How Fast Do Baby Chicks Grow?
Getting baby chicks is always exciting, even if it’s also a little nerve wracking. There are a lot of reasons you might be getting chicks, whether you’re planning to raise egg-laying hens, broiler chickens for meat, or planning to use them for snake food. In any case, the first few weeks (and months) of a chicken’s life are some of the most important.
In this article, we’ll talk about the first stage in a chicken’s life, from its first day until it reaches full size. Let’s get into it.
The First Week
Chicks are typically sold the day they hatch. This means you will basically have them from the moment they’re born. Don’t blink - they’re going to start growing faster than you can keep track.
Day One
When your chickens first arrive, they’ll be about four inches tall and covered in a thick layer of super warm down. As we mentioned, they will probably be newborn at this point. Some might not have figured out how to stand yet, others will be standing.
At this point, the most important thing for your chicks’ safety and health is keeping them warm in a brooder. You’ll need to keep them about 95° to help their tiny little immune systems keep their tiny little bodies healthy and strong. Chicks will need to stay in the brooder until they’re ready to live outside, which can be anywhere from four to six weeks.
Day Two
At this point, you’ll already see some noticeable growth. Some chicks may already measure five inches tall when standing. They should all have figured out how to stand by this point. Some of them will still be keeping their heads tucked, but others will be stretching out and taking in their environment more.
Chicks usually don’t eat until the second day or third day of life. When they’re ready, you can start them on a medicated chick starter feed. This will give them a rounded, healthy mix of everything they need and help keep them healthy.
Day Three
At this point, your chicks’ growth should be obvious. Your chicks will be shooting up just past the five inch mark, stretching out their necks, and pecking at their starter feed crumbles. You will also notice that some of your chicks are already developing primary feathers.
Day Four
Four-day chicks might not be as noticeably different from three-day chicks, but rest assured that they’re still growing at a clip. Their feathers are developing and they’re getting bigger all the time. They should all be standing at five inches high or so by now.
Day Five
Around day five, your chicks are still slowly getting more feathers and getting taller. They should have more energy, flapping their wings and running around to explore.
Day Six
By day six, your chicks should be standing about six inches tall. They will still be mostly covered in down, with emerging primary feathers on their wings. That down will stick around for quite a while, and is important in regulating their internal temperatures. Be sure to keep using your brooder to help them fight off illness and stay healthy.
Day Seven
In the first week of life, your chicks will have grown about 50% larger than when you got them. They will have started to grow primary feathers, and learned to stand, walk, jump, and flap. And they will be doing a lot of all of the above, exploring their environment excitedly.
After the first week, you can start to incrementally turn the temperature in your brooder down. After a week, you can turn it down to 90°F.
The Second Week
By the end of the second week of a chick’s life, it will look more like a chicken than a baby chick.
On their eighth day, they will be jumping around everywhere and full of energy. If your brooder is only a foot tall or so, they will very soon be able to jump clean out of it.
By day nine, your chickens should be standing a full six to seven inches high, especially with their necks stretched out. By this point, they’ll be eating about double what they were eating before. Keep an eye on their feeders and water as their energetic habits will probably make a lot of mess.
On day ten, you will probably notice that your chicks have full-blown wings. They will surprise you with their ability to jump and will quickly learn to shoot clear up out of a two foot tall brooder.
By day eleven, they are acting more and more like chickens. They will run around and interact with each other, peck at their food, kick up bedding, and try relentlessly to jump out of their brooder.
The next few days don’t have much noticeable change, even though your birds are still growing fast. By the fourteenth day, your chickens will have lost most of their down and will look a lot like small chickens, with primary and contour feathers on their wings.
They’ll be downright acrobatic and you will probably have trouble keeping them in the brooder. Remember that it’s important to keep them in for warmth; you can construct a ring of chicken wire around the brooder to contain them a little better. They should measure over seven inches tall by the end of the second week.
The First Month
By the end of the first month, your chickens will look like proper chickens. Their down will be gone, and you might consider moving them outside to a proper coop. Be sure to only do this if the outside temperature is above 50°F all the time. They will need high temps around 80°F.
The Second Month
In their second month, your chickens will start to lay eggs. They should be ready to be outside full time, as long as the daytime temp is above 75°F and the nighttime temp stays above 50°F. You can move them off their medicated starter feed and onto a lower-protein mix. We love using black soldier flies, veggies, and fruits. A mixed diet will help them stay healthy into adulthood.