You've picked up your chicks from the store, they're peeping away in their little Chick Days box, and now you're headed home wondering, "Alright, what do I do now?" Take a deep breath. Raising baby chicks is one of the most rewarding things you can do on a homestead or even in a backyard, and the first week is the most important one. Get these seven days right and you'll set your little flock up for a strong, healthy life.
This guide covers everything you need to know for that first week - from the moment you walk through the door with your new birds to the signs that tell you everything's going just fine (or that something needs a quick fix). All the care information here is sourced from Miller Hatcheries, our trusted hatchery partner, and from the team at Peavey Mart.
Before Your Chicks Come Home
If there's one thing experienced poultry folks will tell you, it's this: don't wait until the night before to set up your brooder. You want that space prepped at least a week ahead of time. Give the whole area a thorough clean and disinfect from top to bottom - walls, floor, all your feeders, waterers, and heat lamps. A product like Virkon works well for this. Once it's all scrubbed down, let it dry completely so there's no lingering moisture that could cause mould.
Then comes the most important part of your prep: pre-warm the brooding area for at least 24 to 48 hours before your chicks arrive. This isn't optional. You need to check the temperature at chick height, hunt down any cold spots or drafts, and make sure everything is steady and warm before those little ones set foot in their new home. If you've got drafty windows or doors, fix them now. And just a heads-up - plastic sheeting is no substitute for proper insulation.
For bedding, use absorbent wood shavings spread 2 to 4 inches thick. Make sure you're using larger shavings, not fine sawdust. Do not use newspaper (it gets slippery when wet and can cause leg problems), sand, cedar chips, or cedar shavings. Keep the surface as level as you can. If you're brooding bantams, this matters even more since the smaller birds can struggle in uneven bedding.
The Ride Home and the First Hour
When you get your chicks home, the very first thing you want to do is get them to water. Gently dip each chick's beak into the waterer so they know what it is and where to find it. This little step can make a real difference, especially for chicks that have been travelling.
For that first drink only, you can add about 1 cup of sugar per gallon of water. This gives them a quick energy boost after the stress of travel. If any chicks look weak or sluggish on arrival, mix about two tablespoons of sugar into one quart of warm water and offer it to them directly. After 16 hours, switch back to plain, fresh water.
A note on water temperature: you want it cool enough that the chicks won't be tempted to climb into it and get wet (wet chicks chill fast, and chilling is dangerous), but not ice cold. Room temperature or slightly below is the sweet spot. Hold off on putting water out until just before the chicks arrive so it stays fresh, and place waterers on slatted or wire platforms so your birds aren't standing on a wet floor.
Once the chicks have had their first drink, get them under the heat source right away. From here on out, temperature is going to be the single most important factor in your first week.
Temperature Is Everything
If there's one word you'll hear repeated by every experienced poultry person, it's "temperature." Almost every first-week problem - from pasty rear ends to chicks dying at day four - comes back to temperature. Always use a thermometer in the brooder, measured away from all heat sources, at chick height, in the coldest area the chicks can reach.
Here's what your starting temperatures should look like depending on what type of bird you're raising:
Layers, dual purpose, heritage breeds, and Western Rustics: Start at 30 to 32°C (86 to 90°F). Feed 20% chick starter for 8 weeks.
Broilers (Cornish Rock Giants): Start at 30 to 32°C (86 to 90°F). Feed 20% chick starter for 3 weeks, then switch to a 16% grower.
Bantams: Start a bit warmer at 35 to 38°C (95 to 100°F). Feed 25 to 28% turkey starter for 8 weeks.
Lower the temperature by about 3°C (5°F) each week as your chicks grow. Once they're fully feathered, make sure the temperature doesn't drop below 20°C (68°F). And here's a detail a lot of folks miss: keep the ambient room temperature around the brooder at 24°C (75°F) as well. Those nighttime lows in an Alberta garage or barn can be sneaky, so a high-low thermometer is worth its weight in gold for catching temperature dips you might not notice during the day.
Start your heat lamp about 18 inches (45 cm) from the floor and raise it as your chicks grow and the weeks go on.
Reading Your Chicks
Your chicks will tell you exactly how they're feeling if you know what to look for:
Too cold: The chicks are huddled together under or near the heat source, bunching up on top of each other. They may look sluggish or peep very loudly. These birds are struggling and burning energy that should be going toward growth.
Too hot: The chicks are keeping to the outer edges of the brooder, as far from the lamp as they can get. They might be spreading their wings out like little helicopters, panting, or making a high-pitched chirping sound.
Just right: Your chicks are spread out evenly across the brooder. Some are under the lamp, others are nearby, and a few are wandering around eating, drinking, and peeping contentedly. That's the sweet spot - you've got it bang on.
