Setting up the Chicken Coop

Now is the time of the year that tiny chicks are making their way into the homes, basements, and outbuildings of many a soon-to-be chicken farmer.

It is also time to learn what to do with those chicks in order to take proper care of them.

I talked about what breeds of chicks I prefer to get according to my needs, here. However, before those chicks make it to your home and you are stuck with them in your bathtub for lack of a better alternative, it is time to start planning a course of action.

Housing
Once the order for your new flock has been placed, be sure that you have a warm and secure area for them to live for at least 3-5 weeks. This can be a large box, an old washtub, an empty livestock waterer with a screen placed over it.

The screen serves two purposes: to keep the critters out, and to keep the chicks in as they grow. They will become very curious, and will try to hop out.

Water
Chicks drown very easily, so the best waterers to get are the type that screw onto a mason jar and trickle out only a little water at a time. These can be found at any local farm store.

As the chicks grow, at about 6-7 weeks, you can change the waterers over to shallow pans, never filling them with more than an inch of water at a time.

Once full grown, you can put up to three inches of water in the waterer.

Feeders
The best types of feeders that I have found for baby chicks are long, shallow, and have a bar running down the middle across the top of them. The bar keeps the chicks from hopping in the feed and defecating in it.

As they get older, you may wish to switch to a feeder with no top bar.

Once full grown, you can use a shallow, large pan for the feed so that the chickens are able to spread out a bit as they eat. Based on how many you may have in a flock, you may want to split the feed up into two pans.

As a point of reference, I have ten chickens and use two pans. This ensures that all of your happy chickens friends get enough food.

Feed
I use a special medicated feed for my just-hatched chicks. I do realize that there are different camps on this one, but I find it to be the best choice for our homestead. The feed is specially designed for chicks, and helps them get a jump-start towards a healthy life.

After the initial bag of medicated feed, I then use a grower mash for meat birds. This helps the chickens develop their meatiness.

For my future layers, I use a laying mash. This mash helps the hens ready themselves for producing wonderful, nutritional eggs. Hens should begin laying at 10-12 months of age.

You should be sure to purchase some small gravel for the chickens. Sprinkle it throughout the feed every once in a while. This gravel will make its way to the chickens’ gizzards, which serve as a type of stomach, digesting and grinding up the food. You can find this gravel at a farm store as well.

Coop
Coops can be made to fit your needs, as well as the needs of your chickens. Be sure that the sides are tall enough that the chickens do not fly out. If this is not possible, make sure that the coop has netting across the top.

A nesting box/roosting area will help your chickens feel safe and comfortable at night. I have found that although we have six nesting boxes for nine hens, they all cram into two of the boxes. They seem to like being all crowded together.

Make sure that they have plenty hay in their boxes so that they stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

I keep my chickens year round. This may be done as long as you provide a heat lamp for them if you live in a colder climate. They will usually lay from March through November.

Enjoy your happy, cheeping fluff balls while you can! All too soon, they will grow into gawky, gangly adolescents, and finally, plump, beautiful hens and roosters.

There is nothing more relaxing than watching your flock strutting, scratching the dirt, and enjoying their new home.

As Anatole France said, “Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another. ”

~Annie