Start Your Flock
From start to finish, your guide to chicken-keeping success.
From start to finish, your guide to chicken-keeping success.
There are many ways to acquire a small flock, and each has its advantages and drawbacks. Your choices may be affected by factors such as your location, how easy it is to find breeders or other chicken keepers, the breeds you want and your budget. This article will explore a few of the most popular ways to start a flock. As hatcheries are the easiest and most common way of purchasing chickens, we’ll start with mail-order chicks.
CHICKS
Of all of the ways to start a flock of laying hens, raising them from chicks is the easiest. When compared to other methods (such as hatching eggs or buying adults), raising a flock from chicks is less expensive and more reliable, has more guarantees and more breeds to choose from, and chicks are way cuter. No wonder the vast majority of chicken keepers start their flock from chicks. What’s more, the most popular way to get chicks is to order them through the mail from a commercial hatchery. Here’s how it works.
MAIL ORDER MAGIC
When flying on a plane, your journey has probably involved a combination of drowsy sleep and restlessness. Despite being crammed in this high-flying vessel for hours, you usually reach your final destination a little dehydrated, eager for a good meal and a warm bed. Otherwise, you’re none the worse for wear.
If you purchase day-old chicks from a hatchery, they undergo a similar travel experience before reaching your door. Luckily, they have you to greet them, ready to prepare their warm brooder and offer fresh water and healthy feed. This method of selling and shipping day-old chicks is rather old: The U.S. Postal Service has been shipping chicks through the mail for more than 100 years and shows no signs of slowing. The vast majority of birds ordered in this way arrive alive and healthy. This is possible for several reasons.
Before hatching, an unborn chick absorbs the yolk of her egg, giving her the strength to hatch
So you’ve done the research and determined that backyard flocks are legal in your town. You’ve chosen a few breeds and sourced a reliable vendor for quality feed and supplements. The equipment is purchased and standing by. Your coop is built and at the ready. There’s only one thing left to do: Add chickens.
and buying a few days’ time to remain under the mother without additional food. In nature, this three-day window allows time for the remaining eggs in the clutch to hatch. In the hatchery, this window allows time for vaccination, “packaging” and expedited shipment to you.
Knowing that this window is critical, many hatcheries plan shipments on Mondays and Wednesdays to reduce the chances of the chicks sitting at the post office through a weekend. They calculate projections of which birds will hatch each week, and based on those projections, the weather and a customer’s particular order, hatcheries will ship an order of chicks as close to your chosen delivery date as possible. To safeguard the sensitive chicks against the cold, hatcheries have several techniques they employ, such as adding “packing peanut” chicks (additional birds, usually males, to supply added warmth) or heat packs to the order.
Opinions abound about the chick-shipping process. Some long-time chicken keepers swear by it; others prefer not to support such large hatching operations for a variety of reasons. For some new chicken keepers, purchasing hatchery chicks is the only way they’re able to get started. Research the options in your area.
90 DAYS TO DELIVERY: RESEARCHING AND ORDERING
When planning a flock from mail-order day-old chicks, work backward. Several months before your preferred arrival date, pick up a catalog or browse the Internet for your hatchery of choice.
There are many available: Some specialize in rare or exotic breeds, while others promote heritage birds. Some hatcheries specialize in shipping orders as small as three to five chicks. Very rare or popular breeds will sell out quickly, so it’s best to order early.
Once you have decided on breed, consider if you would like your chicks “sexed.” Sexing, vent sexing, or simply venting is a service the hatchery offers on the chicks you purchase to determine if the bird is male or female. Trained specialists called chick sexers learn to look at the vent of a day-old chick for a small bump that may indicate gender. With about 90 percent accuracy, the odds are actually pretty good. However, that said, sexing chicks is more of an art than a science. To be prudent, have a backup plan should you accidentally get a rooster.
The majority of chicken keepers prefer females to males, so purchasing sexed pullets will come with a slightly higher cost. If you prefer not to pay the difference (or you’re up for a bit of a surprise), hatcheries offer chicks straight run. Straight run birds are unsexed, but you will undoubtedly receive a mix of male and female birds — the ratio typically runs around 50/50. Even so, these estimates are not guaranteed, so ordering chicks straight run is a little like playing the chicken lottery.
