After hatching

5 tips for caring for your chicks after hatching

Published 19 July 2026 · updated 21 July 2026 · 6-minute read

Dural's advice · from the ebook “From Egg to Hen”

Your chicks have hatched. The first few weeks decide everything: a chick can't regulate its own temperature until it's three to four weeks old, and it doubles its weight in a matter of days. During this window, you stand in for the mother hen. Here are the five things that make the difference.

The essentials in thirty seconds

Never move a wet chick: it dries off for 12 to 18 hours in the incubator.
Under the heat source: 35 °C (95 °F) the first week, then 3 °C (5 °F) less each week.
Water from the moment they arrive, at back height, changed every day.
A starter feed at 18 to 20% protein, never table scraps.
The best thermometer is the chicks themselves.

Cutaway of a brooder showing the heat plate, thermometer, drinker, feeder, bedding and ventilation — A well-designed brooder always offers two zones. The chick chooses where to sit, and it's that free choice that protects it from both heat and cold.

Let them dry off before moving them

Newly hatched, a chick is soaked and exhausted. It needs twelve to eighteen hours to dry off and get its strength back, and it should spend them in the incubator. Taking it out wet chills it sharply at the worst possible moment.

There's no rush: just before hatching, the chick absorbs the yolk of its egg. That reserve feeds it for 48 to 72 hours. So it can stay in the incubator without food or water until the whole clutch has hatched.

What to do: wait until it's dry, lively and steady on its feet. Warm the brooder up before the move, never after. And move several chicks at once rather than one at a time, so you only open the incubator once.

Warmth, the vital setting

This is the most important point in this article. A cold chick dies within twenty-four hours. An overheated chick dehydrates and stops feeding. Between the two the margin is comfortable, as long as you follow the step-down.

Week	Under the heat source	Marker
1	35 °C (95 °F)	Arrival in the brooder
2	32 °C (90 °F)	First feathers appear
3	29 °C (84 °F)	They explore more
4	26 °C (79 °F)	They move off the heat on their own
5	Gradual switch-off	Depending on room temperature

What to do: drop it by three degrees a week, and above all always leave a cool zone in the brooder. A chick that has the choice regulates itself far better than any thermostat.

The best thermometer is the chicks

Before you even look at a number, look at your chicks. How they arrange themselves in the brooder tells you everything, at a glance, and it's the most reliable read there is.

Four arrangements of chicks under the heat source: spread out normally, piled underneath, moved away and panting, and bunched to one side — Four situations, four instant diagnoses. Chicks that are spread out and calm, cheeping softly, are chicks that are settled in nicely.

What you see	What it means	What you do
Spread out, calm, active	All is well	Nothing
Piled up under the heat source	They're cold	Lower the plate or raise the setting
Away from it, wings spread, panting	They're too hot	Raise the plate or lower the setting
Bunched to one side	A draught	Find the leak and block it

Water, straight away and clean

A chick without water dies within twenty-four to forty-eight hours. It's the first thing it should find on arrival, even before food.

What to do: room-temperature water, never ice-cold, in a nipple drinker or an inverted bell drinker, set at back height and changed every day. On the first day, gently dip each chick's beak in the water: that's how you show them where to drink. Avoid open dishes, where they get wet, foul the water and catch cold.

A protein-rich feed

A chick grows at a rate it will never match again. It needs a proper starter feed, at 18 to 20% protein, in fine crumbs for its small beak. Table scraps, bread and whole grains won't do: they're too low in protein and too big to swallow.

What to do: starter feed available at all times, in a feeder they can't tip over or foul by walking through it. At around six to eight weeks, move gradually to a grower feed, mixing the two over a few days rather than switching overnight.

Clean, dry bedding

Damp bedding is where most health problems in the brooder begin. It chills the chicks, sticks to their feet and harbours everything you don't want to see take hold.

What to do: dust-extracted wood shavings, three to five centimetres deep, never newspaper, which is slippery and causes splayed legs. Take out the damp patches every day and change the lot once or twice a week. Keep the room enclosed and ventilated, with no direct draught.

The habit that heads off 90% of trouble: every morning, take thirty seconds to count heads and spot a chick that's off on its own, still or fluffed up. A chick that keeps apart from the group is almost always a chick that's unwell, and catching it early changes everything.

What comes next?

At around four to five weeks, the heating comes off and the chicks become pullets. Going outdoors, then joining the coop, happens gradually, once they're fully feathered.

Life cycle of the hen, from egg to adult hen by way of embryo, chick and pullet — From egg to hen: embryo at D14, chick at 1 day, pullet at around 3 months, hen at around 5 to 6 months. Your chicks are at the third stage of this cycle.

Well-managed warmth, clean water, a good feed and healthy bedding: keep those four in hand and the first weeks pass without trouble. For the detail on heating, our heat plate or heat lamp comparison settles the question with the numbers, and the brooder chapter of the guide covers every step.

See the heat plate The brooder in the guide