Chicks moving around less, sneezing??

[Lillycat918]

So I am in a bit of a panic. My chicks are around 4-5 weeks old and are still in the brooder. Everything has been super great clear up until today. I took them out the other day for their first time, they loved it! it was warm out (75 degrees) and sunny. I brought them back in after 20 minutes of them playing around outside. Last night, I noticed my silkie would not stop sneezing for 5-10 minutes. I watched (s)he closely and it stopped out of no-where and was fine.

Now normally, my little chicks are super active during the day (I watch them on camera while I am at work), but today as I am watching them, they have been pretty still....

Before I freak myself out, is it normal for chicks to slow down as they get older? I think I am probably just overreacting, but this doesn't seem normal for me.

 

[azygous]

Do you still have them in a heated brooder? By four to five weeks old, they should be spending days, at least, outside. They no longer require any heat during the day in a protected environment after age three weeks. Heating chicks that have a good covering of feathers on their bodies can result in overheating, sort of how you would feel decked out in a parka in a warm room. Overheated chicks are lethargic and can suffer heat sickness.

 

[Lillycat918]

Do you still have them in a heated brooder? By four to five weeks old, they should be spending days, at least, outside. They no longer require any heat during the day in a protected environment after age three weeks. Heating chicks that have a good covering of feathers on their bodies can result in overheating, sort of how you would feel decked out in a parka in a warm room. Overheated chicks are lethargic and can suffer heat sickness.

Oh geez that's scary I mean its a heating plate and they are in the basement. It is a lot cooler down there compared to upstairs. I am building the coop this weekend and hoping they will be okay outside. Our nights get around 52 degrees. I still have one chick that is in the "ugly" stage and doesn't have her feathers all there yet.

 

[azygous]

People underestimate chicks' ability to cope with the cold. My four-week olds are running around the run right now, ignoring the heating pad and wool blanket scrap I place on a stuffed feed sack for them to warm themselves on, and it's barely above freezing with four inches of new snow outside. These chicks are still half down, though well feathered on wings and back.

I consider this freezing cold snap a bonus to their cold climate conditioning. Your temps are well within the range of being tolerable to chicks requiring very little heat, if any, during the day, and just the very lowest setting on the heat plate at night.

Your slow-to-feather chick will cope by huddling against the other chicks. The other chicks are likely suffering from coping with too much heat. That was the dilemma I faced a couple weeks ago with my two older chicks (by two weeks) that had outgrown a need for heat at night and were still crowding in with the younger chicks to sleep. Those two began roosting on the perch in the coop as soon as I moved the heating pad cave into the coop. The younger chicks are still using heat at night, but at the lowest setting and the frame has been raised up as high as it will go. The nights have been around 40, and low 30s for the next few days.

So, I urge you to start weaning your chicks off heat, exposing them to cooler temps gradually over a few days, and let them spend the days in the run until you finish the coop.