Whether you hatch chicks in an incubator or buy them from a hatchery or farm store, you need to provide them with warmth, protection, and nourishment. Warmth and protection may be easily supplied by a sturdy cardboard box, fitted with a chicken wire cover to keep out household pets, and a lightbulb to furnish heat. Locate the box away from any source of drafts.

Feed chicks a ration designed for chicks; don't be tempted to feed them the same thing you would feed laying hens, or the chicks will not grow properly. Use feeders and waterers designed to keep chicks from stepping in the feed or water. Chicks that walk around in their droppings and then step in the feeder or waterer may start or spread disease.

A brooder is a heating unit that provides the necessary warmth to maintain the chick's temperature. Brooders may be gas or electric and are available from feed stores, hatcheries or commercial supply companies. Brooders must also hold the food and water necessary for a young bird's development. There are many options for homemade brooders including cardboard, or as in this photo, a plastic tub. Make sure the chicks won't slip on smooth surfaces, which can encourage slipped tendon, properly known as perosis.

Maintaining comfortable conditions in the brooder (the box you raise your chicks in) is important because doing so minimizes stress. Stress can drastically reduce the chicks' immunity, making them susceptible to diseases they might otherwise resist. Stress may be avoided by making sure chicks always have feed and water available, have sufficient space for their numbers, and are neither too cool nor too warm.

Temperature Control

Start the brooding temperature at approximately 95ºF and reduce it 5ºF each week until you reach room temperature, at which time you may discontinue the heat source. Chicks that are comfortable spread themselves evenly throughout the brooder. If they crowd in the corners, they are too warm. If they crowd beneath the heat source, they are cold.

Chicks that are cold tend to pile on top of each other in their effort to get warm, causing those on the bottom to smother. Chilling may be caused by either insufficient heat or a direct draft, and commonly occurs at night, so a good practice is to check your chicks last thing before you go to bed to make sure they are comfortable. Surrounding the chicks with a ring of corrugated cardboard will help them distribute themselves around the heat source and out of corners for their first week of life.

Smothering may also occur when chicks are transported in stacked boxes with too few ventilation holes, or carried in the trunk of a vehicle where air circulation is poor. In older chicks, piling may be caused by fright, especially if they've been moved to unfamiliar housing. When you move chicks to new housing, start with the lights dim. Check them often during the first few nights.

Living Space

Well-kept chicks grow incredibly fast. The first few days they spend a lot of time sleeping, and therefore don't need much room to roam. But as they grow and become more active, they need more space for sanitary reasons and to prevent boredom.

When chicks are crowded into too little space, their litter becomes packed with droppings. Litter and droppings may stick to the chicks' feet, causing crippling and/or infection. The litter may develop a strong odor of ammonia, and severe ammonia fumes cause chicks to sit around with their eyes closed. If the crowding and poor sanitation are not corrected, their eyes may become inflamed.

Boredom caused by crowding can result in feather picking and toe picking. Feather picking may start when chicks begin feathering out. The newly forming feathers don't look like the original down. Other chicks get curious about what that feather is, and check it out the only way they know how-by pecking it.

Toe picking may start when chicks can't find enough to eat. Their instincts tell them to look on the ground, and what they see is lots of tasty looking toes-sometimes their own, and sometimes another chick's. Chicks have a problem finding enough to eat if they have outgrown the size or number of feeders provided, the feeder is too high for little chicks to reach, or the feeder is far enough away from the heat source to discourage exploration.

To get chicks picking at feed instead of feet, sprinkle a little starter ration on paper or place shallow saucer-like containers of starter close to the heat source when you first place the chicks in the brooder. After the first day they should all be eating properly and you can replace the saucers with proper chick feeders.

Feather picking and toe picking may both lead to more serious forms of cannibalism, a problem that is unfortunately fairly common among chicks. Light high-strung laying breeds, especially Leghorns and other Mediterraneans, are more likely to engage in cannibalism than the heavier American and Asiatic breeds. Within a breed, some strains are more cannibalistic than others. Birds of the same strain may be cannibalistic when raised in one place but not another, proving that you can discourage cannibalism by maintaining a proper environment.

Cannibalism has many causes, often working in combination. Conditions that can trigger it include:

• Crowding, especially in fast-growing chicks that quickly fill the available space and can't get away from each other;
• Bright lights left on 24 hours a day;
• Inadequate ventilation;
• Too few feeders and waterers or kept too close together as chicks grow;
• Diet too low in protein (commercial chick starter contains enough protein to prevent picking).

If feather picking or toe picking draws blood, change the brooding light to a red bulb to prevent a more serious form of cannibalism from getting started. The red light will prevent the chicks from seeing the bloodied areas, giving wounds time to heal.

Pasting Up

A fairly common problem in newly hatched chicks is pasting up. The sign of pasting is droppings that stick to the bird's rear end until the vent gets pasted shut, and no more can come out. Gently pick off the wad of hardened droppings, taking care not to tear the chick's tender skin.

To avoid pasting, make sure your chicks are warm enough. At the first sign of pasting, mix a little cornmeal or ground-up raw oatmeal with their starter. By the time your chicks are one week old, pasting up should no longer be a problem.

Feed & Water

Chicks don't need to eat the moment they hatch. For the first two days of life they can survive on residual yoke, which is why newly hatched chicks are able to survive being shipped across the country. If, however, they don't eat within two to three days of hatch, they become too weak to actively seek food and will die of starvation, a condition called starve-out.

