How hard is it to raise baby chicks?

[JaceAgain]

New here. And to chickens in general. I have other animals but new to chickens. I am having a dilemma. I don't really want to raise chicks because I hear it's hard and time consuming. I really wanted to buy older chickens (like 18-20weeks) so that I can just get them and they are ready to lay soon. We are wanting 12 or 16 chickens just for our own needs. we eat TONS of eggs and there are 6 of us in our family. The problem is, I can't find any chickens that are the right age & breed so I guess I will have to go the chick route to get the breeds I want. So how hard/time consuming IS IT to raise chicks??  What other special equipment would I need as opposed to just getting them almost laying?? Heat lamp, waterer, feeder, what else? I just don't have much $ to spend of buying special equip that I'll use once or twice for chicks.  What's your advice on raising chicks and how much time do you spend w/them everyday??
I'm in WI if there are any hatcheries you would recommend~ Thanks much!!

For what its worth, you'll usually pay more for older pullets than younger, so it evens out.
I have 5 chicks which I payed more than average around here, $5 each. Most chick selling stores (tractor supply, southern states etc) sell them for 1.50-3 dollars. The light bulb and light/clamp cost $15, the shavings were a huge bag for $5, food was a small bag for $5. The little feed tray and the little water tray that can both be attached to a mason jar (already had) were $3 each. They lived in a rubbermaid storage tub which I already had, but Ive since moved them to dog exercise pen that i already had. They need chick grit too, thats like $5 for a bag. Then you pretty much leave em alone to grow, hang out with them occasionally so they know you. I haven't scooped or changed litter yet, its been a week and a half, I just added some DE and more shavings every couple of days.
It isnt hard, or time consuming at all so far. Maybe it gets worse in the next few weeks?

 

[TLWR]

I started out with ducks before I found a job here. I spent lots of time with them. I had a dane sized kennel raised up on the patio, but brought the ducklings inside several times a day to run and play in the bathroom and take a swim. I hung out with them a lot. I had 3 friendly ducks as a result.
2 years later I raised 3 more. I was working then, so not at much hands on time. Not as friendly. 2 of them won't get within arms reach. The third is fine to come up to me as long as she things I have food.
Chickens last year - I did 6 (then kept 3 after I had 6 for a week or so). So I had 3 in the brooder. As they were old enough to move outside, I brought in 6 more hatched from school. Rehomed 4 of them and kept 2. They were brooded out on the patio as well since it had warmed up. They were friendly little buggers when they were little. Both gone now. The polish rooster just disappeared and recently a hawk took my polish hen.
Of the first 3 hens, 1 is friendly and comes to me and will hang out if you pick her up, the barred rock will run up to me and I can pick her up, but she doesn't hang out. The other - she tries to not let you pick her up. Again, working for raising the chickens.

Raising them is as time sucking as you want it to be - doesn't have to be. If you have kids, they will be toting them around with them spending time with them.

I left my job a week ago. I'd like to pick up a few chicks again.


My brooder - I have a great dane sized kennel. Used that for the ducks the first year. Since then, I've had a great dane that sometimes hangs out in that kennel while we are not here, so the rest were brooded in a 2x4 brooder made with left over 2x4s we had sitting around and the sides were made with soffit material we had left from our garage. Ventilation and was light to move to the yard to give them protected yard time. I also had a hardware cloth cover to put on top when they were outside on the patio or in the yard.
I bought the hardware cloth - $10
Left over soffit - free (or the cost of the garage, I say it was free LOL)
Left over 2x4 - free (or buy 2 of them at $2 each)
Brooder light - $10 at TSC
Light bulb - $0.25 (I used regular bulbs - usually around 75w)
feeder - $6 at TSC
1 gal waterer - $5 at TSC (here's a link of how to make one free with stuff you have in the house - http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2011/03/homemade-chick-waterers.html)
brooder 'bedding' - I used sand for the chicks. Dusty inside, but easy to clean. I used a reptile scooper or a butterfly net to sift out the "mess" I also used some of a bag of sweet pdz inside to keep the smell down. Sand I had in the back yard (garage). But a 50 pound bag will be plenty.

They use the same waterer now in their coop. But use the duck pond or the big pan of water next to the food house.
Feeder - we now have a 5 gallon bucket with a large rubber feeder from TSC under it. It holds almost the entire 50 pound bag of feed. We put the rest of the feed in another 5 gal bucket with lid to keep it fresh/dry/clean.


