The First 48 Hours
From Hatch to Coop: Raising Strong, Healthy Chicks — Part 1
The hatch is done. After 21 days of watching temperature and humidity, candling, and holding your breath through lockdown, the incubator is full of damp, wobbly, exhausted little chicks. It feels like the finish line. In reality, it's the start of a whole new job — and the first 48 hours are the part that decides how the rest of it goes.
This is the opening article in a new series we're calling From Hatch to Coop: Raising Strong, Healthy Chicks. Our last two series took you all the way to hatch day — the science of incubation, and getting your breeders and equipment ready for spring. This one picks up the moment the first chick pips and walks the whole journey through to the day those birds join the flock in the coop.
And we're starting where it matters most: the two days after hatch, when a chick is at its most fragile and most of the avoidable losses happen.
Leave Them in the Incubator — Longer Than You Want To
The single most common first-timer mistake is pulling chicks out too early. A freshly hatched chick is soaking wet and has almost no ability to hold its own body heat. The incubator, at lockdown humidity and temperature, is exactly where it needs to be while it dries off and finds its feet.
A chick can safely stay in the incubator for up to 24–48 hours after hatching without food or water. This isn't cruelty — it's biology. In the last day before hatch, the chick draws the remaining yolk sac into its abdomen, and that yolk feeds and hydrates it for its first couple of days. It's the reason day-old chicks can be posted through the mail and arrive healthy.
So resist the urge to open the incubator every time one hatches. Every time you lift the lid you drop the humidity, and a humidity crash mid-hatch can shrink-wrap chicks still in the shell. Wait until a batch has hatched and fluffed up, then move them across in one go.
The Move to the Brooder
Once a chick is fully dry, fluffy, and moving around with some coordination, it's ready for the brooder. The brooder is simply the warm, safe, draught-free space where chicks live for their first few weeks — we'll cover how to set one up properly in Part 2. For now, the key point is that it needs to be warm and ready before the chicks go in, not thrown together while they wait shivering in a box.
Move chicks in the warmth of the day if you can, keep the trip short, and put them straight under the heat source. A chilled chick in the first 48 hours is a chick in real trouble, and cold is the biggest killer at this age.
Warmth Comes First — Everything Else Second
A newly hatched chick can't regulate its own temperature for the first week or so. Its body relies entirely on an external heat source, the way it would rely on a mother hen's body and feathers. Get the warmth right and most other problems don't happen. Get it wrong and nothing else you do will save the hatch.
The target for the first week is around 35°C directly under the heat source, with a cooler zone the chicks can move to. The behaviour of the chicks tells you more than any thermometer:
- Huddled together directly under the heat, cheeping loudly — too cold. Chilled chicks pile up and can smother each other.
- Spread to the far edges, panting, avoiding the heat — too hot.
- Moving freely across the whole space, some under the heat, some exploring, quiet contented cheeping — just right.
Watch the chicks, not just the gauge. They'll tell you honestly whether the temperature is working. Part 3 covers the full week-by-week temperature schedule.
Teaching Them to Drink
Once chicks are in the brooder and warmed through, the first practical job is water. Chicks don't automatically know where it is — they learn by pecking at anything shiny and by copying each other. You can help the first few along by gently dipping their beaks into the water so they get the idea, and the rest of the batch usually follows.
A few rules that prevent losses:
- Use a shallow chick drinker, never an open bowl. Chicks will walk through, foul, and even drown in open water. A purpose-made drinker with a narrow trough keeps them safe and the water clean.
- Room-temperature water, not cold. Cold water chills a small chick from the inside.
- Add marbles or clean pebbles to the trough for the first day or two if you're worried about the smallest chicks. It stops them getting in but still lets them drink around the edges.
- Keep it clean. Chicks foul water constantly. Refresh it at least twice a day.
Water comes before feed. A chick needs to rehydrate first, so offer water for the first hour or two before introducing crumble.
The First Feed
After they're drinking, put down a good-quality chick starter crumble. It's formulated with the protein (usually 18–20%) and fine texture a young chick needs. Scatter a little on a paper towel or a shallow tray at first — the movement and the sound of pecking gets their attention and teaches them what food is. Then move to a proper chick feeder once they've got the idea.
Don't be alarmed if some chicks show little interest in food on day one. That yolk reserve is still doing its job. As long as they're warm and drinking, they'll come to the feed in their own time. We cover feed and water setup in full in Part 4.
Quiet, Calm, and Left Alone
It's tempting — especially with children in the house — to handle the new chicks constantly. In the first 48 hours, less is more. Chicks are recovering from the considerable effort of hatching, they're learning to thermoregulate, and every time they're picked up they lose warmth and gain stress.
Keep handling brief and gentle, keep the brooder somewhere quiet, and keep dogs, cats and curious toddlers at a respectful distance. A calm first two days sets a calm, confident bird.
What Can Go Wrong in the First 48 Hours
- Chilling. The number one killer. A chick that gets cold stops eating and drinking, goes quiet, and fades fast. Warmth is non-negotiable.
- Dehydration. Chicks that never find the water go downhill within a day. Dip beaks, keep water accessible, watch that everyone is drinking.
- Drowning or fouling in open water. Entirely preventable with a proper chick drinker.
- Smothering. Cold or frightened chicks pile into corners and the ones underneath suffocate. Round off sharp corners in the brooder and fix the temperature so they don't pile.
- Pasty butt. Droppings caking over the vent, often from stress or chilling. It can be fatal if it blocks completely. We'll cover how to spot and clear it in Part 5.
Almost every one of these traces back to temperature or water. Get those two right and the first 48 hours look after themselves.
Practical Tips for the First Two Days
- Have the brooder set up and warmed at least a day before you expect chicks to move in.
- Let chicks fully dry and fluff up in the incubator before moving them — don't rush it.
- Water first, then feed. Room temperature, never cold.
- Dip a few beaks in the water to teach the batch where it is.
- Read the chicks' behaviour to judge temperature — huddling means cold, spreading and panting means hot.
- Keep handling to a minimum and the area quiet.
- Check on them often, but interfere little.
What's Next?
In Part 2, we build the brooder properly — how much space chicks need, what to use for the box itself, bedding that works and bedding that causes problems, and the big decision every new hatcher faces: a traditional heat lamp or a modern heat plate. It's the setup that makes the whole rearing period either easy or a constant battle, so it's worth getting right.
If you've got chicks hatching and you're not sure your setup is ready, give us a call before they arrive — we'd much rather help you get the brooder right in advance than troubleshoot a chilled hatch after the fact. 1300 771 457 or info@uneekpoultry.com.au.