tips for raising chicks

There’s something quite amazing about the process of an egg becoming a chick. Raising your own chooks from eggs gives you a wider choice of the breeds you keep, as you can get fertile eggs sent to you more easily than live birds. If you want to experience the miracle in your own back garden, you’ll need some fertile chicken eggs and a broody chook or incubator.

I think it’s easier to use a hen to hatch eggs. The chicks also turn out healthier when they are looked after by mum (or a surrogate mum), but you can get good results if you’re diligent checking even a basic incubator. Bantam hens are meant to make the best mothers. Older hens tend to be better than those less than a year old. From time to time you’ll see hens for sale on Trade Me, although they can be scarce in Wellington.

Just make sure if you decide you want to keep chooks that you actually like them. You’ll be seeing them at least once a day for the next few years so you’ve got like spending time with them about. I sell fertile rhode island red eggs from about September to March for $15 for a half dozen so email me if you are interested in buying some. I don’t have chicks or pullets for sale.

Keep fertile eggs for incubating at room temperature until you’re ready to use them. Put them in an egg box and turn it morning and evening. Fresh eggs are best, but I have had success with eggs I kept for up to three weeks while waiting for enough from one hen. If they’ve been on a journey, in a car or by courier for example, leave them in a cool place to ‘rest’ for 24 hours before incubating them. Eggs should be clean. The health of the chick will depend on the health of the parents, particularly the mother.

Incubators come should come with instructions about the temperature, ventilation and humidity. They need to be scrupulously clean. Some have automatic turners, others you’ll have to turn the eggs manually several times a day. A broody chook will take care of all this for you, but you’ll need to lift her gently off the nest once a day to have a drink and relieve herself. Leave some food for her but often she’s too keen to get back on the nest to bother eating. I keep my broody chooks in a converted rabbit hutch – anywhere quiet, warm, dry and secure from pests away from the main flock will do. If you leave a broody with the rest of the flock the other hens may try to get onto the nest and the eggs can get chilled. It’s also meant to make it more likely that your laying hens will go broody. Make sure the chicks can get out of the nest when they hatch.

Eggs will hatch after 21 days of setting them to incubate, irrespective of when they were laid. If you don’t have the temperature right in an incubator they may be a couple of days early or late. Make sure the surface of the incubator isn’t slippery for the chicks – I put a piece of towelling under the eggs when they are due to hatch.

Chicks will survive the first 24 hours without food and water so don’t be in too much of a rush to get them out of the warmth of the incubator. Wait until they are fully fluffed up and move them to a ‘brooder’. I use a box with a heat lamp above it. It starts at the same temperature as the incubator and I raise the lamp over the next couple of weeks to cool it down gradually. You can tell from the movement of the chicks whether they are too hot or cold. Depending on the weather, the chicks will need some heat, at least at night, until they are about six weeks old. The chicks need special chick feed and a waterer that they won’t fall into and drown. I give them greens, such as chickweed or silverbeet, from their first few days too. Again, mum will look after most of this for you, but you’ll need to make sure the chicks and hen can both reach the food and water.

The male and female chicks of some breeds of chicken look different, but for Rhode Island Reds I have to wait about six weeks to be absolutely sure which will be hens and which roosters. You’ll need to have a plan for what to do with your roosters if you don’t want to keep them after they start crowing.

If you live in town, the council may have by-laws about whether you’re allowed to keep chooks. They may restrict the number and location of their housing. You generally aren’t allowed to keep roosters in an urban environment.

Simon Morton has been documenting his experiences on National Radio raising chooks in Wellington with the help of expert Darcy Philp. You can listen to his experiences here.