My children are learning how to raise baby chicks at home this summer. 

About a month ago, we visited a spring plant sale in our home of Gainesville, Florida. We recently moved out vegetable and herb garden to the front of the house and expanded our butterfly garden to about twice the size, so we wanted to purchase more native plants at the sale. Well, Alachua County 4-H just happened to be there, and they just happened to have a large box filled with baby chicks. The kids after coming back from the buddle nurseries of course fell in love with the chicks and had to have them. We didn’t adopt any that day, but I told them we would think about it. Well, two weeks later, we officially became the owners of {parents to?} three baby chicks, about a month old.

 

Our Chicken Family

The chicks are named Rosey, Jack Jack, and Stormy. The chicks actually came from Alachua County Schools. The eggs were hatched in incubators and given back to 4-H to find homes for them. Richard and I decided to buy a pattern off Etsy to build a coop and visited The Repurpose Project to purchase used wood and other supplies. The weather has been terrible, raining on and off for a week or so, which means we haven’t made much progress on the coop, but as soon as we do, I will share it with all of you.

 

The Basics to Raise Baby Chicks

So you’re probably wondering… How do you raise baby chicks in your home? Well, in part, we are figuring this out as we go. But we have also read a lot on the internet, asked the 4-H employees, and got some help from friends who have raised chicks. Here’s what we are doing so far:

1. Chicks need a large bin with tall sides. Even at a young age, they can jump out of a bin if the sides are not tall enough, so make sure it’s a big one! 
2. Chicks need bright light 24/7. We have an infrared heat lamp that a friend let us borrow that attaches directly to our large bin. We leave it on around the clock.
3. The large bin needs pine shavings on the bottom, about 2 inches high. We change the shavings out every other day. 
4. Chicks need a food container and water container. They need to be filled once a day, and they often fill their water and food with the pin shavings, so they will also have to be washed out often. There is special chick food available at feed stores, so just ask for help if you need it.
5. Chicks like to move around, so we let them run around our sunroom well-monitored a few times a day. They do poop/pee a lot, so I highly recommend keeping a package of sanitary wipes around to clean up after them.

That’s basically everything required to get started. The actual care takes maybe 15 – 20 minutes a day, so it’s pretty basic. They do chirp lightly when they’re not eating/sleeping, but I think it’s kinda cute. We won’t know if they are male or female for a while still, but since we only want hens, we will have to find a proper place to bring the rooster if we have one. The 4-H club said they can replace our chick if that happens so that we can maintain three of them. They do like to cuddle a lot, so it’s best to keep them in groups of three. They will begin laying eggs at around 6 months of age, and they should lay one a day, so I look forward to lots of fresh eggs this fall.

Have you raised baby chicks before?
If so, do you have any tips?

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