Starve-out can occur when delivery of shipped chicks is delayed. It can also be caused by feeders placed where chicks can't find them, or feeders set so high the chicks can't reach them. Other causes are placing feeders directly under the heat where chicks become too warm to eat comfortably, and using sand or sawdust as litter, so chicks fill up on the litter instead of the feed. If you use loose litter, cover it with paper towel until you know your chicks are eating properly.

Do not use newspaper or other smooth paper. Brooding chicks on a slick surface can encourage slipped tendon, properly known as perosis. This condition typically occurs in fast-growing heavy breeds and meat hybrids. It generally shows up starting at nine days of age and affects up to 5 percent of the brood. Typical signs are swollen, flat hock joints, hopping on one leg, sometimes one or both legs twisted or rotated. This condition is related to nutrition and does not spread from bird to bird. It may be prevented by feeding a supplement containing manganese and B-vitamins, and by raising feeders as the chicks grow to encourage them to stretch and thus strengthen their legs.

Switching to hanging feeders as soon as chicks outgrow their beginner-chick feeders is a good idea in any case, as it helps prevent feed wastage that occurs when chicks toss feed out of the trough with their beaks. A good rule of thumb is to keep the feed at the height of the birds' backs. For fast growing chicks you may need to raise feeders every couple of days.

Rate of growth varies from breed to breed. Heavy breeds and meat hybrids are bred for rapid growth. Bantams and many heritage breeds tend to grow more slowly. Slower growth than is typical for the breed may result from nutritional deficiencies, which are fairly common in breeder-flock diets and are passed along to chicks through the nutritionally deficient eggs they hatch from. General signs of deficiency are poor growth and lack of vigor. All chicks, but especially chicks that have been shipped, benefit from the addition of a vitamin supplement in their drinking water for their first three weeks of life.

As chicks grow, keep feeders level with the bird's back to prevent waste and to keep the birds out of the containers, preventing contamination.

Whether your chicks come by mail or come out of your own incubator, when you first put them into the brooder, make sure they know where the water is by gently dipping the tip of each beak into the waterer. Even though they may not drink right away, most of them will get the idea. Once several chicks start drinking, the rest will learn to imitate them.

Chicks that can't find the water won't grow at a normal rate, develop bluish beaks, and stop peeping. Deaths start occurring on the fourth day and continue until the sixth day. If water is available, but some chicks couldn't find it, those surviving after the sixth day are the ones that did find it.

Initially, place waterers near, but not directly under, the heat source. As soon as the chicks are drinking well, move waterers farther out to give the chicks more space to rest near the source of heat. During the first days, do not place the waterer on a platform where chicks can't reach it. If you switch from one waterer to another, leave the old waterer in place for a few days until the chicks learn to use the new one.

Signs of Disease

Signs that brooded chicks are experiencing a serious disease include depression, weakness, poor growth, drooping wings, decreased appetite, increased thirst, huddling near heat with head down and eyes closed, swelling in one or both eyes, diarrhea, excessive deaths.

Chickhood Diseases

Healthy chicks that are properly housed and fed generally thrive. As distressing as the occasional death can be, it is not cause for serious concern. People who brood large numbers of chicks expect a normal death rate of about 2.5 percent during the first two weeks, increasing to up to 5 percent by the seventh week. If you experience fewer or no losses, consider yourself fortunate.

Mature chickens are reservoirs of infection, whether or not the adult birds themselves are sick. Brood your chicks away from older birds to give them time to develop the natural immunities that result from gradual exposure to infectious organisms, as opposed to sudden exposure to a high concentration that may cause disease instead of immunity. When caring for your chickens, always take care of chicks first and the older birds afterward.

By far the most common brooder disease is coccidiosis, the primary sign of which is loose, watery, and sometimes bloody droppings occurring any time after chicks reach two weeks of age. This disease is serious, as it may result in many deaths, and chicks that survive may fail to grow properly. Coccidiosis occurs mainly during warm humid weather. Chicks raised in the cool weather of early spring are less likely to get it unless their quarters are not kept clean and/or droppings get into their drinking water.

The best way to prevent coccidiosis is to brood chicks early in the year, while the weather is still cold and dry, and keep their quarters scrupulously clean. Replace paper towels or litter frequently; immediately remove and replace wet towels or litter. Wash waterers each time you refill them. If you find chick droppings in the water, adjust the height of the waterer (by elevating it on a low platform) or find a more suitably designed waterer.

If you brood chicks in warm, humid conditions, sometimes the only way to prevent coccidiosis is by using medicated starter ration containing a coccidiostat. If you are raising chicks for meat, be sure to observe the withholding period on the label.

Medicated feed won't cure chicks that already have coccidiosis, and besides sick chicks usually stop eating. Chicks that already have coccidiosis must be treated with an anti-coccidial, purchased from a feed store or poultry supplier (this is no time to experiment with "natural" concoctions). The anti-coccidial is added to the drinking water, which chicks will continue to consume even after they stop eating. Treatment works quickly and effectively if started at the first signs of coccidiosis. When you purchase chicks from a hatchery, you will be offered the option of having them vaccinated to stimulate natural immunity that produces lifetime protection against coccidiosis, but you must make sure never to feed them medicated rations, which would neutralize the vaccine.

Different chick diseases occur in different parts of the country. Your county Extension agent or state poultry specialist can tell you whether or not your chicks should be vaccinated and for which diseases. Chicks that are kept warm, dry, and away from drafts and predators, are fed properly, and always have clean water are likely to thrive and give you great pleasure watching them grow.

Gail Damerow is a well-known poultry expert and the author of many books including these on poultry: Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens, The Chicken Health Handbook, Your Chickens: A Kid's Guide to Raising and Showing, Barnyard in Your Backyard, and Fences for Pasture & Garden. These books are available from the Backyard Poultry Bookstore