How to Raise Day-Old Chickens

Raising young chicks from a day old can be both rewarding and challenging. Young chicks must be in a brooder or an enclosed area with a special brooder lamp, which keeps the chicks warm and draft-free. If you do not keep your chicks at a consistently warm temperature, they will get too cold and die; likewise, if you keep them too warm, they will overheat and die.



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Things You'll Need

  • Brooder
  • Brooder lamp with 250 watt red bulb
  • Thermometer
  • Pine shavings
  • Chick waterer
  • Chick feeder
  • Starter chick food
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Instructions

    • 1

      Add a layer of fresh pine shavings to the floor of brooder enclosure.

    • 2

      Hang the brooder light over the center of brooder and turn it on.

    • 3

      Place a thermometer on the floor of brooder and check the temperature. The temperature should read 95 degrees Fahrenheit. If not, adjust the brooder lamp until the brooder is a constant 95 degrees Fahrenheit, at the center of the brooder.

    • 4

      Fill chick feeder with chick food and place water into the chick waterer. Install both in the brooder.

    • 5

      Add chicks.

    • 6

      Reduce heat by 5 degrees Fahrenheit each week, by raising the brooder lamp a little higher.

    • 7

      Move the chicks to a coop and turn off the light, once the temperature of the brooder is down to 70 degrees Fahrenheit.