Feed and Water Basics
Baby chicks need a good-quality 20% protein chick starter in crumble form - not pellets and not mash. The crumble gives them a uniform distribution of nutrients and is easier for tiny beaks to handle. We recommend Rolling Acres Chick Starter Poultry Feed, which you can find at your local Peavey Mart.
For the first day or two, try putting some feed on a small flat surface like a container lid or an egg tray. This helps the chicks find it easily and keeps them from pecking at the bedding instead. Once they've figured out where the real food is, transition them to a proper feeder.
For equipment ratios, plan on one trough feeder (about a foot long) or one round feeder and one gallon waterer for every 25 chicks. Feed and water need to be within the warm comfort zone of the brooder and available at all times - chicks need continuous access to both.
For the first 5 to 7 days, add Poul-Vite to their water - it's a vitamin supplement specifically designed to give baby chicks a head start. Mix half a teaspoon per gallon, fresh daily. After that first week, continue adding it for 2 consecutive days per week for several more weeks. You can pick up Poul-Vite at your local Peavey Mart. One important caution: do not use electrolyte mixes that contain sodium (like E Lytes Plus) for baby chicks - Poul-Vite is the chick-safe option.
Clean your waterers daily and provide fresh water every day without exception. Dirty water is one of the fastest ways to get your new flock into trouble.
Setting Up the Brooder Space
Each chick needs approximately half a square foot of space in the brooder. That might not sound like much, but it's enough for them to move toward or away from the heat source as they need to. For 50 birds, you'll want about 20 feet of brooder barrier to form a circle around the heat lamp and keep the chicks contained in the warm zone.
Use an 18-inch-high barrier - cardboard works great for this, and you can find brooder guards at your local Peavey Mart. The barrier keeps chicks close to the heat, food, and water during those critical first days, and it prevents drafts from getting at them. You can also use hay bales or even repurpose some cardboard boxes cut to height. The key is blocking off corners so the chicks can't pile into them. Square corners are dangerous because chicks naturally crowd into tight spaces when they're cold, and they can smother each other. Rounding off those corners with cardboard or bales gives them wider angles that are much safer.
After 7 to 10 days, your chicks won't need the barrier anymore. At two weeks, increase their space by about 50%, and expand further after four weeks. As they grow, keep moving the feeders and waterers further apart from each other - a bit at a time until they're at least 4 to 5 feet apart. This encourages the chicks to move around and stay active.
Ventilation matters from day one. You need good air flow to keep the brooder dry and the ammonia levels down, but you don't want to seal everything off and cut off the air supply completely. The air should feel dry, not musty. It's a balance between warmth and fresh air, and you'll get a feel for it quickly.
Common First-Week Problems (and How to Fix Them)
Pasty Butt
You might notice some chicks with droppings stuck to their rear end, blocking everything up. This is called "pasting" and it's one of the most common first-week issues. It's almost always caused by the chicks getting chilled early on, though stress from travel can also be a factor. If you see it, gently clean the paste off with a warm, damp cloth. Be gentle - the skin is delicate. Check your birds daily for the first few days. If the problem persists beyond a few days, reassess your brooder temperature because it may still be too cold.
Pecking
Chicks naturally groom and peck at themselves and each other, and that's normal. But if you notice aggressive pecking that's pulling feathers or drawing blood, it usually means the brooding area is too hot, too crowded, or too brightly lit. A red heat lamp (rather than a white one) helps reduce the brightness and cuts down on the pecking instinct. Make sure you've got enough space per bird and that the temperature is in the right range.
The Day-Four Scare
Here's one that catches first-timers off guard: your chicks seem fine for the first few days, and then around day four you start finding dead birds. This is almost always a starve-out caused by temperature problems. What happens is the chicks weren't warm enough during their first couple of nights, so they spent all their energy trying to stay warm instead of eating and drinking. By day four, they've exhausted their reserves. The fix is prevention: make sure your brooder is the right temperature from the very start, especially overnight, and always use a reliable thermometer.
By the End of Week One
If you've made it through the first seven days with warm, active, peeping chicks that are eating and drinking well, you're in great shape. By now they should be familiar with their feeders and waterers, comfortable with their heat source, and starting to grow those first little feathers. You'll notice them getting more active and curious every day.
From here, the journey gets a lot easier. Keep lowering the heat by 3°C each week, keep the feed and water fresh, and keep an eye on their behaviour. Your chicks will keep telling you what they need if you pay attention.
Helpful Tools
Not sure how much equipment you need for your flock size? Our Brooder Setup Calculator does the math for you - just enter your number of chicks and bird type, and it'll give you a complete shopping list with heat lamps, feeders, waterers, and bedding quantities.
Still deciding which breed is right for your family? Try our Breed Finder Quiz to match your goals with the perfect bird.
And for everything else - from coop setup to winter care - head back to the Chick Days Care Guide for the full library of guides.
Happy farming, and welcome to the flock.
