How To Raise Chicks

Roosters are an essential element of your chicken flock after a SHTF scenario sets society back. Lots of people have chickens, but without a rooster your flock will only last for a few years. You will need a way to replace the chickens that have stopped producing. Chickens are born with only so many eggs available and nothing you do will increase that number.

Hatching your own chicks is your only option. For this you will need a rooster and having only one means you are always one disease or predation away from losing your entire flock.

Chickens are domestic animals and the instincts to raise care for their eggs and young properly has been breed out of the them. This is something to consider when selecting which breed. Some breeds are better than others at being a brood hen.

If you have a flock of chickens and notice which hens have the instinct to sit on eggs and guard the eggs then that/those are the hens you will want to breed. Over time hopefully these instincts can be strengthened in your flock.

Eggs take 21 days to hatch. Hopefully you can find a hen that you can leave the hatching too.

Once you have a hen that has successfully hatched her chicks you will be a bit more involved in successfully getting them to adulthood. This is not difficult thankfully. You will need a source of water that they can easily reach. They are smaller than adults so your normal water bowl may be a bit to tall for them. Make them one of their own.

The most difficult aspect is keeping them within a temperature range that will not kill them. Try to keep the temperature at 92 degrees F. So much warmer than is comfortable for you are I.

Once the chicks have gotten their feathers the temperature can be lowered over a course of weeks. After about 6 weeks from hatching external heat should not be required. Whilein the heat reducing phase reduce it about 1 degree every couple of days.

The temperature regulation is the most difficult aspect of raising your own chicks when you don't have access to modern tools such as special heat lamps and (gasp) even a thermometer.

Watch your chicks for signs of dehydration and pecking. Chicks can be cannibalastic!

Hatchlings the First Two Months

While young the chicks will also need more protein rich food than your adult flock. Give them a good start and you will be well on your way to a happy healthy flock.

But do not feed your chicks ground egg shells or ground up bone for the calcium as this could damage them. Save that for around the 5 month or older age.

For protien look to things such as meat, fish, maggots, insects and worms. They are just chicks so you may need to process some of this down to small sizes for their small mouths.

This isn't the only foods they should be fed but it should be delivered at a higher rate than normal. These foods are all foods that they will eat their entire lives but the form is all that will be different. Start with crumbles, then mash and then pellet sized morsals. Note as adults they will be able to break down foods into bite-sized morsals all by theirselves.

After two months mix in more and more foods such as clover, ground acorns and other such plant and vegetable matter. It is important to know that when the chicks are within the two to five months old age you don't want them on as high of a protein diet. High protien would be unhealthy because it will force them to start laying eggs when they are too young. Give them a few months and then they can have as much protein as they can scratch up.

It is ok to allow chick to forage and eat whatever they can catch. It is a natural behavior that should be encouraged as it will put less demand on you to supplement their foraging.

While not food grit such as sand is important for chickens old AND YOUNG. They eat it and use it to grind up their food after it has already been eaten. So mix in some sand with the chicks feed. Not a lot, think of it as seasoning.

Chickens lack teeth, and need to consume small pebbles to help them grind up their food; these pebbles are known as "grit." Baby chicks also need grit, however pebbles and rocks are too big for them to swallow initially. By adding sand, parakeet gravel or canary grit to their food, you can help ensure their ability to fully digest their feed. How Often to Feed?

Hope this helps. It should be a good start to a productive chicken flock!