The Savage Ways of Baby Chicks: It’s a Chick Eat Chick World

I had heard that chickens were cannibalistic from a number of sources before I started raising them, but I always thought that meant that they would eat chicken meat or eggs if you fed that to them. An I knew they pecked at each other, but I always thought that was more of a social hierarchy development mechanism more than an attempt to eat each other, but Twain Lockhart (poultry feed specialist for Cargill) painted a different picture for me.

Twain started by answering a few questions about feed, mostly the difference between the baby chick feed I was feeding my hens, and the feed I should start feeding them when they start laying eggs. The egg laying feed formula, according to Twain has a lot more calcium in it because the hens use a lot of calcium to produce eggs. A hen low in calcium might lay eggs with very thin shells, or even no shells at all. Sometimes a chicken owner might even have to supply ground sea shells for the hens to eat–which they will eat if they know they are low on calcium.

The baby chicks, however need something different. Baby chicks need a formula rich in protein to help them grow. In addition to the soy and corn that are the base of the feed, there is also some pork and ground beef bone in the mix to provide the 21-26% protein Twain says is essential to baby chick growth. If the baby chicks feel like they are low on protein, it could spell trouble for the other chicks.

Twain says that when the chicks are low on protein, they peck at each other to try to get feathers which are high in protein. If by mistake, they happen to draw blood, the other chicks will see it and gang up on it and likely kill it. Here is a video of chicks fighting over a piece of mozzarella cheese I found on YouTube. Keep in mind, the chicks in this video are going for the cheese. Imagine what would happen if they were out for blood.

Twain, who prefaced his statement with “no one should ever do this”, said that even if one were to take a red felt-tipped marker and put a red dot on a baby chick, the other chicks would probably kill it and eat it.

In addition to giving your chicks regular feed, Twain says they will eat pretty much any edible green that grows in your yard, and that they love crickets and meal worms. He even says when they get bigger, they will catch small lizards and mice. I have yet to see any of my hens catch anything bigger that a worm, but I really don’t know what they do all day while they are out in the yard. I am just glad that I fed them properly and they didn’t turn on each other for a carnal dose of protein.

Mad City Chickens

Mad City Chickens was the documentary I watched about eight months ago that really made me want to get chickens. Now, as I am researching an article about raising chickens in Madison, I have found that it is also the name of the group made up of Madison area chicken owners.

I first stumbled upon the group’s website (madcitychickens.com) when my chicken McNugget was ill and I was not able to find resources for treating my sick bird. Not only did the website direct me to a good veterinarian, but it also made me realize that there is a whole community of chicken owners that can be used as a resource while raising chickens in the city. I read that the group was having a pot luck at “Joan the Chicken Lady’s” house in Verona so I called and volunteered to bring fruit salad.

The meeting was very informal, and consisted of about 20 chicken owners from Madison and neighboring communities. We all mingled, and talked chicken talk. We asked each other questions, and I found some people had been raising chickens their whole lives, and some (like myself) were still relatively new to the chicken game. There were also two attendees who were merely thinking about getting backyard chickens, and decided to talk to the group before delving into chicken ownership.

The meeting also had two guests. Twain Lockhart is a feed consultant for Cargill and not only was he a great resource for meeting goers in regards to chicken nutrition, but he also brought along a few 50lb bags of chicken feed for raffle prizes. Before Twain was a Cargill consultant he ran his own feed store in California for 17 years and his wife (who was also at the meeting) raised show chickens.

Also in attendance (and guest speaker for the evening) was Ron Kean , the Poultry Extension Specialist for the UW system. Ron was basically there to answer questions and he certainly got enough of them. A big discussion amongst new chicken owners was the proper way to provide water for chickens during a cold Wisconsin winter. While most people used different strategies, two common solutions were purchasing some sort of heated dish to dispense water or just giving the chickens fresh water a few times a day.

I strongly recommend to anyone raising chickens who wants to learn more and be a part of the chicken community to keep their eyes on the Mad City Chicken’s website and attend the next pot luck whenever and wherever that might be. They really do have a club for everything.