help needed

[mdees88]

Do you have a regular lamp in your house? Like this... it likely has a bigger bulb than 7 watts. You can take the shade off and lay it over the box the chicks are in (making sure the bulb doesn't actually touch anything). That should be enough heat for them.

 

[mdees88]

You don't want a very small box. You want a big enough box so you can put your heat on one side of it and the other side stays cool. This way the chicks can get close to the heat or far away from it.

With a small box like the cardboard one you showed it would be very hard to get the temerature right. They couldn't get away from the heat if it's too hot..

These are my quail the light bulbs are at one end of the box and the quail lay where they are comfortable (in the middle of the box).

 

[DuckingLost]

I have 2 cardboard boxes. Ciuld you tell me which one will be suitable please?

U can use the bigger box if you have came up with an alternative for heat. I wld put hot water in a coke bottle with a lid and maybe wrap a washcloth around it. If it were me I'd use the small box with hot water in bottles. And a constant water supply

 

[chonsey]

Any plastic bottle will do - empty coca cola bottle. Empty one gallon water jug. One gallon freezer bag - Put hot water in it. Put a towel on it. They will cuddle up. Do you have any emergency hand warmers in your glove box of your car or truck. They'll work, too.

 

[nightingale5151]

I don't drive
I can by a hot water bottle today with a halogen bulb

 

[DuckingLost]

Any plastic bottle will do - empty coca cola bottle. Empty one gallon water jug. One gallon freezer bag - Put hot water in it. Put a towel on it. They will cuddle up. Do you have any emergency hand warmers in your glove box of your car or truck. They'll work, too.

I said coke bottle but in my part of ky. Any type of soda is coke...lol...didn't think about a Ziploc baggie...that's a really good idea!

 

[nightingale5151]

Will a zip lock bag be ok tho?.
I do have them but too scared incase they leak

 

[chonsey]

I said coke bottle but in my part of ky. Any type of soda is coke...lol...didn't think about a Ziploc baggie...that's a really good idea!

I never thought about the hand warmers until I was looking to order chicks and they offered to put one in with them to keep them warm during delivery. I guess even the sticky back pads that warm up your muscles would work. You'd have to put a towel over these so they wouldn't burn their lil feet.

 

[chonsey]

Hope the lil chicks make it through the night ok! I go back & forth on the heating pad cave. That's what I prefer using, now with a plastic Christmas tree storage container. I also like using my husband's bendable work light when I have the wooden shipping crate setup for a brooder. It's kinda too big, wish it was smaller.

(I had a few power outages during hatching & brooding over the past couple of years. My husband had me put a plan together for my first hatch on what I would do in case things went wrong and what I could do to correct it - like what to do in case of power outage-he's a great MacGyver type person for when things go wrong and have you stop & think about what you have on hand to work with to make it right.)

 

[Elinjay]

I know that it is hard, but they are likely lost. I find that if they don't stand up the first day, they don't make it.

I don't agree, 2 of my chicks couldn't walk the first few days, one had curled feet and the other was just very week, we helped the first one with bandages and I put the other one in a sock in a cup for a few hours a day and they're both doing great now