coop once the chicks are grown up, but it was ridiculous in the current box I’m using.  So, I tried a plastic one-cup container that is used for freezing jam.  That was ok, except the chicks liked to sleep in it and occasionally stood on the edge and tipped all the food out.  Then I tried an ordinary saucer.  That worked for about 5 minutes.  The chicks scratched all the food onto the floor of their box and then pooped all over the plate.  Ewww!  So my current solution is a plastic sandwich container sans lid, with a rock in it to keep it from tipping over.  So far so good.
 

5.      Chick food:  I got 25 pounds of what the feed supply recommended—the medicated kind.

6.      A heat lamp or warm place to stay:  Ordinarily, I would use a clip-on shop light to keep the chicks warm.  However, we’re having a mini-heat wave in Northern California, and there has been very little need for any extra heating devices.  I do have lamp I can use if I need to.  My chicks are already two weeks old, so they are not as cold-sensitive as they were.  Hopefully I won’t need to use it. 

Last but not least, I have a chicken coop ready to go when the chicks are old enough.  For me, that was the most important part.  I'm ready to go!

 

Raising Laundry Room Chickens

Uh…I meant to say…backyard chickens.

Except mine are currently living in my laundry room, since that is the warmest room in our house.  It makes a good brooder.

Yesterday, I got four two-week-old balls of fluff from our local feed store.  The store said they will grow up to be Rhode Island Reds, which are good, reliable laying hens.  I really hope they are all girls.  Knowing me, I’ll be attached by the time I can tell what their gender is, and will be heart-broken if I have to give away a little teenage rooster.   Hopefully that will not happen.

I planned on getting chicks as soon as we moved into our new house, but 3 ½ years later, I was still feeling nervous about it.  Making the decision to get chickens was a difficult one for me.  I was so concerned that I would somehow not provide a good home for them.  I can never take on an animal without thinking of all their needs, the responsibility of caring for them all their lives, and of course, every possible thing that could go wrong.  I wish I could be a little more spontaneous about getting pets, but that’s just not me.  If I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it well, and I’m going to worry about it the entire time.

<Sigh>

Anyway, my parents (probably realizing that my feet-dragging was getting in the way of what I really wanted), graciously got me a starter chicken coop at Christmas time.  And, seven months later, I got the nerve up to assemble it and put it in my garden.  Isn’t it cute?

 

So, now I have a coop in my garden and chicks in my laundry room.  I raised chickens when I was a teenager, so it’s not completely new to me, plus I have researched a lot online for the past few years.  I still feel like I have no idea what I’m doing.  But the chicks survived the night and are acting like normal birds, peeping, strutting, scratching, and stretching their tiny wings.  So I must be doing something right. 

They’re adorable now, but I’m really looking forward to putting them in their new chicken coop.  That just seems where they belong. 

Not in my laundry room!