Next, you’ll want to decide whether to have your chicks vaccinated or not, and if so, for which diseases. Many hatcheries offer vaccinations for Marek’s disease, Newcastle and several strains of
coccidiosis. Decide before ordering, because most vaccines must be administered in the first day of life. Though vaccinations per chick may cost only pennies, do your research to decide if vaccinating is a route you want to take.
Now, it’s time to choose your delivery date. Hatcheries provide a delivery window of about a week. This window is partly determined by the availability of your breed in your chosen gender — females, of any breed, tend to sell out faster than males. Hatcheries do their best to estimate how many chicks will be available during any given week, but nothing can be guaranteed. Sometimes, eggs don’t hatch out as planned, or they underestimate a breed’s popularity. However, they’ll send updates as it gets closer to hatch date. Remember, the sooner you place your order, the greater the likelihood you’ll receive the chicks you want, when you want them.
HOW DOES SHIPPING WORK?
The U.S. Postal Service will determine how long it will take for your order to arrive; from there, a hatchery will determine a safe minimum number of chicks. The longer the travel time to your location, the higher your minimum of birds will be. Smaller shipments during the colder months may require purchase of a heat pack for added warmth. Large quantities of chicks shipped in the heat, on the other hand, are sent in multiple boxes to reduce body warmth.
A hatchery’s shipping department will examine the weather at their location and at the chick’s destination, and then pack them accordingly. Each individual hatchery may have a slightly different policy on shipping, so contact your chosen hatchery for details.
THE TIME OF THE SEASON
Spring’s mild temperatures make it the most ideal season for hatching and shipping chicks. Ordering early in the year allows chicken keepers to get eggs from their pullets before the year is out, too. Given that it takes about five months for a pullet to begin laying, many like to order their chicks in January or February for a spring delivery and late-summer eggs.
Though many hatcheries will ship yearround, autumn is another favorable time of year to receive chicks through the mail. Like spring, the fall can be relatively mild in most regions, reducing the chance of losing birds to either extreme heat or extreme cold. Of the two, cold temperatures are a chick’s biggest threat.
Traditionally, hatcheries have required a minimum of 25 birds in order to make a shipment. This magic number allows the dayolds to huddle together for warmth and produce enough heat to survive the journey. These days, hatcheries understand that 25 birds are a lot for the backyard hobbyist. As such, more hatcheries are offering smaller shipment sizes, such as 10 to 15, and/or supplemental heat packs for small orders at an additional fee.
PROS AND CONS
Ordering chicks from a hatchery can be a safe and efficient way to receive chicks, but there is always a chance that you will receive birds that were injured in transit, became ill or died during shipping. The process of travel can stress already weakened chicks, and some hatchery chicks almost always have pasted vents, a potentially fatal chick ailment. It’s best to be prepared for these scenarios and understand that death is a possibility if you buy chicks this way.
Buying through a hatchery allows you to try a variety of breeds and brood them all at the same time. It’s also quite convenient to pick the week you’d like to start your flock if you travel or have children. Unlike local breeders, most hatcheries will either replace the unwanted males you receive with females, or they will credit the purchase price. The same goes for chicks that do not survive travel or die within a day or two of arrival. Also, hatcheries offer vaccinations for day-old birds if that is a priority to you.
SHOPPING CLOSE TO HOME
If you would prefer not to have your birds shipped or would rather pick them out yourself, young chicks can also be purchased from local breeders or farmers.
To locate breeders in your area, check at your local feed and seed store (if there is one) and get recommendations. See who comes highly praised for healthy birds and good management practices. Another great place to look is online: Check chicken-keeping forums for backyard breeders and the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy for registered poultry breeders in your region. Be prepared to travel a bit to find quality breeders, and don’t expect that they will have a large variety of breeds when you get there. Poultry fanciers often focus on one or two breeds, preferring quality to quantity.
When inquiring about purchasing chicks from breeders, there are a few things you must learn before buying their birds, including:
Whether the chicks are sexed or straight run. Many breeders are unable to sex chicks, and by purchasing their birds, you may (and very likely will) end up with a few males. The same rules apply for hatching rates with breeders as with hatcheries — expect roughly a 50/50 ratio of males to females with all straight run chicks.
