Figured I could update this. Ended up buying 14 birds total, down to 11 after some mortality.
Monday I bought two more Cream Legbar hens and 1 white sport Cream Legbar hen.
Monday we also had a EE chick that had been having issues with a pasty butt pass away, I cleaned him/her up 4 times in a day and a half leading up too. Tried Probiotics and electrolyte and relented and picked up some medicated feed.
Tuesday another one of the either EE or OE chicks(not sure) began to seem unwell, little pasty but didn't seem blocked, still segregated and cleaned it probably 3 times, even rushed home on lunch Wednesday to check on him/her and found another one of the EE/OE not doing well and added it to the ICU box, both dead when I got home 4 hours later. All three of these chicks had remained a bit small and part of me wonders if it was a combination of my inexperience and maybe a less than the best place to have bought them from.
All the birds from the other source are thriving, the 5 Marans and 3 Legbars were all from another Craig's list seller with nicer flock conditions.
I am sure to having made mistakes but my gut says since half the chicks from one place died and none from another it maybe isn't all my fault.
I know this is getting long but let me share the mistakes I think I made.
First by Saturday night with most of the chicks being just 4-5 days old I began to shut the light off at night for 7 hours leaving just the 25Watt Thermo-peep heating pad and had some bedding on top of that.
I think that was too little heat and the bedding insulated them from getting some of it, and the long period of no light was also a long period of no food and water since the garage is dark.
Resolved by using a 40watt bulb over the completely uncovered heating pad 24hours a day and now using a 75watt flood bulb in a brooder lamp that shuts off for just 4 hours at night to hopefully still give them something of a night and day cycle. The woman who sold me the Marans and Legbars was the one who told me to not keep the lights off so long even with adequate heat because as she pointed out 7 hours is a long time for a little one to go without food/water.
As was pointed out to me earlier in this thread, the 44 gallon tote was too small, I was a little stingy with the heat because there was so little room to get away from it if they needed too, since I was stingy they spent too much time huddled and I think the weaker chicks suffered. At first there was some eye pecking and such so I thought they were already a little too warm.
After seeing them in the new brooder with more room and more heat, I think they were too cool and competing for the warmest space and my inexperience lead me to misread what was happening.
Yesterday I built a bigger brooder from some scrap 1/4" plywood and 2x2s I had laying around and since there is more space I added more heat and they do seem to be "playing" and spending more time away from the light.
On the brooder, a sheet of plywood and some screws is basically the same price as the tote I bought and one sheet can get you a brooder that is basically 2ft. wide, 2ft tall and 4ft long. The tote was closer to 18"wide by 21" tall and 36" long, so the new brooder is a lot bigger and the height will help keep them in as they grow.
I am sure others have said the same basic things but I just wanted to share, maybe my admitting my mistakes will save even just one other person from repeating them, that is what forums are for right.
On a more fun note last night after putting them in the new brooder, gave them some grit, very few dried mealworms to scratch at and a couple dandelion heads to play with.
