Getting chicks need advice

[Growley Monster]

Hello I am getting chicks for the first time. I have had chickens for awhile now but never baby chicks wondering what I could do for a brooder and just basic stuff about raising chicks. Please send advice. I live near a small town in Alberta Canada and am going to order from a hatchery hopefully this will work out.

Heat is really important if you will have them outside, up there in Canada. The first week they really do best at around 90°F and having your brood box in the house for the first 3 weeks will make it easier to keep it warm. Heat lamp works great, especially with a large brood box. Put it in one end, and the peeps will find their own comfort zone. I eventually sprang for a heated fan with a thermocouple. It digitally regulates the temp and displays it. Mine are 3 weeks old and it is usually around 76° or 77° in the house. We don't use the heater anymore and they (brown leghorns) are doing fine.

We have been feeding Purina's chick starter crumbles and occasional treats like seeds, garden worms, and bread crumbs and dried shrimp.

They will eventually learn to knock over the feeder if you use a lightweight plastic one. I zip tied mine to a short piece of 2x6 and set the waterer up on another block as they got bigger so they couldn't poop in their water so easily.

At 3 weeks most breeds will be trying to fly so you will want a cover of some sort. Webbing from an old shrimp net, or half inch hardware cloth, works good. Otherwise they will fly/jump out and you will have to chase them down.

They start out growing fast. At two weeks you will wonder how the hell they ever fit into an egg. At 3 weeks my inner carnivore is already thinking maybe it is time to sex the peeps! From the top, they still all look alike. However much space you think they need in a brood pen or bin or box, you will need more. If you already have a coop built, and thermostatically controlled heat for it, then when they outgrow the nursery you can maybe just let them have the run of the coop.

A good tip I got on here is to let their food run out once in a while, and call to them when you refill the feeder, so they understand that you are their food god, not the big giant monster that they have to run from, especially with the more scaredy-cat breeds like these leghorns.

FWIW my brooder was a BIG plastic storage bin from Sam's, with cardboard in the bottom. Once they were a few days old, we added kitty litter. Wood shavings are probably better. I was warned not to use kitty litter the first couple of days because the chicks would try to eat it. I ended up purposing a second bin so I could transfer them and clean out the first one, and now I am fixing to split the flock between the two bins due to overcrowding. A big cardboard box will do, to start with. Watch the heat lamp or other heat source, that nothing hot touches the cardboard.