Create a healthy and thriving coop with Agfinity!
Springtime in Colorado is ushered in with warmer temperatures, our famous bluebird skies, and on the farm, cute and fuzzy baby chicks! Once you select your chicken breed and bring them home from a trusted and vetted hatchery, with the right care and attention, your coop will blossom!
Support your chicks this season with Agfinity. From hen layer ration pellets and chicken scratch to chick starter meal and broiler finisher complete, we have what you need to raise your coop. Learn more about ways to help your chicks thrive in today’s post.
Raising Healthy & Robust Baby Chicks
Wherever your baby chicks are calling home — their brooder — the cardboard box, pet carrier, or livestock water tank creates the perfect environment to keep them safe and contained. To help your chicks acclimate to their new surroundings, there are a few tips that will help them thrive.
Creating A Safe Haven
It’s important to know that though your soft and fuzzy chicks are small now, they will grow rapidly in the next days, weeks, and months, so it’s crucial to make a brooder large enough to accommodate their growth.
1.5 square feet per chick is a good starting point for the first six to eight weeks. Space is important for their growth, but a clean and hygienic environment is one of the best ways to help them thrive.
Lay pine shavings, sawdust, or other coop litter products and change it out weekly — a fresh coop will ward off dangerous illnesses.
Warm It Up
Heat is essential to the survival of baby chicks. A consistent temperature around 90 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal in the first week. Within each passing week, you can decrease the temperature by roughly five degrees until they are feathered.
How do you keep a nice and toasty environment? With the help of a heat lamp! Begin by placing the heat lamp close to the brooder and raising it a few inches each week. It’s important that they have this heat, so have a backup nearby or hanging above the primary lamp in case one burns out.
Beyond checking the temperature or placing a thermometer near the brooder, you can assess the chicks behavior as an indicator of their comfort — if it’s not warm enough, the chicks will all congregate under the lamp, but if the temperature is right, they’ll spread out in the brooder.
A warm environment will foster thriving chicks — avoid your chicks huddling together at all costs because this can cause suffocation, smothering, and as a result, death.
Fresh, Clean Water
Water is another necessity for healthy chicks. Always ensure that there is fresh, clean water available to them. Place shallow water bowls around the brooder — if you need to create a shallower dish, put marbles or clean pebbles at the bottom.
Why is a shallow water bowl important? If the bowl is too deep, this makes the chicks vulnerable to falling in and drowning.
Nutritious Chick Food
Baby chicks are rapidly growing, which means they have a real need for feed! When you’re selecting chick rations, there are a variety of options. From unmedicated to medicated, they all should be abundant in protein, vitamins, and minerals.
Begin by sprinkling the feed on the floor of their brooder, but raise the food in a chick feeder as they begin to grow and start scratching.
Explore 21% CHICK STARTER MEAL today!
Thriving Chicks Begins With Agfinity
Agfinity makes the perfect brooder easy to achieve — from heat lamps and litter to a variety of chick feed that supports their health and wellness, Agfinity has you covered.
Got specific questions about feed or farm supplies? Our feed team experts can guide you in the right direction.
Stop into our Brighton Ace store for chick supplies today!