3-hour car ride for new chicks -- advice??

[lceh]

I'm visiting my dad this weekend and thinking about picking up 6 bantam silkies at the TSC down there, since I'm not sure my local TSC will have them. They'd be taking a 3 hour car ride home. How do I keep them warm enough? Do I need to stop halfway to offer food and/or water, or will they be okay until they get home? The chicks arrived at TSC on Thursday 4/2, so I'm guessing they'll be about one week old. I'm hoping they can be in the same brooder with the 17 other banties I have coming from Meyer around Wed. 4/8.

Thanks!

 

[TXmom]

We had a 2 hour drive home, too, with baby Silkies. The very best thing I did was put a hand warmer in the box....you know the kind that you open and it warms up by itself. They were both peeping loudly when I put them in the little shoe box, but then they sat on the hand warmer (with paper towel on top of it) and snuggled in for a quiet ride home. My daughter was holding the box and she kept lifting the lid to check on them and they looked comfy and happy. We also sprinkled some crumbles in the box for them to eat, but waited until we got home to give them water.

 

[lceh]

I thought about a hot water bottle, but a hand warmer sounds a lot more sensible (and smaller). Thanks!

 

[cluckylisa]

The handwarmer idea is a great one! We too have a couple hour ride after picking up our new chicks and I was trying to think of something for them. Thanks!

 

[ChandlersChickens]

I used a hand warmer too and had a four hour trip. My hand warmer got a little too warm to touch so we wrapped it in a dry washcloth. Worked great!

 

[hyzenthlay]

I just drove 2.5 hours home with day-olds, and I just turned the car heater on full blast and stripped down to my tank top, lol. It was uncomfortable for me, but the 2 little chicks seemed happy and slept most of the way home. It might've been more sensible to put them on the floor and just blast the floor heat, but I wanted them up on the seat where I could see them better! lol. For week olds, I'd think you could just put some food crumbles in their box and let them munch while you drive.

 

[TXmom]

Just make sure your box has plenty of air holes.... I think the hand warmers use oxygen to heat up...I have no idea how much oxygen. There were holes in our box, plus we lifted the lid to check on them often. And put a cloth or paper towel over it in case it gets too hot....don't want little burned Silkies

 

[JennsPeeps]

I recently travelled an hour (by public bus... lol) with 4 chicks. I put a hot pad in the bottom of the box, then a bag of dried beans that I'd heated in the microwave oven (put those in a cloth bag). I put a towel on top of that, placed the chicks on the towel, the folded the towel's loose end back on top of the chicks. They snoozed pretty much the entire time and were nice & toasty. They were pretty quiet, which is a good sign of contentment. They only started to compain when I got close to my destination and was starting to open the box to show people what I had in there.

Since it's a 3-hour trip, you could stop at a gas station somewhere along the way and reheat the bean bag for them.

 

[SoccerMomof7]

I am going to take my chicks to the preschool for show and tell for both my boys classes and then the afternoon class and I plan on putting handwarmers in the cage. They should be okay.