NOTE: Please read the instructions accompanying your chicks in addition to these instructions. Also, any farmer or older person who has had chickens would probably LOVE to talk to you about it!

Instructions for Successful Brooding of Up to Fifteen Chicks

(You may either use the Henspa as a brooder or keep the chicks indoors
until they are about 3 weeks old.)

1. Preparing Your Henspa
Place the tarp in it, and cover the ladder hole. Cover the nest holes. Cover the floor with fine wood shavings. It is important not to use sawdust, hay or straw. Cut out the bottom of a medium sized cardboard box about 12 inches high, round out the corners with some cardboard scrap to keep the chicks from piling into a corner and suffocating one another.  Place the box on the shavings near the light. Put a 120 watt bulb in light. (In cold weather, use a 250 Watt infrared bulb.) Add feeder and waterer. Fill. For the first week, chicks will live in the box. After that, cut a "door" for the chicks to go out into the rest of the upstairs. When they are looking ready, you can take out the box.

2. Warmth
Day old chicks need access to 90 degree heat. After 48 hours, the amount of heat can be reduced. By the time the chick is three weeks old, it can handle freezing temperatures. Determine when the light needs to be on by the weather and chick's behavior. If they are cuddled up near the heat, it is too cold. If they are spread out away from it, it may be too warm or time to cut an access hole to the rest of the upstairs. It is very important that you closely monitor the chicks for the first week!

3. Food and water
Keep the red feeder and water filled at all times. The chicks must never run out of food  or water. Also, scatter some of river sand or commercial grit on top of their feed as soon as they arrive. 

4. Behavior
Visual observation is extremely important for raising healthy chicks. Frequently check on them, especially for the first few days. They should routinely stretch, go near the heat and away from it. Make sure they are eating and drinking. Watch for damp litter, and add more shavings as necessary. It should never smell like ammonia. Occasionally, a chick will die. These are generally birds that are sick from the hatchery, runts or just never got started. As your chicks grow, see that they have more space. By the time they are 6 weeks old, they should be able to go up and down the ladder. 

It is important to keep them upstairs exclusively until they are about 5 weeks old.  This will get them into the habit of sleeping upstairs and you won't have them forgetting to go upstairs at night.  If they stay downstairs at night they will become attractive targets of predators.

For a while, you should have feed and water both upstairs and down. Once they are all regularly going downstairs, you can remove the supplies upstairs.

5. Stress
Handle your babies with care, using gentle motions. Children should be taught pick up only babies that approach them. If you excite them, they will move into a corner, stepping on each other to get out of the way. They may even smother one another.

In conclusion, raising baby chicks is both fun and rewarding. Just make sure they arrive when you can be there to monitor them closely. After all, they are just babies!

Reference:
Pastured Poultry Profits
by Joel Salatin