It's Time for Baby Chicks!

It's spring at The Fletcher Farmhouse and the farming stores are full of poultry! It's time for baby chicks and we are excited! We're sharing with you what we buy, why, and how we care for these little feathered friends.

What We Buy & Why

Let's start with my favorite, the Plymouth Rock Chicken. This spotted beauty is great for meat or laying eggs, but I have only ever used them for the brown eggs. They are my absolute favorites to see walking around the hen-house because of their unusual speckled look.

My next favorite are the Ameraucana chickens. Though I don't find them more attractive than another type of hen, their eggs are a bluish green color, which I love. We recently got a couple of Ameraucana bantam hens (I refer to them as "banties") and we get little bluish green eggs that are absolutely adorable. My friends get a kick out of me presenting them with these tiny beauties!

The Leghorn Chicken is one of our relatively new breeds. We only have one and she is a GIANT compared to the other chickens. She is kind of the brute of the hen-house. She lays a light brown, large sized egg. In fact, her eggs don't fit in the standard egg carton. She is by far our best producer of eggs. Leghorn chickens are also bred to do well in colder temps which is good considering the frigid temperatures we had this past winter!

How We Care for the Baby Chicks

When we first bring our baby chicks home, they stay in the house and in a warm place. We put them in a special wooden box my husband built and place it in the mudroom. We had to add a wire cover to keep out unwanted "friends" (the cats).

It is important that the new chicks have both a place to warm themselves and cool off when necessary. For this reason, we put a small heat lamp on one side of the box. On the other side, we have the water and food containers.

Cleanliness is super important, especially as they start getting a bit bigger. The smell is pretty intense if you leave the box unattended, especially if you have several hens. We use wood shavings from the pet store to line the box. These shavings get dumped and exchanged about every four days. My husband thinks that is a little too soon, but I just can't stand the smell! Yuck!

You also need to make sure the water and food stay clean. As the baby chicks start moving around more and especially when they get a little bigger, you may need to clean the food and water trays daily.

It is just fine to pick up and hold your baby chicks, in fact, I recommend it. We wanted to be able to catch our chickens with ease, so we held them and pet them a lot when they were chicks. My husband even trained one of the Bantam roosters to sit on his shoulder like a parrot!

How We Move the Chicks to the Chicken Coop

At about the age of 8 weeks, we move the box to the garage. This is a sheltered area, warmer than outside, but still helps them acclimate to the outdoor temps. They stay here for about 4 more weeks.

Then, it's time to move them to the chicken pen. They are still rather small and will be picked on by the older "ladies." We put our new chickens in a small, temporary, gated pen and place that pen near the chicken-house. Within a few more weeks, the new chickens are ready to be introduced into the chicken-house with the older hens.

What about you? What are your best tips for raising chickens? Please leave us a message in the comments below!

-Amie