Anyone Can Raise Chickens
(Page 2 of 6)
December 2008/January 2009
By Harvey Ussery
The brooder must prevent direct drafts (which would chill the chicks) but allow fresh air to circulate through.
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Cover the bottom of the brooder with loose, absorbent material such as straw, wood shavings (kiln-dried, not “green”), or shredded cardboard or paper. A slick surface such as sheets of newspaper or cardboard can cause leg problems, especially in ducklings and goslings.
Be sure the area in which you set up the brooder — basement, garage, barn or other outbuilding — is secure against pets, rodents, snakes and other predators, any of which could devastate your helpless brood.
Water and Feed
Remember, you’re the mama. The first thing to teach your babies is how to drink. As you take each chick out of the shipping box, dip its beak into the water. Then release it onto the floor of the brooder. Do not use open waterers in the brooder. Chicks splashing in water may chill and die. Use a waterer with a restricted “lip” so the chicks can drink but not wade.
Commercial chicken feeds are usually sold in three formulations: a high-protein, medicated chick “starter;” a medium-protein “grower ration” or “pullet developer;” and a lower-protein, higher-mineral “layer mash” for adult hens. In a well-managed home brooder, additions to the diet such as antibiotics, growth stimulants or hormones are completely superfluous. To avoid the additives, start the chicks on the grower ration, or equivalent, and boost the protein with fish meal; chopped hardboiled eggs; milk; ground, raw beef liver; earthworms; Japanese beetles or other insects. (You must never feed layer mash to growing chicks — the extra mineral content can hinder proper development of their reproductive systems.)
I prefer kiln-dried pine shavings as floor litter. I cover the shavings with empty burlap coffee bean sacks the first couple of days, because the chicks haven’t learned to discriminate about what to eat, and they might eat the shavings. I scatter some feed initially over the sacking so the chicks learn about feeding. Then I take up the sacking and offer feed in the feeder only. Use a special chick feeder designed to minimize spillage of feed. A hanging feeder is best; raise it to keep the feeding level at about shoulder height of the rapidly growing chicks.
In addition to feed, you should offer your brood free-choice “grit,’’ small bits of rock they ingest to grind their feed in their gizzards. You can buy commercial granite grit (which comes in sizes appropriate to different ages and species of fowl), or you may find chick-size grit, about the size of radish seeds, around your homestead.
Brooder Management
The key to success is frequent monitoring of the brooder, plus common sense. The biggest obstacle to success is stress, such as overcrowding, temperature extremes and running out of feed or water. Keep your nose tuned for the slightest hint of ammonia coming out of the litter, and add fresh material as needed.
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