Chick Anxiety - any ideas?

[cposz]

Last night we emptied the big-box brooder completely in order to change the bedding for our 2 cihcks. We opened a brand new bag of shavings and put some in the box and spread them out, but when we put our chicks (6 week old BO) back into the box, they FREAKED out! They started squawking and flying up at the box cover, trying to get out.

Why is that? We bought the same brand of shavings as we had been using (they were fresher, I imagine), but there was something about the new bag which was different and distressing to them.

We ended up going out to the henhouse and removing some clean bedding from the big girl's coop and putting it in the brooder - and they settled down right away.

Any idea what the problem is? The new bag is not cedar shavings.

(We also learned last night that our chicks are afraid of the dark. Any suggestions to help them with this, so they learn the differene between night and day?)

 

[farrier!]

We are using red lights in our brooders. The chicks then settle down at night.
Ours also hate any kind of change and will complain about it. How well or soon they accept the change seems to depend on the breed.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Have you considered counseling?

Chicks act wierd and flighty sometimes, especially if they only know
one environment. I would worry at all about them.

 

[Judy]

It's typical for them to freak out when first put in the dark after having a light 24/7. Grin and bear it; they will get used to it, and then will sleep better than if you leave a light on every night.

 

[rhondapiper]

Mine act like the world is ending if I change their shavings, even though I have done it tons of times. The first time I put them on shavings, they acted like the brooder was full of lava and all stood on the feeder complaining about it.

The other day, I took them all out of the brooder and let them flap around the garage while I cleaned it out, they all ended up on an old couch that's destined for the dump. By the time the brooder was cleaned out and ready for them, they had all decided they had lived on the couch their whole lives and that the brooder was new and terrifying.

Chickens are weirdos. I wouldn't worry.

 

[cposz]

I guess these things are comforting to hear. Thank you. I worried that perhaps the new bedding was too fragrant or somehow noxious to them - maybe just obnoxious. Weirdos ... who can figure them out?

We are really hoping to get them off the "night light" thing altogether and have been moving the light farther and farther from the brooder (they don't need the heat anymore). The big girls they will soon be joining in the henhouse seem to rather like their sleeptime dark, and we'd just as soon leave the electricity in the coop off until late fall or winter, when the light will be needed for heat.