How To Raise Chicks 101

September 18, 2025

How To Raise Chicks 101

Chick raising is a wonderful experience, helping promote friendly and very loving chickens and roosters when older, and the more you handle them young, the friendlier they will be.

The above tiny model is Chip, Chips' parents are the one and only Pheebs, a leghorn lady, and Frankie, an olive egger lad.

This is what happens when you raise chickens from a day or two old, they like to get very up-close and personal when I'm taking photos of slime moulds.

Chick raising is not a task to take lightly though. They do have certain requirements that your POL (Point of Lay) or mature chickens don't.

You will need:

. Brooder box of some form

. Heat lamp (not a standard light!)

. Chick crumbs

. Shallow water feeder

. Teddy (optional)

. Straw/ hay - some use sawdust or hemp

. Time and love

Temperature is essential and will change week by week as your chicks grow.

Please note this is from hatching and not from when you get your babies.

Week 1 - 33 to 35 degrees celcius.

Week 2 - 30 to 32 degrees celcius.

Week 3 - 27 to 29 degrees celcius.

Week 4 - 24 to 26 degrees celcius.

After week 5 to 6 usually you can remove the heat source and babies should be ready to start going outside. I usually introduce this slowly, starting with short bursts and ensuring its not too cold, windy or wet and slowly building up their resistance to outside. This really depends on your chicks, you can continue heat if you feel they need additional time.

Good indicators that it's too warm, your chicks will spread out trying to get away from the heat, they will spread out their tiny legs and wings too, likely laying down to try and cool down.

Too cool and they will huddle together, and be piled on top of each other trying to gain heat.

Ensure your heat globe or source does not come in direct contact with your chooks as they run the risk of overheating themselves or burns.

My brooder box.

Note: this is now too small and chicks are spending periods outside enjoying fresh grass, bugs and air.

Your brooder box needs thought too, it should keep the heat but be ventilated, as you still need airflow.

There are so many different options, we use a old reptile enclosure, as it holds the heat well, but has a mesh top, and is glass so easy to clean.

Most people tend to have wood brooders, it's a cheaper material and you can build it as big as you need.

Your chicks will want something to snuggle and hunker down into to provide warmth, I prefer to use straw or hay, and break it down into smaller pieces, roughly three inches long. Much longer and I find that the chicks can't scratch around, smaller than an inch or even sawdust, the chicks tend to try eat it and I have had to retrieve pieces back out of tiny beaks before as smaller chicks can struggle.
We (my wife and I) like to pop a teddy into the enclosure, it provides the chicks a bit of extra security and a 'mumma'. At the moment we're using a Lucas the spider and a pumpkin won from TimeZone, just make sure there's nothing your babies can pick off, get tangled in or ingest.

Note: Just remember to wash the teddy frequently as it will get pooped on.

Right now that's sorted out, let's discuss food and water. I like to get a decent quality chick crumb, and technically, that is a complete food and all you need. However, I like to provide a variety of nutrients and introduce what they will encounter once they go outside.
On a daily basis I will provide some form of greens, whether it's grass; I try to leave the root ball and soil attached, or fresh greens from the veggie patch such as silverbeet. I also like to offer some scraps, cut into small pieces, and fresh corn.
When it comes to the crumbs themselves, I will on occasion nutribullet some dried mealworms or a dried bug mix and mix it through for some extra protein, and as a treat I let loose some live crickets to encourage their natural foraging instincts and offer some fresh mealworms (be-headed; this is important as mealworms are swallowed whole and can give quite a nasty bite to your babies insides.)

Note: Mealworms, kingworms and silkworms should be provided as a treat and not given every day, as they are quite fatty. Plus your chooks when older will forage and pick up plenty of bugs in your garden.

Chickens love to scratch so it is up to you what you put their food in. You can buy designated feeders from your local stockfeeders or pet store. When young I prefer to put their food in a decent sized, shallow bowl to encourage their natural scratching behaviours.

I do find though that designated and pre-designed water feeders are a better option and I do recommend these. They provide a slow drip and top up of the water supply, and are easy to clean. Bowls provide a drowning danger, many being unable to get back out, and if the water is not 'deep enough' to drown then your babies may not be able to reach their water and dehydrate or get into the water, get cold and wet and be unable to get out or get sick, both leading to potentially perishing...

Regular handling of your chicks will encourage friendly chickens and roosters, not only is this nicer for you but it also makes it useful for inspecting your chickens for any issues as they grow. We love to give our chicks tummy tickles and they love it too, quite often going to sleep!

Lastly worming etc of your tiny fluffs. I still worm our babies, but I tend to do it when they are a bit older, at least 6 weeks, Chip is currently 4 to 5 weeks and has yet to be wormed, and his (suspecting rooster) siblings are about 2 to 3 weeks old haven't been wormed either. Worming early on can promote parasite resistance and no one wants that!

Most people I'm sure would like to know about sexing their chicks, being honest this is not my area of expertise. You can take them to your vet for vent sexing (Don't try to do this yourself unless you know what your doing as you can cause permanent damage to your babies). Or it's said that smack on 3 weeks your can comb sex them based on colour, yellow being girl, peach combs, being boy. Unsure how reliable that is, although at 3 weeks Chips comb is peach and this morning I'm sure there was a gurgling gargling crow.. Using the wings too at 1 week, based on shape is another way to go.