Introduction and new to chickens, advice needed please :)

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from Alabama. Glad you joined us. Congrats on your chicks
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You can go by their behavior to know if you have the brooder the correct temperature. If they're huddled together under the light, they're too cold. If they're as far away from it as they can get and panting, they're too warm.
 
Thank you guys! My girls are IN LOVE with their chicks! We got the brooder all set up and put a aquarium thermo in there so we be certain of the temp. Here are some pics of my babies with their babies. I only let them hold them for short periods of time. We did let them go outside into the back yard for a little bit and run around too. They have had a long day and just slept when the girls where holding them. ;)


 
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Yep, you do need to get the heat lamp set up if you haven't already. You might also want to consider moving them out of the cardboard box and into a rubbermaid bin - much easier to clean! Right now you should be feeding them medicated chick starter (I only used vegetarian feed for my birds, but that is up to you). Once they are about three months old you can switch them over to layer feed (that is what I do with my chicks, though others might do it differently). They will begin laying at 5-6 months old, but you'll probably want to move them outside by the time they're 8 weeks old. You can keep them inside longer than that, but they get messy! When they are grown, provide them with 2-4 square feet of indoor space each and 8-10 square feet each of space in the run if they are not going to free-range.
The Black Sexlink is a pullet for sure. Black Sexlink males hatch out with a white spot on the top of their head and grow up to be barred and females hatch solid black and grow up black with red hackles (feathers on their necks). You'll probably be able to tell the Production Red's gender by the time s/he is two or three months old.
Hopefully this answers some of your questions
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Thanks :) I got the heat lamp on them yesterday evening and they were super happy about that :) Great idea on the rubbermaid container. I'll take one over there today. I got the receipt from my grandma yesterday and both said pullets. Maybe they sex them before they send them out? That's great though! We are all egg eaters so it's perfect. My husband is going to start the chicken coop this weekend. I'll take lots of pictures. Since we live in Kansas our winters can be pretty cold (not this year, it didn't even seem like we had a good snow). What are some provisions we can take while making the chicken coop to make sure it's ok and safe for the chickens during winter? Do you just put heat lamps in there or is there a better way to heat a coop? I may end up starting a new thread for the coop. My youngest daughter is madly in love with her chick. She spent the night with her Grandma last night so her chick wouldn't miss her (i'm thinking it's the opposite, she would miss her chick..lol)
 
We have cold snowy winters here, too, and we made our coop insulated. My husband is an excellent trim carpenter in real life, and it was built bomb proof. We struggled with the idea of ventilation (good) and drafts (bad). We worried that the girls would be cold, so I put a heat lamp in that is on a thermostat, but the girls all started to drink water like mad and had liquid poops. And it was steamy in the coop. So, no more heat lamp, and we put some vents up high to let out the hot moist air. Our favorite convenience is a heated dog bowl so their water doesn't freeze. Next year I hope to make a solarium for them out of old windows I have collected so they can get out of the coop into an outdoor room...but that's still in the dream phase.
 
I don't know a whole lot about heating coops since it doesn't get too cold here, but heat lamps are the easiest/cheapest way that I know of.
 

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