Whether the chicks have been vaccinated. Most vaccines must be administered in the first day of life to be effective, so it is up to the breeder to administer the inoculations upon hatching.
What management practices they follow. As with purchasing adult chickens, only buy birds from breeders or farms with good biosecurity measures in place. The coop shouldn’t smell, and birds should appear healthy, with bright eyes, combs and wattles. Wear shoe covers or change shoes between visits to different poultry establishments. Bring home only healthy chickens.
PROS & CONS
Buying your chicks locally reduces your carbon footprint and helps to support small local farms, breeders and businesses. Chicks purchased locally endure far less travel stress and are less prone to pasted vents (although it doesn’t entirely eliminate the chances). On the other hand, locally purchased chicks are rarely vaccinated and rarely sexed.
FARM-SUPPLY STORE CHICKS
The majority of chicks sold through large chain farm supply stores, pet stores, and feed and seed stores are purchased in large quantities from hatcheries and shipped to the stores (and thus, aren’t locally bred birds). Ask to see the paperwork that shipped with the chicks to establish their origin, confirm whether they are sexed or straight run, and determine whether they have been vaccinated. If you choose to purchase the chicks, ask for copies of the shipping information for your records.
PROS & CONS
Depending on the store, the origins of chicks can be a mystery. This is why it is important to see any paperwork that may be available. While these chicks are easy to come by and usually rather inexpensive, farm supply store chicks may have been handled repeatedly by customers (read: excited children), so watch for signs of stress and select the healthiest birds.
FERTILE HATCHING EGGS
Hatching fertilized eggs in a home incubator is an incredibly educational and exciting experience, for children and adults alike. Come hatch day (or days), you may experience sheer bliss as your new charges make their way into the world, or there may be heartbreak as some birds fail to thrive. Some eggs simply won’t hatch at all. Rather than feel discouraged about the reality of home hatching, carefully examine the many variables that go into hatching fertile eggs. If shipped, will they arrive intact? How many will successfully hatch? Of those that hatch, how many will be male or female? Preparing yourself for the many potential surprises that hatching can bring will help you find success.
Fertile hatching eggs are about as easy to come by as chicks. Local farms or breeders may be willing to sell fertile eggs from some of their birds. Be sure to ask if the breed of rooster that fertilized the egg was the same breed as the hen that laid it; otherwise, you may end up with “mystery” chickens of mixed breeds (which can be fun, too). Also, some of the very same hatcheries that will ship day-old chicks are able and willing to ship fertilized eggs for hatching.
Like chicks, shipping fertile eggs requires extreme care in transit, consistent temperatures and your availability at pick-up time. Even if the
shell appears intact and unbroken, the internal makeup of a chicken egg is rather delicate, and there’s always the risk of damage during shipment. In addition, hatching a healthy chick from a fertile egg requires precise temperatures, just the right humidity and sanitary conditions. Being off just a little can largely impact the egg’s viability. For these reasons, hatcheries simply can’t guarantee hatch rates of their fertile eggs.
Another variable that potential hatchers must face is that hatch rates can seem low to new chicken keepers: The hatch rate of shipped eggs is about 50 percent. This rate increases if you purchase the eggs from a local farm or breeder. Better yet would be fertilized eggs left under a broody hen to hatch naturally (and, thus, never moved). Before buying the eggs, thoroughly research how to incubate your own eggs and prepare for the work that goes into it.
The next variable is gender. Of the eggs that do hatch, expect some males. Despite the old wives’ tales about egg shape or time of year, there is no guaranteed way to determine the gender of a chick while still inside the egg. Keep this in mind if you aren’t able to keep or easily rehome any roosters.
The last consideration is cost. Monetarily, the cost for fertile hatching eggs is usually much less than purchasing adult birds but quite comparable to the cost of day-old chicks.
PROS & CONS
Hatching your own chicks in an incubator is all about mystery: You don’t know how many eggs will hatch, and how many will be male or female. When you compare how many shipped eggs successfully arrive and hatch at home to the low mortality rate of shipped chicks, the true costs seem in favor of starting a first flock from live birds. Simply put: Shipping eggs is a risky venture, and hatching eggs offers very few guarantees. Most new chicken keepers prefer to get started with healthy, live chicks the first time around and leave hatching adventures for further down the road.
