Preparing for new chicks

Before obtaining your new chicks, you need to set up a brooding area for them. For a few chicks, a sixty watt light bulb for heat, and a large cardboard box will work. Be very careful that the light is out of the reach of the chicks, and cannot fall down and injure them or catch the bedding on fire. Line the box with an inch of pine shavings and then cover it with paper towels. The bedding is covered since baby chicks tend to view everything as potential food; the paper towels are used since they are not slick - a slick surface for baby chicks can cause permanent crippling and deformity. You will need a chick waterer and a chick feeder; both may be purchased at the feed store. You will also need chick starter, and a small amount of chick scratch, or regular hen scratch. Chick grit or clean sand are also good to put in the coop; chickens do not have teeth and use the gravel and sand they swallow to do their "chewing." Make sure that the starter you buy is appropriate for the kind of chicks you are raising - chickens being raised to lay eggs need one kind; special broiler cross chickens raised for meat need another, higher protein feed. Read the starter label for instructions on how to use the feed; the label will tell you how long the chicks should be on starter, and what feed they will need after the starter. Set up your enclosure, and use a thermometer to make sure that the temperature directly under the lightbulb is around 95 degrees; the chicks will also need cooler areas. Set the drinker in a slightly cooler spot. If you have purchased regular chicken scratch, whirl it in the blender to break the pieces down into a less coarse mixture. Sprinkle this and on the paper towels, just outside the hot area - but in the opposite direction from the drinker. For the first day, the chicks will eat only scratch; this helps prevent a problem known as "pasting" which can be fatal if it blocks the chicks from defecating. Now go pick up your chicks. Put them in the box and quietly observe them to see if they are comfortable. If there is loud, urgent peeping, they are too cold and the light needs to be lowered. If they move as far from the light as possible, or lie down and pant, they are too hot and the light needs to be raised. If they clump in a tight bunch under the light they are too cold. The ideal arrangement is that the chicks will sleep fairly close to each other in a ring around the light bulb - not piled up, and not all at the far ends of the brooder. This first night, leave them alone after ensuring their comfort. Leave the light on overnight; the heat from the lamp bulb is a substitute for the warmth from a mother hen. The next morning, place the feeder near where the scratch was placed the day before. Fill the feeder with your chick starter. Speak to them in a calm voice while moving around them; check their comfort.