How Does This Brooding Set-up Look?

[3KillerBs]

BTW, my chicks have been chasing ants and spiders in their coop. I couldn't get chick grit in anything less than 50lb quantities (store said they hadn't been able to get it in the normal 5lb bags), so I put a few pinches of sand/soil (where I am that's the same thing) on their paper towels and figure that I'll have to pick some appropriate sized bluestone out of the crusher run driveway after a few days.

How much grit should I offer 8 chicks? A teaspoon? A tablespoon? A quarter cup? I don't want them filling up on rocks.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I personally never use chick grit, so hopefully someone else can help.

 

[3KillerBs]

It's 90 out and I unplugged the heat lamp when the temps underneath topped 100. The chicks seem perfectly content. Quietly eating, drinking, and going about their chick business.

 

[rosemarythyme]

How much grit should I offer 8 chicks? A teaspoon? A tablespoon? A quarter cup? I don't want them filling up on rocks.

"A sprinkle" - I never measure, just sprinkle a bit like you're very lightly salting food just before eating.

 

[NatJ]

How much grit should I offer 8 chicks? A teaspoon? A tablespoon? A quarter cup? I don't want them filling up on rocks.

Most chicks are smart enough not to overdo the grit. (Exceptions probably do exist.)

I tend to put a shovelful of dirt in the far corner of the brooder. They scratch through it, pick at it, and eat some rocks. If yours are already eating chick starter, and chasing bugs, then they're making good progress on knowing what things are good to eat!

 

[3KillerBs]

"A sprinkle" - I never measure, just sprinkle a bit like you're very lightly salting food just before eating.

Thank you.

Most chicks are smart enough not to overdo the grit. (Exceptions probably do exist.)

I tend to put a shovelful of dirt in the far corner of the brooder. They scratch through it, pick at it, and eat some rocks. If yours are already eating chick starter, and chasing bugs, then they're making good progress on knowing what things are good to eat!

I might be able to do that. My dirt is almost pure sand, but there's some gravel in a spot where DH recently dug a ditch.

 

[3KillerBs]

So, ...

The 60 watt reptile bulb worked perfectly overnight -- holding a steady 90+ directly underneath with nighttime checks revealing that the chicks were, in my 14yo's words, "Loosely cuddled" under the lamp. Current temperature, about 68.

But it's Sunday. I'm serving at church and there is a farewell lunch for our departing Worship Leader so I won't be home late morning to unplug it for the afternoon heat (high 80's, low 90's), until 2 or so.

I guess that I'll raise the lamp to it's maximum (yesterday I unplugged it when it got over 110 under the lamp that way), and they'll snuggle in their favorite corner until it warms up.

 

[3KillerBs]

I lost one this morning -- Spicy, the smaller California White.

She was eating and drinking normally last night but seemed a little sleepy this morning when I fed them and changed their water. When I got home from church she was gone.

I had raised the lamp as I said I would and the temperature was about 105 directly under the lamp when I got home and unplugged it. The others were running around, kicking half their feed out of the dish, etc. If they were too warm under the lamp they'd just moved to a cooler location.

No sign of anything wrong that I could detect -- no pasty butt, no abnormal-looking poop anywhere on the paper towels.

 

[3KillerBs]

Unfortunately, the store I got them from doesn't have any livability guarantee period. I called, figuring that it didn't hurt to ask.

I was reminded that they'd been late arriving from the Post Office so perhaps she'd suffered from stress in shipping. Poor, little thing.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Anything over 90 degrees can cause heat exhaustion. They cannot regulate their own body temperature until around 2 weeks. I would not run a heat lamp at temperatures over 85. Sorry you lost one.