FEEDING + CARE
However you obtain your chicks, your duties as “mother hen” remain the same: You’ll need to provide them with warmth, safety, shelter, food, water and diligent care. Though their adult counterparts are rather hardy, baby chicks need a bit of coddling during their first few weeks of life. They’re small, rather delicate creatures with very specific needs. Read on.
BROODING
Just about any secure vessel can double as a chick brooder: A large plastic storage bin, an old clawfoot tub, a kiddie pool or even a sturdy cardboard box will do the trick. The chicks won’t mind what the brooder is made from as long as it keeps them warm, safe, fits their feeder and waterer, and holds them all comfortably. From the get-go, make your brooder large enough for them to grow into but not so big that areas get very cold. A good rule of thumb is to give your chicks about 2 square feet of space per chick. It will seem like a lot of room at first, but they will grow into it.
Line the brooder with several inches of pine shavings. For the first few days in the new brooder, layer paper towels over the bedding to keep the chicks from pecking or eating the shavings. Once they have established the location of their food and water, remove paper towels. To ensure that the containers, and their contents, stay cool, don’t place feeders and water fonts directly under the heat lamp.
Like their adult counterparts, chicks scratch at their bedding and feed, kicking up a fine dust that will settle on every surface of the surrounding area. Keep the brooder out of places where food is prepared or stored. Garages, mudrooms or basements all make suitable shelter as long as temperature is accounted for. Sheds, barns or large chicken coops will also work beautifully as long as they meet the chick’s needs of safety and warmth, are free from drafts, and it’s easy for you to check on them several times a day. If you must brood your charges inside your home, choose a room that is easy to clean top to bottom, such as a spare bathroom or laundry room.
HEAT
Achieving the correct brooder temperature is likely the most critical element to successfully
rearing chicks. Not providing adequate heat could mean death. For the first week of life, chicks require their surroundings to be 95 degrees Fahrenheit; during the second week, they’ll need temperatures of 90 degrees; during the third week, 85 degrees; and so on. In other words, the ambient temperature should decrease by approximately 5 degrees per week until you reach 70 degrees, or until the chicks are fully feathered. Adolescent poultry can be moved to outdoor housing at this time as long as the nights remain above 55 degrees consistently in your area. (This is another reason to time your purchase of chicks for mild weather, such as the spring.) Most chicks are fully feathered and ready for outdoor living at five to six weeks of age.
The best method to heat a brooder is by using a poultry heat lamp with a 250-watt bulb. Even the new models sold today are rather simplistic. The heat lamp turns on by plugging in and has only one setting: on. To turn it off, simply unplug it. Coupled with an infrared 250-watt heat bulb and suspended above the brooder (either hung or clipped), a single brooder lamp will warm small clutches of chicks nicely.
Fortunately, if you need two, they’re very reasonably priced (about $12 per lamp). When shopping for a heat lamp, you may notice styles with and without a guard on the brooder: Always purchase one with a guard. If the lamp should fall into the brooder, the guard will protect the bulb from breaking and prevent the lamp from coming into contact with the bedding. Improperly installed heat lamps pose a fire hazard, so always follow the manufacturer’s recommendations for hanging or clipping. Some poultry supply catalogs also sell lamp stands for just this purpose.
Place a poultry-safe thermometer at chick height. The temperature inside the brooder is often affected by a variety of factors, such as its location (is it under a sunny window?), the opening and closing of doors, and the time of year. A brooder may heat up rather quickly in a small space, even with the lamp on the other side of the room. In a cold, drafty room, on the other hand, a few chicks may need two lamps. Using a thermometer eliminates guesswork.
Let the chicks be your guide. If they huddle together under the heat lamp, they’re probably cold. If they scatter to the periphery, getting as far from the lamp as possible, they’re too hot. Comfortable chicks will move evenly around the brooder, contentedly peeping, eating and drinking at their leisure. Even if the thermometer reads the correct temperature for their age, follow the chick’s lead and raise or lower the lamp accordingly.
