Chickens aren’t exactly aerodynamic. At best, some of the petite and sleek bantams can fly well enough to get over a fence, and some of the heavier birds can flap enough to get up onto a low branch. This doesn’t mean that your chickens should spend all of their time on the ground. Mature hens need to sleep on roosts for both health and comfort. Chickens poop a lot at night. A chicken that is sleeping on the ground or in a nesting box is sitting on her own damp and ammonia-fumed waste. Roosts are also important for your flock’s social life. Chickens can sort out their affiliations during the evening jostling for a sleeping spot next to their friends. During the day hens that need to get away from the pecking order drama (like Siouxsie) can hop up onto a roost for some peace.

All of these reasons for having roosts apply to your chicks, too. Although they innately know to roost, they do need a bit of practice and baby-sized roosts to get them started.

A piece of wood can be a balance beam for your chicks.

Even better is a roost made from a branch nailed onto two pieces of scrap wood. The first week I put this roost into the brooder. There was some worry about what it was, but soon the chicks were up, over, and perching.

I added a second roost, this one further off of the ground. The chicks hopped right on

and were soon comfortable enough to bask in the heat lamp and get their fluffy little bottoms toasty warm from this perch.

Meanwhile, the chicks are getting larger, growing long and sturdy feathers, and running, flapping, and getting lift-off. The sides of the brooder have been raised.

Soon the chicks will outgrow this enclosure. Twenty six chicks take up a lot of space!. More changes are in store. I’ll fill you in later this week.

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Within a day of a chick hatching she is ready to search for food, to explore, and to interact with others. Unfortunately, a typical brooder is a boring place. There’s nothing to peck at except for uninteresting crumbles and the other chicks. In a perfect world, the chicks would be able to go outside and scratch up bugs in the dirt, eat greens in the yard, and try little bits of this and that. But, that’s not usually possible. Chicks need to be kept in a safe and warm enclosure. We’ve had a very cold spring. Yesterday it was drizzly and didn’t warm up past 40 degrees F. There’s no way that my chicks could go outside. Also, the first week or two, it’s best to keep them on clean ground where they won’t be exposed to coccidia and respiratory diseases. That’s why they stay in the brooder.

Chicks will grow okay if fed only crumbles. But, from the get go they’re omnivores, and a varied diet will do them good. That doesn’t mean that you should give them piles of treats. Although chicks are designed to eat continuously (except for when they’re napping) they are gluttons. Give them an easy to chow down on food and they’ll overeat; depending on what you feed, it could be like letting a toddler eat only Lucky Charms cereal.

You might have read that you can chop up vegetables and bread into fine bits and feed this as treats to your chicks. I disagree. Chicks don’t need their treats minced. By day four a chick can swallow a whole worm with no problem (and digest it easily thanks to grit.) Besides, I want my chicks to be kept busy by their treats, which should take time and effort to consume. Also, the treats must be nutritious. Chicks require a higher protein content than adult hens. Bread and corn won’t provide that. On the other hand, don’t feed dried mealworms, as a few too many can lead to kidney disease.

The first week I give the chicks a small clod of dirt with a clump of clover attached. This is better than grass, which has long blades that can get impacted in the crop. The chicks peck and eat bits of green and they even find bugs to eat. You might see a chase and tug of war when a worm has been found. They’ll scratch at the dirt. Scratching is another innate behavior that chicks are preprogrammed to do. Giving them an outlet for this is important to their well-being. You’ll hear much excited and happy chirping.

Dandelions are also good treats for the youngest chicks. At first they’ll eye this new thing, but in no time at all they’ll be all over it.

If nothing is growing, or just for a change, give them a vegetable to work at. They’ll peck at it and not at each other. Win-win!

As the chicks get older, you can continue to offer clover.

You can also give them a clod with short blades of grass attached.

An added benefit is that once the greens and the bugs are eaten up, there will be dirt for them to take a dirt bath in. Your chicks will know how to do that their first week, too!

In no time at all they’ll grow up. But, they’ll never stop eating their greens.

Along with providing food and water, there are two other things to offer your chicks that will greatly improve their vitality: grit and probiotics.

Chickens, like all birds, do not have teeth. They don’t chew. Rather, they swallow food whole. Their digestive tracts are designed to deal with this. Specifically, a chicken has a gizzard, which is an exceptionally strong muscular pouch that grinds up food. The gizzard does this with the help of small rocks that the chicken swallows. Even if your hens free-range, it’s unlikely that they can find just the right pebbles for their gizzard. Certainly chicks, in a cleanly bedded brooder, don’t have access to what their gizzards need to function properly. That’s why they need you to provide grit.

You can buy a bag of grit at the feed store or online. Basically, it’s ground up granite. Chick grit is finer than chicken grit. It might seem crazy to spend $10 on a bag of pebbles, but it is essential to the health of your new flock. This is not a new idea. I have a catalog from 1919 that offers bags of chick grit for sale.

The first day that the chicks arrive, make sure that they are eating their feed ration. Then, introduce the grit (if the grit is given first, they might overload on it.) I prefer a dispenser because it is less wasteful than spreading the grit on the ground, and I can see clearly when it requires replenishing. The chicks know what they need and will eat the right amount. In the first two weeks my 26 chicks consumed all of the grit in this container!

The other supplement that I provide my chicks are probiotics. Everyone’s intestinal tract has both good and bad bacteria in residence. When the balance is off animals don’t thrive and can sicken. You can provide your chicks with the right microorganisms by adding a product like Gro2Max to the drinking water. I did this consistently for the first two weeks. It doesn’t hurt to give it all the time, but I don’t, simply out of convenience. The chicks go through a lot of water and often make a mess. There are times when I do a quick clean up and refill from the outside faucet instead of bothering with water prepared with probiotics (which has to be mixed in advance and replenished daily.)

It’s better to have clean water than leave the fount dirty. A couple of times a week I fill the waterer with the Gro-2-Max laced water, which is enough to get the benefits of the product.

My chicks are strong, healthy, and active, due in no small part to providing them with grit and probiotics.