How do your chicks sleep???

[WriterofWords]

Mine sleep very soundly! I got home really late last night and they hadn't eaten and their pen was closed, these are the youngsters by they way,, I walked around and picked up 15 babies and put them night-night and they never even opened their eyes!

 

[laceychick]

thanks for the reply - guess this will be the first of many worries I'm going to have over the next few weeks. Will post some pics when I figure out how!! Thanks again

 

[LynneP]

Let me tell you today's poop then. I've heard about this indelicate thing they call 'pasty butt'. Ahem. The chicks arrived yesterday with clean bottoms, but I knew that once you start them on feed and water, near anything is possible. So, during the day, today, I sat at chick bottom-level, peering through the plexiglass into the brooder, when I noticed a little stuck poop on one of the girls. Not wanting her to get the much-dreaded pasty butt, I contrived to catch and clean her. Now she had tried to knock it off with her beak (who knew they could bend that far?)

She was vigilant, and it was one of those gray-green seed-size poops, but it eluded her. Finally she sat on the problem, adding a curlicue of pine shaving to the mess. Mom to the rescue, I soon had a soup bowl of sudsy water for the cleanup and another of lukewarm for the rinse.

She was havng none of that. Now these are nice little girls but word must have spread quickly through the chick telegraph and you would think she had entered a roadrunner Idol contest. She cut a swath through the others so fast at the approach of my hand that they all gave a junior 'cluck', in unison. How rude.

Now I dodn't want the entire flock in a panic, so I slowed down whilst taking a deep breath. That's when I felt the warm spread of semisolid on the heel of my palm. Seems the litte one jammed her sphincter, profecting the new poop and the old poop out along with the pine shaving which sat like the top half of a sandwich on my flesh.

So much for pasty butt. She's healthy enough, and I was glad of the soapy water after all.

 

[RioLindoAz]

When my chicks were little, they used to sleep in the older hens' nesting boxes. All cuddled up. But there was always one chick on guard...

 

[chikiebaby1600]

my baby chicks sleep just like humans on there side using the feeder or side of brooder as a pillow so cute!!!!!!1

 

[goldnchocolate]

Wow...this is an old thread but reading these posts remind me of my first batch of chicks and how panicked I felt when I thought they were all dead

. The bottom of the brooder looked like it was "carpeted" with chicks.

 

[Kate1]

I just picked up two one week old silkies at the poultry show this afternoon. They were both active and bright eyed in the brooder when I picked them out from many others. It took a little over an hour to drive home and another few minutes to set up the brooder with bedding, water and heat lamp. During set up they did not move- just huddled together. I dipped both chick's beaks in the water so there would be no mistaking they had it available. They swallowed and went comatose. I put them down, then moved them under the heat lamp. They act barely alive. Two hours later they are still flat on their fronts with necks outstretched and heads propped on their beaks and with wings a bit out to the sides. They are breathing but still have not changed position. Are they in shock or exhausted from the travel time?

Four other chicks (Delaware and Rhode Is.) are one month old and still in the other brooder and they never acted drugged and dopey. They were always active, sleeping only a short time then getting up to run about and eat/drink. A couple of years ago I brooded Rhode Island Reds and Red Stars and they were never dopey either- always ready to jump up and eat.

I read in the reviews that silkies are delicate. I thought they were handled gently in transit but maybe they did not see it that way. It has now been two and a half hours since getting home and they are still immobile but still breathing. They may just be getting a good night's rest but I may not.
Kate

 

[LittleSticks]

Too funny! I thought all of my chicks had contracted some horrible virus when, one after another, they collapsed in heaps and imitated being dead. It took a few days to realize that it was normal.

 

[missydcpc]

I put a 2x4 on the ground about a foot away from the wall in the chicken coop for my almost/month old chicks, as I know they are not quite big enough to fly up on top of the nest boxes, where the roost is. Rather than try to roost on it, they all pile between the wall and the 2x4 in on blob....

Now the chicks down in the brooder, who are 2-3 weeks old all love to play on 2x4 i put in their brooder...so they may teach the older ones when they join the "big" girls.

 

[Chicken Boo]

This is me and my last brood. We all just fell asleep in our tracks.