You shouldn't have anything solid covering your tank. You want good ventilation. Make sure they have a warm side and a cool side so they can start self regulating their temperatures. I put their food and water in the cool side so they have to go there to get food and water. You may have to tap at the food and water for the first couple of chicks so they figure out what it is. Once one learns, the rest will learn from that one.now that that's cleared up, what about my brooder? i have every thing spot on, (i think) but i just read one of the articles saying that i should have nothing covering the top of the tank. my heater is covering the top. what do you guys think?
Make sure they don't have anything they can get trapped under, make sure their water is shallow enough that they can't drown in it (or put marbles or something in it). I've heard that they can be very creative in finding ways to die. I've been lucky enough to not lose any that way, but I came close with one who didn't seem to know that it should move back to the warm spot of the brooder after eating.