Bringing home baby chicks for the first time is both exciting and terrifying. While most new chicken owners focus their energy on creating the perfect coop, there are other details to consider and decisions to make before the little bundles arrive.
Delivery Day
Many budding chicken enthusiasts purchase chicks at local farms or feed supply stores. If you ordered chicks from a hatchery, you’ll need to know the ship and delivery dates so you can be available to pick them up from your local post office.
Most large poultry hatcheries ship new chicks in ventilated cardboard boxes with hot gel packs to keep chicks warm. A chick can live off its yolk sack for 48 hours after hatching, and hatcheries ship out chicks so they arrive in this window.
Brooding Babies
Baby chicks can’t go directly into the coop;
