On June 10th, 2003 we picked up ten baby chicks at the Geene County Fairgrounds. My sister, Shannon, who is also showing market chickens, was with me. My little brother, Ryan was also there along with my dad.
We took turns choosing chicks from a box of chicks. We selected the chicks that looked healthiest, the ones that chirped a lot, looked full of energy and had good color. On the way home, we stopped at the feed store in Xenia. We bought 2 bags of Purina Mills, LLC poultry food. We had good luck with this food last year so we thought we would use it for our chickens this year.
When we got home, we crushed the feed for the chicks to eat. We crushed their food for the first week so the chicks could swallow the food easily. We used a quart watering jug and a cut off plastic cup for a feed pan. .
Fortunately, for us, we already had the following equipment from our last years 4-H project. The equipment included: (2) 1qt water bottles; 1 long metal feed tray; 1 heat lamp; 2 large gallon water bottles; several cut out milk jugs for feed; a 25' x 12' dog pen with wire cover; several tarps and bungee cords.
For the first two weeks (until the chickens got feathers) we kept the chicks inside with a heat lamp. We cleaned the bedding daily and gave them clean water in the water bottles filled the food tray with poultry feed. We used the heat lamp to maintain 95 degree temperature for the chicks the first week. We lost two of the chicks the first week. Keeping them dry and warm with plenty of food and fresh water is very important.
We moved the chicks outside into the large fenced dog pen after they got almost all of their feathers. We kept the heat lamp on at night when it gets cool so the chickens can stay warm. We have two 1 gallon watering jugs that we keep filled with fresh water. We put the water jugs on top of wooden blocks so the water stays clean. For feed, we cut out holes in the top of gallon milk jugs.
