Raising chickens has become a popular and profitable pastime for many families today. Not just for rural or country dwellers anymore, small chicken endeavors can be found in many towns and even cities.
Feeding is less important at this point. The first 3 days of a chick’s life it is still digesting the yolk. This is nature’s way of giving the chick time to learn to eat.
When raising chickens you must have a warm place for them to stay until they feather out. This can be a plastic storage container, a large aquarium, or a cardboard box. Use newspaper to line the bottom for easy and regular cleaning. They will need to be kept at 99 – 100 degrees Fahrenheit for the first week. Then you can decrease the temperature by 5 degrees weekly until you get down to 80 degrees.
Feed them a good grade of chick starter, which is ground corn and grains with vitamins and calcium, until they feather out and become big enough to eat regular chicken feed or pellets.
Raising chickens requires space both in a coop and in an outdoor pen. Each standard sized adult chicken will need at least four square feet of space. More is preferable. Cramped quarters lead to illness, squabbling, and nervous hens who won’t lay eggs well.
You may not realize how much wildlife you have around your home until the smell of fresh chickens you’re raising brings them out. Opossums, raccoons, skunks, rats, snakes, coyotes, and many other predators would love to feast on your lovely flock of chickens.
Keep your chickens safe from predators by:
Source: chickencoopplansonline.com/guide-to-raising-chickens
Starting Baby Chicks
If you order day old chicks from a hatchery to be shipped to you, the first care they receive is important to their development. Most post offices require that you pick them up since their vehicles for delivery are not climate controlled . As soon as you get them home open the box and hydrate them. Use Pedialyte for the first day to give them the best start.Feeding is less important at this point. The first 3 days of a chick’s life it is still digesting the yolk. This is nature’s way of giving the chick time to learn to eat.
When raising chickens you must have a warm place for them to stay until they feather out. This can be a plastic storage container, a large aquarium, or a cardboard box. Use newspaper to line the bottom for easy and regular cleaning. They will need to be kept at 99 – 100 degrees Fahrenheit for the first week. Then you can decrease the temperature by 5 degrees weekly until you get down to 80 degrees.
Feed them a good grade of chick starter, which is ground corn and grains with vitamins and calcium, until they feather out and become big enough to eat regular chicken feed or pellets.
Housing and Safety
If you get more than one rooster in your batch of baby chicken you will have to separate them before they become adults. Just because they don’t fight when they are young doesn’t mean it is safe to keep them together later . Once they become sexually mature they will injure each other, and if not separated, they can kill each other.Raising chickens requires space both in a coop and in an outdoor pen. Each standard sized adult chicken will need at least four square feet of space. More is preferable. Cramped quarters lead to illness, squabbling, and nervous hens who won’t lay eggs well.
You may not realize how much wildlife you have around your home until the smell of fresh chickens you’re raising brings them out. Opossums, raccoons, skunks, rats, snakes, coyotes, and many other predators would love to feast on your lovely flock of chickens.
Keep your chickens safe from predators by:
- Lock them up tight in the coop at night. A slide lock will not keep an experienced raccoon out. You may have to use a padlock.
- Even if the chickens are safe inside a coop at night, predators can dig under to eat their feed and contaminate it with infections. Worse, they may not be able to get back out and be waiting for you in morning. Using wire for a floor in the outdoor or run area of the chicken pen to discourage digging predators will keep your chickens and you safer.
- There are some LED lights on the market now that mimic the shining eyes of a dog or coyote at night that have been proven to reduce vermin.
- You local feed store may carry “fox pee” that you can sprinkle around the cage and coop to keep vermin away. It must be reapplied regularly.
Source: chickencoopplansonline.com/guide-to-raising-chickens
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