Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens (82 page)

Chicks can go without water for 48 hours after they hatch, but the sooner they drink, the less stressed they will be and the better they’ll grow. A chick’s body needs water for all life processes, including digestion, metabolism, and respiration. Water helps regulate body temperature by taking up and giving off heat, and it also carries away body wastes. A chick that loses 10 percent of its body water through dehydration and excretion will experience serious physical disorders. If the loss reaches 20 percent, the chick will die.

Chicks that can’t find water won’t grow at a normal rate, will develop bluish beaks, and will 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.

To make sure your chicks know where the water is, take advantage of the fact that a chick starts drinking as soon as its beak is wet. As you place each chick in the brooder, dip its beak into the waterer and watch that it swallows some water before releasing the bird. 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.

Some chicks start life quite active and curious, while others initially aren’t adventuresome at all, so for the first day or two, keep waterers fairly close to the heat source, where all the chicks can easily find them — but not directly under
the heat, where they are likely to sleep crowded against the waterer and drown. 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.

Various health boosters consisting of vitamins and electrolytes may be added to drinking water to give chicks the best start in life. If the chicks have been shipped, a booster solution for the first 3 weeks will help them overcome shipping stress. Even if they haven’t been shipped, a booster solution for at least 1 week will help them cope with the stress of transforming from embryo to chick.

In the old days, before chick-booster blends were readily available, old-timers put sugar in the drinking water of newly hatched chicks to give them extra energy. If the chicks were shipped by mail or just looked droopy and in need of a spurt of energy, as much as 1 pound (0.5 kg) of sugar was stirred into each gallon (4 L) of water (or 0.1 kg per liter), or about a half cup per quart (120 mL per 1 L).

Chicks must have access to fresh, clean water at all times. The easiest way to provide water to newly hatched chicks is to use a 1-quart (1 L) canning jar fitted with a metal or plastic watering base, available from most feed stores and poultry-supply catalogs. A plastic base will crack over time, and a metal one will break away from the portion that screws onto the jar, so keep a few extra ones on hand.

If you can’t find a chick-watering base, or yours springs a leak, make an emergency waterer from an empty can and an aluminum pie tin that’s 2 inches (5 cm) larger in diameter than the can. Bore two small holes on opposite sides of the can, ¾-inch (2 cm) from the open end. Fill the can with water, invert the pie tin on top, and turn the assembly upside down so the pan becomes a water-filled basin the chicks can drink from.

Don’t be tempted to cut corners by furnishing water in an open dish or saucer. Chicks will walk in it, tracking litter and droppings that spread disease. They’ll tend to get wet and chilled, and the stress will open the way to disease. Some chicks may drown.

Drowning is generally not an issue when chicks have a proper waterer unless they are so crowded some chicks end up falling asleep with their heads in water. Tiny bantams may also have trouble with drinkers designed for standard-size chicks, in which case put marbles or clean pebbles in the water for the first few days until the birds get big enough to avoid drowning.

Within a week or so the chicks will outgrow the 1-quart watering jars. You’ll know the time has come when you find yourself filling drinkers more and more often to keep your chicks in water at all times. Another sign that a waterer is too small is finding chicks perched on top, a habit that gets droppings in the water. You’ll know the time for changing drinkers has long since passed when you find the quart jar overturned and spilled due to boisterous play in the brooder.

When it’s time to change to larger waterers, you have several choices. Regardless of the design, a good waterer has these features:

It is the correct size for the flock’s size and age — chicks should neither use up the available water quickly nor be able to tip the fount over.

The basin is the correct height — a chick drinks more and spills less when the water level is between its eye and the height of its back.

Chicks can’t roost over or step into the water — droppings plus drinking water make a sure formula for disease.

The drinker is easy to clean — a fount that’s hard to clean won’t be sanitized as often as it should be.

The waterer does not leak — leaky drinkers not only run out fast but create damp conditions that promote disease.

One style of waterer is similar to the quart-jar setup, only in larger versions. Depending on the number of chicks you’re brooding and the amount of space they have, you might first switch from quart jars to 1-gallon (4 L) plastic drinkers, then move up to 3-gallon (12.5 L) or 5-gallon (20 L) metal founts.

Another style is a trough-type waterer. You’ll need 20 linear inches (50 cm) of trough per 100 chicks up to 2 weeks old, and 30 linear inches (75 cm) thereafter. A trough that allows chicks to drink from both sides offers twice the watering space of a one-sided trough.

Automatic waterers are a great time saver, are the most sanitary of all designs, and ensure that chicks won’t run out of water when no one is around to refill
founts. Any time you use indoor metal waterers connected directly to water lines, if chicks refuse to drink, stick a finger into the water. If you feel a buzz, a bad electrical connection such as poor grounding is causing chicks to get a shock each time they try to drink. Fix the problem if you can or call in an electrician.

To minimize stress, chicks should drink soon after they hatch and eat within 5 hours.

Clean waterers daily with warm water and vinegar or other poultry-approved sanitizer. Initially place drinkers no more than 24 inches (60 cm) from the heat source. Later, as you move the chicks to expanded housing, make sure they never have to travel more than 10 feet (3 m) to get a drink. Whenever you change waterers, leave the old ones in place for a few days until the chicks get used to the new ones. This stress-reducing measure applies whether or not the chicks are moved at the same time the drinkers are upgraded.

To keep chicks from picking in damp litter around waterers, after the first week place each fount over a platform created from a wooden frame covered with ½-inch (12.5 mm)-mesh hardware cloth. Drips will fall below the mesh where chicks can’t walk or peck. During the first days do not place waterers on a platform where chicks can’t reach them, although you might use something thin and flat underneath to steady the waterer. Some folks use a small square of plywood; I prefer easily sanitized ceramic tiles left over from remodeling or purchased as seconds at discount stores.

Chicks experience less stress if they eat on the first day after they hatch, even though they can survive for another day or two without eating. Yolk reserves provide nutrients that in nature allow early-hatched chicks to remain in the nest
until all the stragglers have hatched. In modern times the yolk reserves sustain newly hatched chicks when they’re shipped by mail.