I'm 0 for 15 on chickies

[aladatrot]

Well, my "final four" of my original 15 chickies made it through the hurricane, but failed to make it through the cooler nights afterward with no electricity to power their lamp. Therefore, I am feeling much of a failure at day old chicks. There are some chickies at the feed store that are bigger chicks, and I want some but I don't want to kill them. We still have no power, but the chicks are not currently under lights at the feed store. Temps here are getting down into the upper 50's at night and 88 or 90 daytime with little to no humidity (I know - I had to check to make sure I was still living in Houston!). My own coop is an open design with a chickie coop inside it made of chicken wire at ground level. Is this too extreme for Buff Orpington chicks that are tennis ball sized?
Thanks
M

 

[orcasislandchickens]

I'm no expert, but I would think they are a little too small still. How old does the feed store say they are?

Back in the days of no power people still hatched and raised chicks. Outdoors even. But they used those best of all incubator/brooder setups- broody hens.

How long do you think you will be without power?

How is the feedstore managing it. Do they have a generator going?

 

[farmergal]

I'd think that would be too cold for baseball-sized chicks... I waited until mine were 4 weeks old for those temps (and two-three times that size).
Is there a place you could put them indoors? Like -- keep them in the coop when it's warm outside during the day, and put them in the bathtub (or plastic tub) at night, maybe with a blanket over/around much of it to keep in the heat?
Buff Orps are the sweetest birds ever. Lucky that your feed store has them!!

 

[packinaglock]

Wow, sorry to hear about your chicks. Could you keep a fire going and heat up rocks to put in with them? It might be a pain in the but for a short while but it may keep them alive for a couple of days till you get power.

 

[aladatrot]

Thanks for the replies so far. The feed store has power, I do not. That said, they are not running lights on these things at all - which they are perfectly set up to do. I didn't ask them how old they were, but they mentioned that they were old enough not to need lights. I need to call them because that would help to know how old they really are.

Maybe I can run ANOTHER extention cord from the generator over to the coop at night?

Thanks again!
M

 

[Chicabee19]

you could put on a heavy shirt, then put on another heavy shirt, then tuck the babies between them!

i can't believe you guys still don't have 'lectricity! my brother lives in Houston.

 

[pdpatch]

In the old days they used the hens to keep the chicks warm. You would buy a full size Roo and Hen to get started. Then people started to get creative and add heat sources for chicks so they didn't need the Hen to keep them warm when they were little.

But in this case you would have to trick the hen to except the chicks. Most hens don't except chicks that are not hers. But a broody hen will, and some hens are more broody then other. If you can find some one that has one you can buy broody hens.

Some hunting stores sale pocket heaters, or batter operated heated socks.

If you use a Gas type heater watch the fumes, they are hazadous.

Some smaller protable propane heater may work.

Tom

 

[gumpsgirl]

Quote:
So sorry to hear about your chicks.

I know that has to be discouraging, especially when the circumstances from which you lost them are totally out of your control. Do the chicks that you are looking at that are at the feed store have any feathers yet? If they do, with the temps. that you are having during the day, I would think that they would manage just fine without the heat lamp. Then during the night you could do like you mentioned and run an extension cord from the generator to the coop for the heat lamp. As long as they will have a heat source at night when the temps are low then I think that would do just fine!

 

[crzychicken]

I read this somewhere maybe on BYC It's the best place for Info. The people here are great. If you can boil water put some in a hot water bottle put it in a towel. I also read warm up a brick and put it in a towel also works good. Just don't get the brick to hot It can start a fire if it is, so make sure you check it.
Jody

 

[aladatrot]

Great news! We got power back last night, so as long as we don't lose it again I should be good to go! I'm so thankful that our Centerpoint Energy guys have been working so hard to restore power and I'm also glad you all could spare your linemen from all over the country to come help.

And now for those buff orpingtons :O)

Thanks again for all the suggestions - I still may have to use them if we lose power again.

Cheers
M