Chick Care Guide
Laree Ranch · All Things Silkie
Bringing Home Your Crowns
everything your chicks need for the first eight weeks
Congratulations, and thank you for giving one of our Crowns a home. This guide covers everything from the ride home through moving outside, and it is written to be read on your phone while you are standing over the brooder wondering if that is normal.
Short answer on most things: it probably is. But read the warning signs section so you know the handful that are not.
Set Up Before You Pick Them Up
Have the brooder running and up to temperature before you leave to meet us. Chicks should go straight from the box into a warm setup, not sit around while you assemble things.
What You Need
- A brooder. A galvanized stock tank, a large tote, or a cardboard box all work. It needs to be draft free with solid sides and big enough that chicks can move toward or away from the heat.
- A heat source. A brooder plate is safer than a heat lamp and lets chicks regulate themselves. If you use a lamp, secure it two separate ways. Lamps start barn fires every single year.
- A thermometer at chick level, not clipped to the rim.
- A shallow waterer with marbles or clean pebbles in the base.
- A feeder they cannot tip or roost on.
- Paper towels for the first few days, then pine shavings or hemp bedding.
Whatever you use, skip cedar. The aromatic oils are hard on young respiratory systems in a closed brooder. Pine and hemp are both good choices.
The Ride Home and First Hour
Keep the car warm and the box out of direct airflow from the vents. Resist the urge to check on them constantly, since every lid lift is a draft.
When you get home, take each chick out individually and dip its beak in the water before setting it down. Just the tip, then let go. Do this for every single chick even if you are sure they know where the water is. It is the most important five minutes of the whole first week.
Then leave them alone for a few hours. They have had a big day, and they will eat, drink, and sleep on their own schedule once they settle.
Heat
Chicks cannot regulate their own body temperature yet, so the brooder does it for them. Start around 95°F at chick level for the first week and drop roughly five degrees each week until you reach the ambient temperature outside.
If you are using a brooder plate, set the height so they can just stand underneath it, and raise it as they grow. The plate does the regulating for you.
- They are too cold if
- They huddle tightly under the heat, pile on each other, and cheep loudly and constantly. Piling is how chicks get smothered, so fix this one quickly.
- They are too hot if
- They press to the far corners away from the heat, hold their wings out, and pant.
- They are just right if
- They are scattered around the whole brooder, some eating, some sleeping flat out like they have been dropped from a height. A sprawled chick is a happy chick, not a dead one. You will panic about this at least once.
Watch the chicks, not the thermometer. They will tell you more than the number will.
Water
Fresh water, every single day, in a shallow dish with marbles or pebbles in the bottom. Chicks drown in surprisingly little water, and a wet silkie chick chills fast because that fluff holds moisture instead of shedding it.
Keep the waterer away from directly under the heat so it does not turn warm and grow bacteria. Rinse it properly rather than just topping it off.
Feed
Your chicks have been raised on a 50/50 blend of Kalmbach Chickhouse Reserve Extraordinary Chick Starter and Kalmbach All Natural Non-GMO 20% Flock Maker Crumbles, with grit always available.
Staying on the same feed is the easiest thing you can do for them. If you want to switch to something else, wait until they have settled in for a week or two, then transition gradually by mixing the old and new feed over several days rather than swapping all at once.
Order the same feed we use
Kalmbach ships straight to your door through Chewy, so your chicks can stay on exactly what they were raised on.
Shop Kalmbach on ChewyThis is an affiliate link. If you order through it, Laree Ranch may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only link to feed we actually use.
If Kalmbach is hard to find near you and you don't want to order online, Cluck & Co. chick starter is a good alternative and one we have used ourselves prior to switching to Kalmbach and is available at Tractor Supply. Whatever you land on, pick one and stay with it rather than switching around.
Feed Notes
- Keep it available at all times. Chicks eat constantly and should never run out.
- Offer grit if they are getting anything other than their crumbles. They have no teeth, and grit is what does the grinding.
- Medicated or not is your call. Medicated starter contains amprolium, which helps them build resistance to coccidiosis. If your chicks were vaccinated for coccidiosis, skip the medicated feed, since it works against the vaccine. Ask us what we did with yours if you are not sure.
- Go easy on treats. Chick starter is balanced for exactly what a growing chick needs, and anything else waters that down. Hold off for the first few weeks. When you do start, keep it small and make sure grit is available.
