Two week-old red bantam Cochin cockeral.

It was probably never your deepest desire to raise chicks in your bathtub. You probably didn't look at the number of baths in your current home thinking, "I'll need that second bathtub for brooding chicks." Have you lost your mind? Not really.

Backyard flocks are growing in popularity across the nation. It’s an inexpensive and green way to produce your own eggs. Chickens make great pets and bug control for your garden. Hundreds of cities including Seattle, Chicago and Austin allow backyard chooks. Austin even hosts a coop tour which highlights many of the kitschy homes dedicated to the backyard flocks.

When the City Commission of Lawrence, Kansas recently voted as many as 20 chickens legal as backyard pets, local residents flocked to the local feed-store to buy day-old chicks of various breeds and purposes. Some of these birds, such as Silkies, will be pampered pets scarcely bearing resemblance to the Foghorn Leghorn image many of us mentally produce when thinking of chickens. Other breeds not only look like that character, but might have qualities that dictate a nearby date with the destiny Foghorn might have faced on most farms- the dinner table. Most of the chicks owned by suburbanites are various laying breeds that produce from 200-350 white, brown, green or blue eggs per year.

But what to do when these babies first get home? Well, chuck them into the bathtub! Less costly than a commercial brooder, the addition of a feeder and a waterer turns an empty bath into a fabulous brooding home for raising these fresh-from-the-egg chicks to their first feathers. A heat lamp will keep temperatures at 95F degrees the first week; simply raise the light to drop temps by 5 degrees each week thereafter. Put the light at one end of the bathtub for space to get away from the heat if they choose- mine’s under the shower-head for a wide comfort zone. My Cochin bantams like to be farther from heat than my Sicilian Buttercups, due to densely feathered legs and feet. Happily, sliding doors on your tub help to keep adventurous escapees from stretching their wings to the rest of your bathroom as they hit 3 or 4 weeks and start to fly.

Feathered-out at 5 or 6 weeks, they can be moved outside once overnight temps are consistently above 55F. A small coop and run should be perfectly sufficient for a handful of pullets, while others let their birds range freely through a fenced yard. The bugs and foraging in your chemical-free yard make up a large portion of the protein requirement, and feed from the local feed store or a mix from your local feed mill makes up the rest. Expect your first eggs at around six months!

Our local temps looks good for having chicks outside during the day lately, but the evening temperatures are too cold unless your coop has extra heat, so they stay in the bathtub- for now. Expect to be able to put them out for good mid-May.

Check your local laws before rushing out to snag some fuzzy fresh chicks.

For more info:

Raising Chickens

Austin's Funky Chicken Coop Tour

Chicken Keeping Laws

Henderson's Chicken Breed Chart