• Raising Day Old Chicks
• Raising Started Chickens
• General Chicken Care
• Raising Quail
• Raising Pheasant
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• About OGP

Started Poultry

Beginning your poultry flock with started birds (or adding to your current flock for that matter) is often easier when you purchase started poultry. Ages can vary but started usually implies an age where they are no longer in a brooder and are able to be kept in a coop. Some breeders offer ages from day old, progressing by the week, all the way to laying age. Expect to pay more as someone's time, facility, feed and so on went into raising them. This is somewhere around $1 per week, per bird, on top of the day old price, usually. If you don't have the room to raise chicks or the time, go with started birds of the appropriate age for your situation. If you want to watch them grow from tiny little fluff-balls into adult productive members of your flock, start with day old chicks.

Started poultry is no different than any other. Food, water and shelter. Instead of a brooder for chicks, you'll probably need a coop ready for started birds, depending on the age you purchase. They will need either starter or laying pellets, again depending on the age you purchased. More space per bird is required versus chicks of course and they will go through more feed per week. Be ready for these natural and continuing requirements when raising poultry.

There are a couple things to remember:

• 1.
  Your started poultry will probably go directly into your coop. This opens them to the world sometimes and the world isn't always a nice place. Predators love chicken dinners. And yours could be on the menu. Predator protection is now a must. Neighbors dogs, coyotes, hawks and owls, cats, your own pets and more find chicken a very tasty and satisfying meal. We have lost birds to predators and don't think it's only at night. We've had coyotes come right up to the coops at 11am. And they were not all that scared of people.
• 2.
  Space is important to help protect the health of your poultry. 2-3 sq ft per bird in the coop is a minimum and at least 10 sq ft in the pen if you keep them confined. To keep fighting, pecking and the like at bay, make sure your space has grown with the size of your individual birds and total number in your flock. Free ranging is great, we do and prefer it but it is also the most dangerous way to raise your birds. Expect an occasional loss or worse, your entire flock. Use caution when free ranging.
• 3.
  Feed and water are still critical to the health of your flock but since they are now most likely outside, they should be getting some bugs and other goodies on their own which adds protein to their diet in a natural way. You will need to migrate to larger feed/water containers than you would use for chicks. Now is the time for the adult size feeder and waterer. When making the purchase keep in mind capacity but also how hard is it going to be to keep clean, how easy is it to fill, is it durable and will it fit in the location you've selected. Possibly other factors will come into play depending on your individual situation.