Did I Do the Right Thing?

[GRAM49]

My 9 new chicks are 3 weeks old today. Saturday we knew we had to do something drastic. They were in a tote in the garage. The tote was fast becoming to small. Hubby was brainstorming about what to do. I finally decided the simplest thing to do was somehow divide the hen house, where 6 16 week old BO's live, into two sections. We set about it and after 4 hours in a hot hen house we had accomplished our task. The big ones were out in their pen so we put babies in and they had a ball. When we put big ones in for the night they were stunned! Mostly were suprised at the petition of chicken wire that had appeared down the middle of their home. My biggest concern is that the temps have dropped into the 60's the last two nights. The chicks seem OK, but huddled in the mornings. This morning we put in a box with straw, should have done that in the beginning. Anyway all chickens are living together, divided. Nice to have them out of the garage. Just wanted to share.
Gram

 

[joebryant]

Sounds to me like you're doing great with them. You might consider turning on the heat light during the nights though for a couple more weeks; 60's seem awfully cool for three-week-olds.

BTW What the heck is a "tote".

 

[MissPrissy]

A 'tote' is one of those big rubbermaid or other brand name containers for storage with a lid.

I agree that you should consider a heat lamp at night. 60 is really cool for 3 week olds. They should be in temps ranging 75 - 80 degrees at their age.

 

[JessicaGrant]

Quote:
Ohhh. To me a "tote" is a canvas bag. I had to LOL at the thought of 9 chicks in one!

 

[ladyrua]

I'm really glad to see this question - I was going to ask something similar! I have five 10 week old hens in their coop, and just got three day-old hens. I was planning on, once they feather out a little, putting them in a wire cage inside the hen coop. I'm hoping this will let the older hens get used to them and not pick on them for being younger and different.

 

[GRAM49]

Thanks for your comments. Hubby offered to move the heat lamp out there, maybe a good idea. Our weather has been wacky in central IN this summer. Yeah a tote here is a Rubbermaid tote, big plastic box, it was one of the big ones though and it worked perfectly for the first couple weeks. Funny how our language is so differently regionally. Here the fabric bag would be a "tote bag" and a "tote" is what I describe above.

Ladyrua, we talked about the separate cage, but just didn't have one big enough so used chicken wire to divide the house, works pretty well.
Gram

 

[joebryant]

Quote:
THAT is the understatement of the year. Don't get me started on THAT subject. I'm thirteen miles south of Indianapolis; where are you? Can you believe that we're actually going to have FOUR DAYS in a row of no rain this week; that is if the weather report is right; it hasn't been any other time yet, but we can HOPE.

 

[GRAM49]

JoeBryant,
I am 60 miles north of Indy, near Kokomo. A tiny town called Greentown. So far we have had a a perfect blend of rain and warm to make gardens and fields flourish, none of the floods you may have experienced. The oddest thing has been the cooler than normal temps. It is only 70 now, but they promise hotter later in the week. We have lots of mosquitos too it you need any.
Gram