Their 3 x 6 coop - we built that for around $100.
6' fence boards - about 18 boards for the walls and 6 for the floor, so 24 boards at $1 each (they were on sale)
2x4s - 8 for the legs, 6 for the frame, 3 for the roof, scrap for the doors - 17 total
2x6 - 1 for the roof
plywood - we had pieces cut to fit our windows for hurricanes and had replaced some with different stuff for the windows, so we had pieces we could use for the roof
shingles - 1 bag

 

[sanchabird]

I live just south of Kansas City, Missouri, Sanchabird. My feed comes from Thayer, Kansas, which is about 3.5 hours to the south of me. They deliver feed to Springhill, Kansas once a month. That's only about 30 minutes from me so the second Wednesday of each month, I meet them there to pick up my feed. It's possible that they would ship it but I don't know. Their link is below. There's a good chance that there is a supplier of organic feed in your area.

I feed feeds that contain grain only. I guess the pellets and crumbles are made from grain too but I don't trust the mega-corporation feed companies to create something in a laboratory for my birds when it grows naturally plus pellets end up turning to dust by the time they've been in the feeder awhile or as you get close to the bottom of the feed barrel. Grains are part of their natural diet.


Donrae mentioned that she believes that the medication is gone by the time she eats the meat or eggs. I hope she's right because it's our government that is telling us this and to trust them. What I know is that antibiotics are everywhere around us. It's in our soil and it's in our drinking water. That's why there are so many antibiotic resistant diseases and viruses popping up today. It's from the use of medicated feeds to feed livestock and is pooped out and going into the ground water. This can easily be researched if anyone doubts it. If it's so easily gotten rid of by the chickens then why is it being found in soil samples, water samples and our blood?

Billion dollar companies are good about padding the pockets of politicians in exchange for immunity. Monsanto is a prime example. The GMO feeds have herbicides and pesticides genetically engineered into the seeds so that weeds that grow around them will be killed and pests that feed on them will die. What do you think happens to us as these build up in our bodies and Monsanto is wanting to do this with ALL seeds. Oh, the kicker is this. They also are engineering the seeds to not reproduce so the farmers have to come to them to buy seed. It'll do no good to save it for next years crop because it won't germinate. One more thing, these freak plants can and do cross pollinate with heirloom plants and ruining the seeds for future use.

The bottom line is that it's up to us to stay after our congressmen to let them know how we feel and to pressure the government into making changes that will protect the future of our farms and our health.

THAYER FEED LLC, THAYER, KANSAS
http://www.thayerfeedllc.com

Thank you chiknhurder. I'm sure we do have an organic feed supplier in GA, but I haven't looked into it much. What you said about the meds being leaked into the ground via chicken poop is very true. However, I think that the meds are out of the chickens system by the time they are laying if you take them off of it by 16-18 weeks (for egg layers). If I was raising meat birds, I wouldn't use medicated starter, but for egg-layers I use it.

 

[rd200]

Ahhhh, the Organic, Non-Organic, GMO, Antibiiotic debate!!. There is so much evidence both ways. Being raised on a Dairy Farm, I have opinions BOTH ways. We never used antibiotics willy-nilly and only if absolutely necessary to save the animals life or stop an infection or Pneumonia. And what works for a backyard farm w/10 animals doesn't/won't work for a farm w/500 animals. I am a crunchy Mama for sure, but sometimes you have to weigh the cost w/the benefits unfortunately when you're on a tight budget!! I would prefer to feed organic feeds but just cant'. I have a small organic feed store just down the road but if I fed that chicken feed, I wouldn't be breaking even. And I don't have $ to throw around on organic feed. so I'll be feeding conventional feed + garden scrapes (that are organic from my garden) and kelp. If the price comes down ever on the Organic feed, I'll be the first one to the door to get some

Anyways, I've found some chicks I would like but they seem quite expensive! I know there is a big range. There are some Cream legbar hatching eggs $6/each- Im assuming that I get them and they hatch the next day or two?? What other equipment would that entail getting?? They do have laying chickens to buy but there are $50!! And then who knows how many females id get. You can sex them the first few days right??

I also found some interesting BlueBellle Super layers. But they are $23 each for 5 day old Females. That seems like a lot too!!
I wanted to get something unusual or "cool" but I don't have a ton of money so I think I might just stick with a more common, less expensive chick.
Do Marans lay really good?? I LOVE The really dark eggs they lay!!

