How to Raise Chickens: from the box to the brooder
*Disclaimer: The raising of chickens is habit-forming and has been found by many to be overwhelmingly addictive. Consider yourself forewarned.
Today’s post will be familiar to the few of you stalwarts who were with me back when HoH was still egg-toothed & barely cracking the surface. But I couldn’t leave last week’s argument for starting summer chicks without delivering some follow-up support for those just taking the plunge into the chicken habit.
Whether you’re jumping in now with a new flock or waiting until Spring circles back around, the fundamentals of brooder setup and chick husbandry remain the same. These essentials will help you prepare your brooder for your chicks’ arrival, and take you through what you’ll need to get them off to an optimal start.
The Brooder
Before you bring your peeps home, having your brooder fired up and ready for action will make the next 3 weeks of your life a whole lot more fun. And if you’re going to put in this kind of work, it dang sure better be fun!
The brooder is the very controlled environment (such as a large trough or sectioned-off corner of a barn) where your chicks will spend their first, fragile weeks; carefully tended until they are better equipped to fend for themselves. This stage of chicken-rearing is definitely the most labor intensive, but with a little preparation, can also be the most enjoyable.
It’s definitely my favorite.
Your brooder will serve as the nursery for your chicks until they are of sufficient size and development to move outdoors. Our brooder is actually a free-standing, shed structure that we converted soon after moving to the farmstead. If you are raising multiple batches of birds per year, having a dedicated space to brood them is a huge labor-saver.
Brooder Size
You can calculate the necessary space for your brooder by allocating roughly 6 square feet for every 20 birds. An aluminum water trough or plastic feed trough would both fit the bill for a flock this size. Here on our farmstead, we’ve typically brooded 100-300 chicks at a time, so we have a small outbuilding strictly dedicated to brooding chicks. Whether in a trough for 10 birds or a dedicated building for 500 birds, any size brooder can be sectioned for the first week to make the brooding area smaller while the chicks are tiny.
Brooder location
Drafts are the enemy when it comes to young birds. Your brooder will need to be located in an area that is protected from wind and downdrafts. A partial cover may even be needed to block downdrafts coming from through the opening of a trough.
Of course, your lovely chick haven will need to be in a predator-proof location, as well. And don’t forget about the less obvious predators, like rats, skunks, and your very own farm cats!
Bedding substrate
Chicks need to be D.R.Y. at all times. Few things can stunt the health of young chicks as devastatingly as a damp brooder. Flaky, light wood shavings (avoid cedar or any aromatic wood, as it can traumatize those tiny respiratory tracts) are my favorite bedding material, and they are easy to find in compressed bags at the feed store. We’ve also used dry rice hulls, which worked fine too.
Start with 2-3 inches of shavings on the brooder floor, depending upon how cold the ground beneath is. Each day, as the bedding becomes soiled, simply add roughly ¼ to ½ inch more shavings to the surface. The layers below will begin to compost and even produce some warmth from the underside of the bedding.
Heat source
Floor temperature is key. For the first 4-5 days of life, chicks are very limited in their ability to regulate their body temperatures, so they will need to have access to a floor temperature of approximately 90 degrees Fahrenheit. This can be measured by placing an inexpensive digital thermometer where your chicks congregate around the heat source. After the first 4 days, the temperature can be gradually decreased by a couple degrees each day.
There are many options for providing heat to your chicks–from thermoregulated floor plates to run-of-the-mill light bulbs, the possibilities are limited only by the imagination. The typical, red heat lamps produce a TON of heat and often make a small brooder too hot, so be careful to not place this type of bulb too close to the floor of the brooder.
My husband fashioned “hovers” for our brooder out of galvanized aluminum tubs. They can hold up to 4 light bulbs which can be turned on or off individually, depending on the heat required. We adjust the height of the hovers to regulate the floor temperature. The aluminum reflects the heat efficiently, so we get away with using the equivalent of standard, 75 Watt light bulbs—saving money on both the bulbs and the electric bill.
Feed
Did you know that chicks live off the yolk sac in their abdomens during their first days of life? How amazing is that!? That’s why they can be shipped across the country from a hatchery to your farm, sans food and water, and still pop out of the box like little daisies.
Nevertheless, the minute they come out of the box, your chicks will be ready to get their grub on! Choose a chick starter ration (either crumbles or cracked grains) made with nonGMO ingredients and probiotics, and without antibiotics. Lay newspaper or an old feed sack on the brooder floor, then pour the feed onto the paper. This is a great way to feed the chicks during their first 24-48 hours, allowing them easy access to feed without needing to navigate feeders.
Grit
Don’t forget the grit! Small rocks and silicates ingested by chickens essentially act as their “teeth” within their gizzard (aka. ventriculus or stomach). Thus, a chick (or chicken) without free access to grit will not digest their feed properly, and will have highly inefficient gut function. For small numbers of birds, you can purchase bags of commercially available grit.
If you have access to a clean creek bed, devoid of loads of pesticide run-off & pollutants, you can collect buckets of grit to take back to the brooder. Clean, natural creek sand & gravel is also full of beneficial soil microbes and minerals, which will help colonize your chicks’ intestines with appropriate microflora.
To start, simply sprinkle a thin layer of grit over the top of the chicks’ feed. After 3-4 days, they will be ready for a shallow pan or feeder filled with grit to graze upon as they please.
Water
Fresh water should be available at all times, and should be introduced right away. We’ve found the quickest way to get our chicks to drink is to dip the end of their beaks into their water as we unload them out of their shipping boxes. Small trough waterers are easy to find and use, but nipple watering systems are effective as well. If you are going to use the latter system, make sure to continue to allow access to at least one trough waterer while the chicks learn to drink from the nipple apparatus.
A bucket and a glass of wine
You did it!!! You’ve got your brooder dialed and it’s teaming with the future of your flock. Now grab a glass of wine, flip over a bucket for a seat, and enjoy the blessings of hard work & cheeping, new creatures.
Keep an eye out for a little Box-to-Brooder, back-pocket, time-saver tool for paid subscribers this week!