Chicks in the dark

[gale65]

Do they need light (not talking about heat)? It's about 90 today, and even hotter in the coop/brooder. When i turn off the heatlamp it's dark in there-will that be ok? There's a little light coming in the window but the coop is in the machine shed right now so no sun is going in there other than what is coming in the shed doors. I thought about putting in a different bulb but I only have one fixture and don't want to bother with letting each light bulb cool off before switching them out and don't really want to keep switching them out anyway (my luck I'd probably break one). Or should I put a battery lantern in there for a while?

forgot to mention that they'll be about a week on Wednesday (not sure if they hatched out Tuesday or Wednesday-we picked them up on Thursday at the feed store and they were mailed from ideal poultry in TX).

 

[DancingHen]

At only a week old I believe they really need a light. I have read that chicks raised without light do not develop as well. Plus at that age they will likely get scared and "pile" on one another, which could lead to injury or death. I'm sure it's been done without incident, but I would wait until they are closer to 6 weeks old before I start teaching them to sleep in the drk, and then only at night. Hope that helps.

 

[gale65]

ok thanks. We are going to move the coop outside today (that was the plan all along but the chicks arrived early and then it was kind of cold out) so they'll get sunshine through the windows but I'll get another fixture to use for when it's too warm for the heatlamp and put a 40W bulb in it. Right now they are all flat out sleeping in the near-darkness.