My sister keeps trying to convince me to get the ones she has. They are just plain Brown chickens. They lay super good & are really cold hardy & healthy!! Plus the hatchery is 45 minutes from my house and you can get them at 18weeks old for $8/each. So, I'm torn. But then I would have to wait until August to get them.
I have looked on craigslist for some but there aren't any so far.

The more I look the more I want and find........ I'm not getting any closer to any decisions~

 

[donrae]

Once again, the medication found in medicated chick starter, in the US anyway, is NOT an antibiotic. Just sayin'.

 

[chiknhurder]

Ahhhh, the Organic, Non-Organic, GMO, Antibiiotic debate!!. There is so much evidence both ways. Being raised on a Dairy Farm, I have opinions BOTH ways. We never used antibiotics willy-nilly and only if absolutely necessary to save the animals life or stop an infection or Pneumonia. And what works for a backyard farm w/10 animals doesn't/won't work for a farm w/500 animals. I am a crunchy Mama for sure, but sometimes you have to weigh the cost w/the benefits unfortunately when you're on a tight budget!! I would prefer to feed organic feeds but just cant'. I have a small organic feed store just down the road but if I fed that chicken feed, I wouldn't be breaking even. And I don't have $ to throw around on organic feed. so I'll be feeding conventional feed + garden scrapes (that are organic from my garden) and kelp. If the price comes down ever on the Organic feed, I'll be the first one to the door to get some

I'm not talking about the mom and pop farms who milk a few head of cows. I'm talking about the mega-farms that care only about their bottom line and not our health. Antibiotics aren't being used to treat illness in livestock. It's being added to their diet to 'prevent' illness and it's not just chickens. It's all factory farm livestock. The factory farms create an enormous amount of stress on the animals they keep because of overcrowding an no access to outdoors. Anything that can be caged is caged and the larger livestock are crowded into tiny pens to be fattened up for slaughter. I'm not complaining about the conditions. I just don't want to raise my food that way. As a consumer, I have a different view than someone who grew up on a large farm or someone who worked on a large farm so I tend to take my information from the consumers and not the ADA, FDA or other government agencies that don't really give a hoot about our health so long as they're being paid to put up with it.

 

[sanchabird]

I'm not talking about the mom and pop farms who milk a few head of cows. I'm talking about the mega-farms that care only about their bottom line and not our health. Antibiotics aren't being used to treat illness in livestock. It's being added to their diet to 'prevent' illness and it's not just chickens. It's all factory farm livestock. The factory farms create an enormous amount of stress on the animals they keep because of overcrowding an no access to outdoors. Anything that can be caged is caged and the larger livestock are crowded into tiny pens to be fattened up for slaughter. I'm not complaining about the conditions. I just don't want to raise my food that way. As a consumer, I have a different view than someone who grew up on a large farm or someone who worked on a large farm so I tend to take my information from the consumers and not the ADA, FDA or other government agencies that don't really give a hoot about our health so long as they're being paid to put up with it.

 

[cafarmgirl]

Just a brief comment about feeding medicated (coccidiostat) versus non-medicated. As Donrae said, this is NOT an antibiotic. However the point I wanted to bring up is that chicks are highly suseptible to coccidiosis and they can and often do come down with a case of it even when eating medicated feed because they just haven't had time to develope immunity yet. Medicated feed helps but it's no guarantee. So no matter which you choose to feed learn all about coccidiosis and it's earliest symptoms so that you can treat asap when you see it. Get some Corid and keep it on hand since time is of the essence in treating an outbreak. You don't want to be running around looking for it or having stores closed when you need it.

Good luck with your youngsters when they arrive!

 

[rd200]

Cafarmgirl- Thanks. I know all about the symptoms/signs of Coccsi. (in cattle- I'll have to research for chickens) Calves tend to get it when they are under stress or at stressful parts like weaning/moving. If I would happen to need some, the Farm down the road has some I could get on short notice.

 

[nate1the1great1]

It's not hard to raise them the first time i got chickens we spent about 60$ on 18 chickens and the heat lamp the feeder and the watered so i would go with he chicks bc if u get ones about to lay its harder to get them used to you i have about 30 chicken eggs hatching this week and half are out and I have duck eggs and when i buy feed i just get scratch feed and mix it with a 4$ little bag of chick feed so i dont spend a lot of money and if u got chcikens bout to let ur gunna spend over 150$ for 15 standard hens