chicks flying at light

[ma2babygurl13]

So my mix layer chicks are about 3 weeks old, and starting to outgrow their rubbermaid brooder box. We are currently working on remodeling a rabbit hutch for them. I have noticed that they fly up and try to hit the heat light a lot. I will still need to keep a heat lamp on them in their new home. Will they continue to fly at the light even in a bigger area? Should I just keep the light on the outside of the wire (not in with them)? Have you ever had a chick/s try to fly at the light? Why do they do it?

 

[Chickn chick 46]

Never had this happen with my chicks, but a guess might be that they are either cold, bored or cramped. I had my chicks in a plastic box and by 3 weeks they were getting really tight for space.

We moved them into a wire rabbit cage and had the lamp over the wire. At night I would put towels over the sides of the cage to help keep the heat in, but never too close to the light of course. (I used a red 85 watt spot light)

Do you have a roost for them? By that age they enjoyed the roost. I had a small bell that I hung from the top of the rabbit cage and they would jump off the roost and ring the bell

 

[ma2babygurl13]

I think it is both a combination of being cramped and bored. They don't have a roost in there right now, but will in their hutch. I tried putting a roost in their brooder, but it takes up a lot of room, and they seemed scared of it. The hutch is going to be inside our barn in the tack area, so there wont be much of a draft, I have a 60 watt flood bulb, I hope that will be warm enough... the floor is going to be solid for now, and wire later that way the underneath of them wont get cold.