New Chicks

Ok I'm brand new to this whole chicken thing. I picked up 4 chicks today. 1 of each of the following light brahma, cochin, blue laced Wyandotte, barred rock. I believe they are around 3-4 weeks old, for some reason my memory is failing me about how old they said they were. I also got a starter package they sold, 50lb bag of feed, pine shavings, a cage, waterer, feeder, reflector and a 250w infrared bulb. I have a few questions.

1st do I need the 250w bulb on the birds and does it need to be on all night? I read a few threads saying a regular 60w bulb should be ok. My house is 70 degrees and the thermometer in the cage is reading 82.

2nd. Does the bulb stay on all night or can I turn it off when I go to bed?

3rd. We are having trouble telling the difference between the barred rock and the blue laced Wyandotte, do these 2 breeds look similar to each other as chicks or did they grab the wrong bird?

Thanks for the help.

here's a picture of the birds

I just picked up my first set as well. We have 8 ...uh 1 week olds? I don't really know how old they are!

Great questions too

I'm brand new to this so take what I say with a grain of salt but the feed store I was at said to tell difference between the whydots and barred rock barred rock have silver on their heads.

magicjeep said:

Ok I'm brand new to this whole chicken thing. I picked up 4 chicks today. 1 of each of the following light brahma, cochin, blue laced Wyandotte, barred rock. I believe they are around 3-4 weeks old, for some reason my memory is failing me about how old they said they were. I also got a starter package they sold, 50lb bag of feed, pine shavings, a cage, waterer, feeder, reflector and a 250w infrared bulb. I have a few questions.

1st do I need the 250w bulb on the birds and does it need to be on all night? I read a few threads saying a regular 60w bulb should be ok. My house is 70 degrees and the thermometer in the cage is reading 82.

Click to expand...

I think they look 3-4 weeks old, reasonably. here is an idea of how their temperatures would decrease from hatch day. when they hatch, they're about 100-99F degrees.

day 2-7: 90-95F (1wk)
day 8-14: 85-90 (2wk)
day 15-21: 80-85 (3wk)
day 22-28: 75-80 (4wk)
day 29-36: 70-75 (5wk)
etc etc. this starts to be counteracted when they get feathered around 5 or 6 to 8 weeks old. 8 weeks is the recommended feathered age to withstand outdoor cold nighttime temperatures. if your nights are more moderate/warm in your climate, they may be able to go outside earlier rather than later.

I think I would turn the inside thermostat up to 75F for a week and turn their heat lamp off. judge them by their behavior; if they pile up on top of each other they can smother, they're too cold. the following week, go back to your normal 70F. week after, go to 65F in the house if you can, or open a window in their room. after that they should be close to feathered to go outside

also, provide them with a roost and put them on it at nighttime. this is the ideal sleeping position for them, since they cover their feet with feathers and laying shoulder to shoulder keeps them insulated. the sooner they form this habit, the better.

Quote: for inside the house, I'd turn it off. when you transition to outside, you might want to use it for 1-2 weeks depending on your outside temperatures?

Quote: I think barred rocks look like patches and stripes of black and white.

blue laced red wyandottes look like this! (3.5 weeks old)

A Barred Rock will look similar to this at 3-4 weeks.