5 tips to raise happy, healthy baby chicks

It’s that time of year – you are starting to see displays at local feed stores advertising chicks.

Or maybe you have decided to raise your own egg-laying chickens in response to higher egg prices at the grocery store.

Regardless of your motivation, there are a few things you should know before you buy chicks.

Greg Archer, Ph.D., associate professor and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service poultry specialist in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Department of Poultry Science, has some tips to set you up for chicken success.

Tip 1: Do your research before you go

Before you even go to the feed store or local hatchery, it’s best to do your homework and know your end goal for your chicks. Do you want laying hens for eggs? Will you raise them so you can eventually process and eat them? Or do you want them just for the sake of having chickens?

Different breeds of chickens are known for different things. Some will lay more eggs than others, while some will lay brown or blue eggs instead of white eggs. Some breeds will grow to be larger chickens and require more feed when fully grown.

Doing a little homework on which breed will best serve your purpose may save you some headaches in the long run.

Tip 2: Pay attention and ask about the health of the chicks

Once you know what variety you want, buy chicks that appear healthy. These will be the ones that are active and running around. Pick up the birds and make sure they don’t have feces stuck to them. This could be an indicator that they are ill or may have issues later.

Ask the feed store or hatchery if the chicks have been vaccinated for Marek’s disease and fowl pox. Some hatcheries vaccinate for these diseases while others do not. It’s best to know if you will need to vaccinate them yourself.

Buying chicks from a reputable source will reduce the risk of buying unhealthy birds.

Tip 3: Decide how many hens and how many roosters

It is important to know the sex of the chicks you are purchasing, although this is sometimes difficult.

A pullet is a young female chicken, less than a year old. After a pullet reaches a year of age, they are then known as hens. A young male chicken is known as a cockerel. Once they are older than a year, they are known as roosters.

Some feed stores have chicks separated into pullets and cockerels, but be aware that the occasional incorrectly sexed chick may be mixed in.

You can also purchase sexed chicks straight from a hatchery, but even then you may get more than what you were expecting. Hatcheries generally have a minimum number of chicks required to fill a box when shipping them. If you do not order enough pullets to fill a box, the hatchery may fill it with cockerels.

While free chicks may seem like a good deal, that is not always the case. In some breeds, roosters can be aggressive toward people and pets. They also do not serve as protection for hens like some people think. And, you only need a rooster if you want fertile eggs to raise chicks.

If you have a rooster but do not wish to raise chicks, collect eggs frequently. With a rooster present, the eggs will be fertilized, and as they are warmed, embryos will begin developing. Collecting eggs within the first 24 hours they are laid will help avoid any unpleasant surprises when you crack open an egg for breakfast.

Additionally, a proper ratio of hens to roosters is important. You need one rooster per 10 hens. If you have more roosters than that or not enough hens per rooster, the roosters will overbreed your hens. A good way to monitor this is to watch the feathers on your hens’ backs. If they start to lose feathers and you have a high ratio of roosters, that is a sign they are being overbred.

Tip 4: Plan for both short-term and long-term housing

Housing needs for your chicks will change as they get older. Chicks need to have a place to stay warm, but they also need a place they can come and go when they get too hot.

Some people keep chicks in a feed trough or large cardboard box with a heat lamp while they are small. Lining the bottom of the trough or box with wood shavings, sawdust or other appropriate material will help. They need to be kept warm for the first few weeks, ideally between 80-90 degrees.

A chick can’t regulate its own body temperature, so they get cold in drafty areas. One of the fastest things that will kill a chick is if it gets cold. If a draft is blowing on them regularly, they will get chilled and die.

Once chicks start to grow feathers, you can start letting them go outside, especially as temperatures begin to rise. Regardless of their enclosure area, they will need shelter so they have a place to go during inclement weather and an area to nest and lay eggs.

Confining your birds at night in a sheltered area, like a chicken coop with an area where they can roost off the ground, will help keep them safe. Just like we enjoy eating chicken, so do coyotes, raccoons, opossums, snakes and hawks. Enclosing them in some sort of structure overnight is the best way to protect them from these predators.

Maintaining a clean coop environment by removing litter buildup is also important to reduce the risk of health issues.

Tip 5: Understand nutritional needs and types of chicken feed

When you first bring your chicks home, immediately offer them clean water as you do not know how much water they were drinking before. If you feed them before they drink enough water, you risk the dry food building up in their systems, causing them to become impacted and die.

When your chicks are small, use small waterers and feeders for them. These should be sized up appropriately as your chicks grow.

While chicken are omnivores and can eat anything, feed formulated for their stage of development is advised, as well as medicated feed to treat chicks for internal parasites. Most of the balanced rations you buy at the feed store are probably the best to feed them, even when they’re adults. Chickens are great for getting rid of your old vegetables or table scraps, but that alone doesn’t provide them with enough nutrients, especially if you’re wanting to get eggs out of them.

Free range birds will feast on bugs and grass, which is perfectly normal, but they still need feed to ensure they are getting proper nutrition.

Some people think they can just feed chicken scratch because that’s what their grandma did back in the day, but that’s not enough. It actually says on the bags of scratch to make sure that it doesn’t account for more than 10% of their diet.

Have feed available to the birds at all times, but let the feeder go empty once a week before refilling to eliminate the possibility of feed getting old and moldy.

General recommendations when buying chicks

If you are getting chicks for the first time, you can let them all run together without issue. However, if you already have an established flock at home and are looking to add to it, don’t mix birds of different ages. Sometimes they’re fine if you do, and sometimes if you mix chicks in with adults, the adults may kill the chicks. Chickens are omnivores after all.

New birds should also be quarantined from an existing flock for three weeks to avoid unintentionally introducing a disease or intestinal parasite to your flock. Keep an eye on your chicks and adult chickens to ensure they are healthy. If your birds are lethargic or have feces beginning to build up, those are signs something may be wrong. Have a health plan in mind for when such things occur.

Not all vets will treat chickens as it requires additional schooling. Contact your local AgriLife Extension agent or the Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory for help in finding a vet to treat your birds.

Biosecurity is important to consider when buying chicks and raising backyard chickens. It is one of the best ways to protect your flock from outside pathogens. Practicing biosecurity measures like having a dedicated pair of shoes for the coop area and washing your hands before and after interacting with your birds will protect your chickens and yourself. 

“All in all, chickens are enjoyable creatures to have around, but they aren’t as easy as people think,” said Archer. “You’ll figure stuff out as you go, but it’s best to be a little prepared going in.”

The department has resources available online to help you raise chicks and backyard chickens successfully. For questions about chickens and other poultry, contact the Department of Poultry Science at 979-845-1931.