Bedding
Paper towels for the first three or four days. Chicks will eat bedding before they figure out what food is, and paper towels also give them traction, which matters for their legs.
After that, switch to pine shavings or hemp, an inch or two deep. We use both here. Hemp costs more up front but it is far more absorbent, makes less dust, and tends to go further, which matters in an enclosed brooder where chicks are breathing right down at bedding level.
Either way: spot clean daily, change it out when it starts to smell, and keep it dry. Damp bedding is where most brooder problems begin.
What Is Different About Silkies
Most of the above applies to any chick. These parts are specific to the fluffy ones.
Silkie Specifics
- They cannot fly. Not as chicks, not ever. Your brooder walls can be lower, but they also cannot escape anything, so a secure lid matters more for keeping things out than keeping them in.
- Their fluff is not waterproof. Silkie feathers lack the structure that sheds water. A damp silkie gets cold fast and stays cold. Keep the brooder dry and keep them out of weather longer than you would other breeds.
- Crests can block vision. As the crest comes in, some birds genuinely cannot see their feed well. Keep food and water in the same place so they learn the layout, and trim around the eyes later if a bird is struggling.
- Be gentle with their heads. Many silkies have a vaulted skull, meaning the crest sits over a soft spot in the bone. Never grab or bump a silkie by the head, and keep them away from anything that pecks at crests.
- They feather in slowly. Expect to run heat a little longer than a standard breed, and do not rush them outside just because the calendar says it is week six.
- Five toes. Count them. It is one of the joys.
A note on faults: some chicks hatch with traits that fall short of the Standard, and four toes instead of five is the most common one you will see. This shows up more often in our mixed Crown boxes, which are sold as pet and project quality rather than show birds.
A four toed silkie is still a silkie. It would not place at a show, but it will live exactly as long, lay exactly as well, and be exactly as ridiculous as any of the others. Nothing about a fault like this needs treating or worrying over.
What to Watch For
Check every chick properly once a day. Pick them up, look at the vent, watch how they move.
- Pasty butt
- Droppings dried over the vent, blocking it. This is the most common early problem and it is fatal if ignored. Soften with a warm damp cloth and work it off gently. Never pull dried matter off dry skin. Check daily for the first two weeks.
- Splay leg
- Legs sliding out sideways so the chick cannot stand. Usually from slippery footing. Correctable if caught early by hobbling the legs loosely with a small bandage for a few days. Good traction in the brooder prevents most cases.
- A chick off on its own
- Standing apart, eyes closed, not eating, puffed up. Something is wrong. Warmth and electrolyte water are the first response, and keep a close eye.
- Not drinking
- Dip the beak again. Some chicks need several reminders, and crested breeds sometimes need more help finding the waterer than others.
The First Eight Weeks
Week One
95°F. Paper towel footing. Check vents daily for pasty butt. Mostly eating and sleeping. Keep handling to a minimum this week beyond the daily health check. They have a lot of settling to do, and the rest can wait.
Weeks Two and Three
Drop about five degrees a week. Switch to pine shavings or hemp. This is when we start handling ours regularly, and it is worth doing a little every day so they grow up friendly. Wing feathers come in and they start trying to use them, which for a silkie is mostly enthusiasm with no results.
Weeks Four to Six
Heat keeps stepping down. They need more room than you think. On warm, calm, dry days you can take them outside briefly in a secure pen, but bring them back in before they chill.
Weeks Six to Eight and Beyond
Once they are fully feathered and the outdoor temperature matches their brooder temperature, they can move out to a secure, dry, draft free coop. With silkies this often runs later than with other breeds. Let the bird decide, not the calendar.
When you eventually introduce them to an existing flock, do it slowly and with a barrier between them first. Silkies are small, cannot fly away from trouble, and sit low in a pecking order. Never just put them in and hope.
Contact Us
If something looks wrong and you are not sure, reach out. We would rather hear from you on day three about something small than find out later it became something big.
Email: lareeranch@gmail.com
Text: 620-215-3126
Email or text is best, and photos help enormously. We do not answer calls, so please do not wait on a ringing phone if something is urgent.
This goes for any bird you have bought from us, at any point. It does not expire after a week.
From Our Flock
Thank You
Every chick that leaves here was hatched, watched, and chosen on purpose. We hope yours give you as much joy as theirs give us, and we would genuinely love to see pictures as they grow.
Happy brooding, friends!
crowned with glory
