Rearing Chickens
Helpful Tips for Rearing Chickens
Whether you are looking for farm fresh eggs or meat, or simply wish to have some interesting pets, rearing chickens can be a fun and rewarding process. Starting your chickens from eggs is an enjoyable and economic way to start or add to your chicken coop.
First you will need to get a hold of viable eggs. These can be purchased from a company, a farm or you can get them the old fashioned way: from other chickens. Some domestic chickens will lay, brood and rear their own chicks, but often you have to do it yourself. The best way to hatch your own eggs is with an incubator. There are several types to choose from including forced air incubators and still air incubators. Forced air incubators can hatch larger broods, require less maintenance and often have self turners, where still air incubators require more attention, hatch a smaller amount of eggs, but are less expensive. Overall a basic incubator is easy to find and relatively inexpensive.
It is important to set your incubator up several days before you place the eggs in it. This way you can have the incubator set to the correct temperature and work out any problems. Fixing any incubator problems with growing eggs inside is hard to do. You will want the temperature to be 100-102 degrees F in order to allow the eggs to fully mature. The humidity should be around 58-60% from day 1 until day 18. After day 18 of incubation you can increase the humidity to around 65%. Chicken eggs must be turned 3 to 6 times daily; it is thought that an odd number of turns each day are best. If your incubator does not feature a self turning feature, you will have to turn the eggs by hand. Make sure your hands are clean, and marking the eggs lightly with a pencil at the top and bottom helps you turn them properly. Stop turning the eggs after day 18 as this may injure the chick.
By day 21 look for your chicks to begin the hatching process. A chick will use its egg tooth to break through the shell. Although it is tempting, never help a chick hatch, it can damage them. Newly hatched chicks should stay inside the incubator until they are dry and fluffy. Congratulations! You now have a number of adorable fuzzy chicks to care for.
Place your newly hatched chicks into a rearing box with some substrate on the bottom, a water dish and a feeding container. The box should be kept at a temperature of 94 degrees F for the first 9 days. After 9 days you can lower the temperature to 88 degrees F and eventually lower it down to the low 80’s after day 18 in the rearing box. Use a light bulb sized according to your rearing box to achieve these temperatures. Chicks should always have access to food and water, a fine grain chicken scratch available in most feed stores will work fine. Be sure to keep your chicks clean as they can develop problems if raised in an unsanitary environment. Don’t forget to enjoy the chicks while they are small. Now is a great time to build a chicken/ human bond through handling if you want your chicks to become socialized with you.
As your chicks grow they will eventually need a larger rearing box. After 6 weeks there will no longer be a need for heating lights. You will also start to notice them molting, or losing and replacing their feathers. Soon they will lose their fluffy yellow coats in exchange for outdoor feathers. These feathers are very important for a chicken’s survival in an outdoor environment.
Soon the chicks will become chickens and will again need to be moved to an outdoor home. Make sure that they have their full adult feathers before they can survive outdoors. Protect your chickens from predators. It is a shame to go through the entire process of chicken rearing, only to lose your chickens to neighborhood predators. A double house chicken coop works best for keeping your new flock; just make sure that the coop has a secure, protected place to roost, fresh water, plenty of food and protection from predators. Raccoons and skunks are especially clever, and will go to great lengths to obtain a chicken meal, so use heavy gauge wire or super fine mesh in your construction. Sand is a great substrate to keep the area clean, as dirt turns into mud rather quickly.
Another concern is introducing new chickens into an established flock, as territoriality and aggressiveness are common. You may also want to remove roosters that you have hatched. Roosters are aggressive to each other and hens and if you choose to keep them they must be separated.
Rearing chickens can be an enjoyable and engaging hobby. It is a great way to get fresh eggs or meat, and it is also a great learning opportunity for children. A flashlight held up to an egg, or ‘candling’ is a great way to teach youngsters about the growth process.