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.

This 25 day old chick has something about her him.

The comb is larger than the other chicks’ combs.

Blue Andalusian chick

These days, when I put my camera into the brooder, I get a lot of these photographs:

This Blue Andalusian is bold, curious and more interested in the shiny lens than in food. I might be wrong. It might be a she. But if it is a he, anyone want a strapping, healthy, handsome young fellow for your flock?

When chicks hatch, they still have some yolk remaining inside of them. This can provide them with nutrients and water for the first few days of life, which is why chicks can be shipped in boxes through the mail. As soon as they arrive home they need to be fed and watered. (To see how this is done, see this post.)

The bulk of a chick’s diet should come from commercial feed formulated specifically for them. Chick feed differs from laying hen ration in several important ways. First of all, it is in the form of crumbles, which, being smaller, is easier for chicks to peck and swallow. (Some people feed crumbles to adult hens, but I think it wasteful, as much gets tossed onto the ground where it becomes inedible dust.) Secondly, chick feed is higher in protein, around 18% versus 14 to 16% in laying hen pellets. Lastly, and of the greatest importance, chick feed is low in calcium. Mature birds eat laying hen pellets formulated with calcium because that mineral is necessary to create eggs. What’s good for layers is not good for chicks. Chicks fed a ration with calcium will develop kidney disease. Although chicks can’t eat layer pellets, older birds can eat chick feed. So, if you have chicks in with a flock of adult birds, they should all eat chick crumbles. Calcium can be provided to the mature hens’ diet by offering crushed oyster shell in a dispenser out of reach of the little ones. The higher protein content of the chick feed won’t harm the older hens over the short time that it takes for the chicks to mature.

Chick feed comes plain or medicated. Although chicks in large production facilities are fed sub-therapeautic antibiotics, the bags of feed sold to backyard keepers don’t have those drugs in them. Rather, the “medication” refers to a coccidiostat that kills a lethal protozoa. Not all backyards harbor coccidia, but if yours does, the chicks might get bloody diarrhea and die. Some people wait until there is a sign of the ailment before treating the flock with a coccidiostat. Other chicken keepers routinely offer a medicated ration as a preventative measure. Some, like myself, get chicks vaccinated for coccidia. If your chicks are vaccinated for coccidia, then you cannot use medicated feed. (This is for the coccidia vaccine. If your chicks are vaccinated only for Marek’s disease, you can feed a coccidiostat.)

Feed your young birds a starter ration until they reach point of lay, about sixteen to eighteen weeks of age. At that point they will do better on a lower protein ration, and their systems can handle the calcium. Do not feed chicks that are destined to be laying hens a “finish ration” or a “show and grow.” These products are designed for meat birds, and put weight on fast. Not only is the protein and fat content wrong for layers, but a few companies do put antibiotics into them.

Buying a 50 pound bag of chick feed might seem like too much. However, each chick will eat up to 4 pounds of crumbles in the first ten weeks. As they get older, they eat more, so by the time they are at point of lay they’ve eaten around 10 pounds of crumbles. If your chickens free-range, they’ll eat a bit less of the commercial ration. But, if I go by these numbers, conservatively my 26 chicks will eat 260 pounds of chick feed on their way to becoming laying hens. (By the way, a 50 pound bag of feed costs about $18, or 36¢ per pound.)

Chick feed and clean water are not the only things that chicks should be consuming. In tomorrow’s post I’ll tell you about grit and probiotics. Also, like mature hens, chicks do best with a varied diet beyond the commercial ration. I’ll be talking about treats, greens and bugs soon, too.

It’s so enjoyable to watch week-old chicks running around and then suddenly, mid-step it seems, fall asleep into little piles of fluff.

The chicks are now 3 1/2 weeks old. They are no longer cuddly poufs. They are spiky, eagle-eyed, and gawky. They still take frequent naps, but I’m not sure that it’s so cute.

The Black Stars look like they’re wearing moth-eaten witches’ costumes.

I must say, though, that I’m jealous of their ability to fall asleep so deeply and wake so rested and ready to go.