Brooder Question from a New Chick Mama

[FamFitz]

My 1st night with my chicks. I've checked on them every hour or so since I brought them home. I probably should be sleeping now, but I'm nervous that something is going to go horribly wrong in the night. So I've been trying to figure out how often I should be checking on my chicks. Is it every couple of hours, every four, can I go w/o checking on them at night?

Some info on my brooder in case that factors in: My brooder is in a spare room that is connected to my house, but entrance is from outside. It gets lots of natural light and is heated (round 65F). I'm using a 50Gal Rubbermaid tub. I have bedding which I covered with paper towels. Heat lamp is suspended in the middle right of the tub. Water is on the left. Feeder runs along the center back. I have scene both chicks eat and drink (the later taking some effort, but I did get success). One chick is a couple of days, the other a week. My thermometer is reading around 85F, but neither chick is huddled under the lamp (so it's not too cold) or hiding in the far corner (so not too hot). Just kind of wandering around chirping; sometimes near each other, other times just wherever. Sometimes just taking a chicky-nap.

Does it seem like I have everything covered and all should be well? Or do I need to have my alarm set for middle of the night check-ins?

Thanks in Advance for any & all advice!!

PS: I realize that posting this in the middle of the night will probably not get me answers tonight. So I plan to set my alarm for every few hours to check on them. I'm too paranoid not to. But I would love an answer from anyone who can as soon as they can. It would be nice to get a nights sleep tomorrow if it turns out I'm just worrying for nothing. =P

 

[Judy]

If the heat lamp is well secured so there is no chance it will fall into the litter, and if it has a ceramic rather than plastic socket to sccrew the bulb into, then once I knew the temperature was stable, I would go get some sleep. They will eat and drink little during the night, even with the heat light on, especially if it is red, so if they get their water a little messy, it souldn't be a disaster.

 

[WickeeChickee]

x2

Last year,when I brooded in my house I went through the same thing. Its worse than with a newborn because at least then you have baby monitors, etc lol! Don't tell anybody else but I even put a baby monitor next to their brooder last year in case somebody started some distressed peeping overnight!
You sound like you have everything well in hand.

 

[SusanPC]

Sounds like you have a good setup. Relax, you will soon see that chicks are very good at taking care of themselves. The first night with 4 new chicks in the house made me sleep less soundly as I wondered if they were okay. After the first night, we all settled into a routine. Our chicks are in the dining room which is open to the living area. They are active and sleep on and off during the day while there's light and we are watching t.v. or having dinner, etc. When we go to bed for the night and turn all the lights/tv off, they go down for the night too - even though they have their 24-hour red heat lamp. Occasionally I'll hear a peep in the night, so I'm sure they re-arrange through the night, but they are definitely much more quiet in the night and active during the day. After the first few days, my chicks got very quiet. Only peep when they are chasing, playing/fighting and the last few days I've heard what sounds like cooing (like from pigeons) - very nice audio track... We've had them now for 16 days and I realize that I've stopped doing a head count each morning and each evening when I come home from work to make sure they're all alive...

 

[FamFitz]

My chicks (and myself) made it through the night! I checked on them until 1am when I gave in to sleep then DH checked on them at 3 & 6 & when I got up at 8 I went and hung with them. They are just so adorable I could spend all day sitting with them! I asked DH if he could set up a webcam feed of their brooder for me. Something I can check from my phone as well as my laptop so I could watch them whenever.

 

[Judy]

 

[WickeeChickee]

Yeah we had ours in the living room last year and we watched the chicks instead of the tv! Have fun, Mama!