FOOD
Chicks’ bodies are designed to grow incredibly fast, so they spend much of their time eating and sleeping. Within their first three weeks of life, chicks nearly double in size. In addition to growth, they are replacing their fluffy down with real feathers, which requires a substantial amount of protein and takes a lot of energy.
Keep feeders full at all times and refill as you check on the chicks throughout the day. The little eating machines may devour an entire feeder’s worth of food in a day or even in just a few hours, depending on the number of birds in the brooder. This is OK. Chicks will never overeat; they’re growing after all. Choose feed that is designated for their age, which is often labeled Starter or Grower. Medicated starter feeds also exist to prevent against coccidiosis.
WATER
The same rules apply for fresh water as for feed. Refill the water font as needed so that the chicks have access to fresh, unsoiled water at all times. You may find that the first place chicks learn to roost is on the top of the font, often soiling the water below. As with adult chickens, it helps to raise the feeder and water font to sit at the back height of the chicks. With rapidly growing chicks, reposition the font a bit higher each week. Landscaping bricks work perfectly for this purpose; they’re sturdy and not apt to tip. Finally, place a few marbles or clean rocks in the lip of the waterer to prevent drowsy chicks from falling asleep and drowning.
SAFETY
Chick safety falls into two categories: internal risks and external dangers.
Internal Risks. There are several areas of concern, including illnesses, such as coccidiosis, and other physical ailments, such as pasted vents. The parasite Coccidia, which cause the illness coccidiosis, may be treated preventively with either vaccination or medicated feed. Do your research and choose which, if any, you will administer to your chicks. If you decide to medicate, pick either the vaccine or the medicated feed, but not both: Used together, they will render each other ineffective.
Pasty butt, also called pasted vents, occurs when feces dry and cake over the vent, preventing the bird from passing more droppings. Pasty butt is rather common with day-old chicks in their first week of life, especially if they have been shipped through the mail. The name warrants a giggle, but unfortunately, pasty butt is no laughing matter.
Otherwise healthy chicks with unresolved pasted vents will certainly die. During the first week of life, check all chicks several times per day for pasted vents. If you encounter an afflicted chick:
1. Warm and wet a few old washcloths, rags or heavy-duty paper towels.
2. Move all chicks into temporary housing, such as a cardboard box (no need to heat it; they’ll only be there as long as it takes to check all the birds).
3. One by one, check each chick’s vent. If you see feces pasting the vent and blocking the hole, gently remove it with the washcloth. Take care not to pull on the downy feathers around the vent; a chick’s skin is thin and delicate.
4. Place each checked and/or washed chick back into the brooder. Repeat the process until you’ve checked all of the birds.
External Dangers. Small chicks are at risk for a variety of external dangers that include the cold, predators, overcrowding, environmental stressors and excessive handling.
• If the brooder is located in a barn, chicken
coop, shed or other outdoor structure, predatorproof it the way you would a coop.
• Like a coop, the brooder should have adequate
space for the birds to move about freely, reach food and water easily, and for submissive birds to seek refuge from alphas.
• Use red lightbulbs designed specifically for
poultry, often sold with other brooding supplies.
• Limit the handling of your chicks to just a
few times per day. Over-handling of young chicks, whose small frames are rather fragile, could cause undue stress or lead to irreparable injury.
IN THE BEGINNING
Baby chicks are pretty needy. Plan to clear your schedule for the first four weeks of chick rearing. As you already know, day-olds need constant food and water refills, bedding changes, vent cleaning (sometimes), daily checks (about five to six, roughly) and around-the-clock heat that changes slightly in temperature week-to-week.
To give them the care they’ll need in the beginning, postpone vacations or weekend getaways until they’re fully feathered and in the coop. And if you’re gone for long stretches of time during the day during that first month, enlist friends, family or neighbors to do chick checks or schedule visits during lunch breaks to see how they’re doing. Chickhood doesn’t last forever, but it’s a very important time in a chicken’s life.
Kristina Mercedes Urquhart writes for Chickens magazine and is the author of the book The Suburban Chicken. She lives on a homestead in North Carolina, where she grows her own food and raises livestock.