Raising baby chickens is a joy, especially for families with young children, but it requires care and preparation. Follow our suggestions below and the process will be fun and enriching, without too much mess or stress!
In the early stages of your chicks’ lives, they’ll require a great deal of your attention. There should be someone available to check in on the chicks at least 5 times per day, for the first few weeks especially. Depending on the time of the year you could use the garage or utility room to get the baby chicks started.
The next step is to make sure the chicks have a warm, comfortable environment to live in. Providing heat for baby chicks is particularly important. We recommend buying 125-watt infrared lamps. The first week, the chicks will require an ambient temperature of 95 degrees around the floor level under the heat lamp. Decrease the temperature by 5 degrees each week until your chicks are ready to move outside.
A good way to judge the ideal temperature is to observe the chicks in their habitat. Are they crowding under the heat source like they are too cold? Or are they avoiding the hot bulb and sticking to the outside area? Adjust the lamp accordingly.
Consider using pine shavings for the bedding of the habitat; newspaper can get slippery and can lead to leg injuries in your chicks. Feed is readily available at your local pet store, as well as feeders and waterers made especially for chicks.
Want to learn more about caring for your baby chicks? Check out our comprehensive care guide here!
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I have baby chicks and I got them from a market and I was wondering how do I know how old they are
never could find where to e-mail
you. small customer no roosters.
Want Buff Orpinton pullet Bantams
no day olds. small coop area and
no space enough for brooder. Wanted 6 or more teenage hens.
Well aware they will costmore.if
you can not,can you tell me where to go. saw your ad in
Chicken Wisper. Thanks.
Hi, you can email us anytime at cacklehatchery@cacklehatchery.com We do not really sell teenage hens. We mainly deal with baby chicks. You could try Strombergschickens.com
March 7, I had 30 chicks sent to me, hens. What I received was 5 easter egger roosters an 2 welsummer roosters. I had trust in the company, but now I didn’t. Quality control apparently is not a priority. I only wanted hens. I also bought 5 polish chicks, I had accepted a 50 50 chance to get a rooster or 2 but I got all hens . I had better odds of ordering unsexed chicks. From now on I’ll buy from the local farm supply, they might cost more but I’ll get what I paid for.
I’m very sorry to hear that. It is not a perfect science and at best we are only 90% overall, which is about the same everywhere you buy them….. Chicks from the feed store might be from us also and they are not going to be the ones who are sexing them by any means. We offer a 90% sexing guarantee and ask to be contacted within 12 weeks because if it did not fall in the 90% range (which your sounds like more around 76%) then we offer a refund or replacement depending on the number of birds.
what is the name of the song on your phone?
Free Range Chicken
you should have a thing for contacting you guys other then facebook and not everyone has a facebook and i need to talk to you guys about what its like to raise breeds of chickens
You can always call us at 417-532-4581 and we will be happy to answer any questions. We are not online based only.
i ordered 15 old english game chicks from cackle, you sent me 18, all arrived in perfect condition and are doing great. thank you … a satisfied costumer i will be ordering more. thank you .. wayne evans.
Thank you very much!
I bought 4 Pekins about 12 days ago. All are growing nicely except one. She’s still very small and eyes are not completely open. Anything I can do?
Hi I’m sorry that we did not respond earlier. I hope this duck did okay. If ever you have an issue please just call us right away at 417-532-4581.
I was wondering if I can use Quikrete Tubesand to use as a dust bath for my 2 week old chickens?
Thank You
That doesn’t sound like anything we would recommend using. I would say that wood ashes mixed with diatomaceous earth would be the best to use. I know this is a really late response. I’m very sorry for that.