How to Raise Baby Chicks in the First 10 Days

If you want to start a poultry farm business, you may want to know how to raise baby chicks. This article summarizes the raising skills of the first ten days after the birth of the chicks. Hope it will help you.

Summary on how warm to keep chicks

Day 1: The house temperature is between 35-37 ℃, the humidity is between 65% and 70%, and the light is 24 hours.
Day 2-3: the light time is above 22 hours, and the humidity is about 70%.
Day 4-7: Control the temperature in the house at 34-36 ℃, and do a good job of ventilation.
Day 8: The light time is 14 hours, and the house temperature is about 34°C.
Day 9-10: The house temperature is 33-34°C and the humidity is about 60%.

After the chick is hatched, they must be kept in a special environment with a higher temperature than normal until their size and feather coverage is developed to accommodate more normal brooding temperatures. During this period, the chicks should be given comfortable temperature and humidity, reasonable light, scientific water and feed ratio, strengthen the immunity of the chicks and the disinfection of the chicken house. Scientific breeding techniques and active observation towards chicks’ behavior can help understand the adaptability of chicks to the environment, so as to make reasonable adjustments to the raising environment.

How to Raise Baby Chicks From Day 1 to Day 10

This article is meant to to explain the feeding techniques and how to raise baby chicks in detail for the first ten days of chicks. All these steps are essential for the health and sustainable development of the chicks.

1. Chick on day 1

Before the baby chicks arrive in the chicken house, the temperature in the chick house needs to be pre-warmed, the temperature is controlled at 35-37℃, and the humidity is controlled at 65%-70%.
The purpose of pre-warming is to better raise the temperature of the baby chick house to the standard before the chicks arrive in the coop. On the other hand, it is to prevent the chicks from feeling cold when they touch the baby chick cage, which will cause a stress response. Especially when chicks are lying or on the net in the cage, their abdomen is more prone to catch cold. So pre-warming is a very important step. Pay special attention: Keep the ground and walls warm to prevent the chicks from getting into the chicken house and huddling in groups because of the cold.
The temperature of picking up the chicks: It is required to reduce 2℃-3℃, and maintain this temperature for 20-40min. The purpose is to let the chickens adapt to the environment and avoid stress response.
Prepare vaccines, nutritional medicines, disinfection solutions, water, feed, bedding and disinfection facilities.
Close the cage door in time after the chicks enter the chick cage and allocate an appropriate feeding density as soon as possible. In cage free rearing, about 20-30 chicks/m2. It is about 50-60 chicks/m2 for baby chick cages.
Water should be fed in time after chicks entering into the cages. Cold boiled water is the most recommended. You can add 5% glucose and multivitamins in the water.
Then start feeding, the feed can be placed in the trough or tray. The food should be high-protein, and the crude protein content should not be less than 19.5%.
Chicks need to be fed for 4 meals a day. During this period, the water can not be cut off. At the same time, give full-day light, with a light intensity of 10 lux.
Due to the weak eyesight of the baby chicks just out of the shell, in order to let the chicks familiarize themselves with the environment and start to eat and drink as soon as possible, it is required to provide the chicks with a lighting environment with a long time and high-intensity. The installation of bulbs in the chicken house should be close to the active area of the chicks. The height is generally 2.1 meters to 2.5 meters from the ground. The distance between the bulbs should be equal to 1 to 1.5 times the height. In addition, the staggered bulbs which is more likely to offer a more uniform illuminance is most recommended. And the bulb should be 60 watts. The distance between the bulb and the chicken is generally within 1.8-3.1 meters, 2.5 meters to 3.1 meters if there is a lampshade, and 1.8 meters to 2.2 meters without a lampshade. Do not let the bulb be too close to the chicks to avoid anal pecking and feather pecking.
On the night after the chicks enter the cage, the chicken house needs to be disinfected to achieve the purpose of disinfecting the ground and reducing the dust in the house. Disinfection can be disinfected by spray disinfection with a disinfection immune machine.
HIGHTOP’s disinfection immunity machine can meet various poultry spray immunity and disinfection tasks by changing the different diameters of the nozzles and controlling the precision of the particles. Its unique air pressure automatic control design ensures that use of vaccines and disinfectants without leakage. The immune angle can be adjusted flexibly to effectively maintain the active disinfection.
In order to increase the humidity in the house, boil water on the stove to produce water vapor, or sprinkle warm water directly on the ground to maintain the necessary humidity in the house.

2. Chicks on the 2nd and 3rd day

The light time should be ensured at least 22 hours, with a light intensity of around 10 lux. The humidity should be around 70%. (The control of light intensity and light humidity is the same as the first day).
Drugs or vaccines can be used to prevent respiratory diseases and infectious diseases in chickens.

3. Chicks during day 4-7

Starting from the fourth day, the light time can be gradually reduced, and the light time can be reduced by one hour every day. That is, 23 hours on day 4, 22 hours on day 5, 21 hours on day 6, and 20 hours on day 7.
Drinking water and feeding can be changed to 3 times a day. Offer runner water as drinking water. Drugs cannot be used for 24 hours before and after immunization, and the multivitamins dose in the water should be appropriately reduced according to the health condition of the chicks.
The temperature in the house can be lowered by 1-2℃, that is, 34-36℃. (The control method of light intensity and temperature is the same as the first day).
Pay attention to the ventilation in the house. Generally, increase the house temperature by about 2℃ before ventilating, and vent 3 to 5 times a day. Especially for the chicken coops of using coal-burning heating, ventilation should be strengthened to reduce the content of carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide in the house, and to prevent gas poisoning.
Keep on cleaning the chicken manure every day, and disinfection work needs to be carried on after cleaning the manure.
On the 7th day, take 5% of the chicks and weigh them to see if they meet the standards, and then adjust the daily feed dosage accordingly.

4. Chicks on day 8

The daily light time is shortened to 14 hours, the house temperature drops to 34-35℃, the humidity is 65%, and the light intensity can be appropriately weakened.
You can consider to debeak for the chicks to prevent them from pecking feathers, toes, and anus, for details, please check When and How to Debeak Chickens.
The position of debeaking is one-half from the tip to the nostril, and the bottom beak needs to be cut by one-third.
After the beak is cut off, the bleeding should be prevented quickly, and add 5 mg/50kg of vitamin K3 to the drinking water. Weak chicks cannot be debeaked.
It is necessary to add certain medicine to their drinking water 3 days after the beak is cut to prevent wound infection.
5 days after the beak is cut off, the feed in the trough should be placed as much as possible to avoid the occurrence of wound infections caused by the chicks licking the empty trough.

5. Young chicks on days 9-10

Decrease the light time by 1 hour every day. That is, 18 hours for the 9th day, and 17 hours for the 10th day (the light intensity is the same as the 8th day).
Some certain medications can be used to prevent respiratory diseases for these two days.
Sufficient feed should be given to ensure their nutrition, as well as the water.
Increase the amount of ventilation and the frequency of ventilation. Basically, ventilation is required every 2-3 hours.
The house temperature should be controlled at 33-34℃, and the humidity should be 60%.

About how to raise baby chicks, in short, the chicks should be given a comfortable, moderate humidity and less polluted breeding environment in the early brooding period. Good management skills, adequate drinking water and feed, and proper immunization of chicks will help strengthen the physical condition of the chickens, reduce the incidence of salmonella, respiration and other infectious diseases.