Chicks crying at night

[debid]

Outdoors, the setting sun cues them to pack their crops full and seek a safe sleeping place. You're denying this by bringing them to the house and then shutting off the light. When you give them all-night light, they can snack all night.

Why are you bringing them inside at this point?

 

[Ebony Rose]

A little LED nightlight could work wonders. They don't get hot and provide plenty of light. Shouldn't be much of a shock to their system once they're sound asleep to turn it off.

 

[rkapfen]

Outdoors, the setting sun cues them to pack their crops full and seek a safe sleeping place. You're denying this by bringing them to the house and then shutting off the light. When you give them all-night light, they can snack all night.

Why are you bringing them inside at this point?

They go outside all day in a run separate from my grown hens. I only bring them in at night cause I can’t house them sepetately out back. So they should be getting used to the suns natural setting.

 

[chickens really]

Leave them out in the Coop and Run. Put them to bed before the sun goes down and walk away.

 

[danceswithronin]

I think it's just the sudden change from light to dark, my chicks always chirp loudly for a few moments right after I cut the lights out (I think it's as they blindly try to make their way back to the brooder lamp to cuddle up for the night) and then as soon as everybody finds everybody in the dark, they calm down and start trilling instead and fall asleep.

 

[debid]

They go outside all day in a run separate from my grown hens. I only bring them in at night cause I can’t house them sepetately out back. So they should be getting used to the suns natural setting.

And are you putting them in a sunroom or some location by a big window? Do they have a roost to sleep on in the brooder?

The distress peeping means something is bothersome about the situation. They are either feeling unprepared for dark or that it's not safe to sleep there. It isn't a lack of worldly experience as chickens rely almost entirely on instinct.

If they are getting a fading light period to cue them to prepare, it could be as simple as giving them a cardboard box with a door hole in it so they can feel hidden while they sleep if you have nowhere to put a roost.

 

[Ryback530]

My babies do the same thing. I don't use heat lamps but rather infrared bulb with no light. They still cry a bit when it's "bedtime" but only for a couple minutes. It is good for them to get into their natural sleep cycles sooner rather than later IMO

 

[debid]

My babies do the same thing. I don't use heat lamps but rather infrared bulb with no light. They still cry a bit when it's "bedtime" but only for a couple minutes. It is good for them to get into their natural sleep cycles sooner rather than later IMO

Yeah, I brood outdoors with a MHP so they go to sleep with the fading sun under their fake mama hen until they decide to sleep on the roost instead. My last batch went to the baby roost at 5 weeks, the adult roost around 10 without me needing to choose for them. So, I am absolutely sure this is either a security problem (they associate heat from the lamp as "mama", it isn't because they're cold but because they feel vulnerable) or a sudden "lights are out but my crop isn't full and I don't know where my flock is!" problem.

 

[rkapfen]

And are you putting them in a sunroom or some location by a big window? Do they have a roost to sleep on in the brooder?

The distress peeping means something is bothersome about the situation. They are either feeling unprepared for dark or that it's not safe to sleep there. It isn't a lack of worldly experience as chickens rely almost entirely on instinct.

If they are getting a fading light period to cue them to prepare, it could be as simple as giving them a cardboard box with a door hole in it so they can feel hidden while they sleep if you have nowhere to put a roost.

Yes. Their brooder is in the office right in front of a large glass door that goes out to the coop out back and the top of their brooder is all chicken wire so they get plenty of light and the natural up and down of the sun. They do have a wooden roost in their, which they use occasionally but aren’t consistent with it and it’s been a struggle to get them to use. I didn’t have an issue with my last batch of chicks.

 

[Charris610]

That’s what I’m doing with my few day old chicks I have in a large brooder in my garage. From my understanding, they can’t see the red heat lamp but rather feel the absence of heat when it is off. I do turn off the garage lights in the evening and they have plenty of natural light so they experience darkness naturally.