Rearing
Newly hatched chick
The day before the chicks are due to hatch start to introduce eggfood. Introduce soaked seed a few days after they are hatched. I use Haiths Easisoak. Add enough water to dampen with a teaspoon of malt vinegar, mix well and put somewhere warm for the seeds to germinate. It is ready to eat when the seeds crack and little shoots appear. Rinse thoroughly before feeding. Give fresh eggfood and soaked seed every day, two or three times a day as the chicks get bigger. These foods are easy for the chicks to digest.
It's also important to give them greens. Dandelions, chickweed and shepherds purse are good. Collect dandelions just before they burst into a clock and chickweed that has little white seed pods, as this is the part of the plant they eat. I always keep a bag in my car in case I see any weeds in people's gardens or in fields. I must be one of the few people who likes weeds. It's probably a good idea to wash them if you are not sure how clean they are and make sure they haven't been sprayed with weed killer. If you can't get weeds, then you can give small amounts of cress, lettuce, spinach and curly kale.
Feeding chick
When the adult birds touch the side of the nest the chicks will raise their heads for food.
Once the chicks are about 10 days old they do their droppings over the side of the nest. Before that the adults clean the nest by eating the droppings. Their feathers start to mature as well. You can tell chicks are healthy by the inside colour of their beaks. If it is a beautiful red colour then they are in good condition. At 15 days take the nest pan off the tripod, sit it on the floor and put a new one in. By 18-20 days the chicks will sit on the side of the nest. It's important to give a new nest pan and nesting material as the hen will probably want to build another nest. If you don't give her nesting material she will pluck the feathers from the chicks and use that.
Chicks ready to leave the nest
Once out of the nest give the chicks brown bread and milk with a sprinkle of maw seed to help wean them. It's easy for them to peck in order to learn how to eat. Once they leave the nest they won't go back in if they are fit and healthy. You can seperate them from their parents after 20-22 days.
Once they grow up they moult and take in adult feathers which is stressful for them.You have to build up their bodies to produce new feathers. Continue giving them eggfood and soaked seed and add some red rape to the plain canary seed. A sprinkle of condition seed in their eggfood helps too. All adult birds moult once a year and it takes about 6 weeks.
It's a good idea to ring your birds to help to identify them and keep records. Ring them once they have left the nest. I prefer to use split aluminium rings.