New Babies

[ewodonnell]

We have always bought yearling or older chickens and did not plan to have any baby chicks due to not knowing how to raise them. About a month ago we had a chicken escape the coop and vanish into the woods. To our surprise she returned yesterday with a clutch of 8 baby chicks. So we quickly scrambled to get all the necessities for baby chicks, but now we are unsure if we have them set up for survival.

We bought a 27 gallon plastic tote, aspen large bedding, the baby chick starter kit which comes with a heat lamp, feeder, and waterer. I then built a small wooden hanger to hang the heat lamp from over the tote. Since we now had baby chicks we also went ahead and bought 6 more cinnamon queen chicks from Rural King, because chicken math . The heat lamp is on one side of the tote, but the chicks seem to be huddled on the opposite end of the tote away from the lamp which made me think it was too hot. The lamp covers almost the entire area.

So my question is. Should we get a bigger tote where they have a much cooler side they can escape to, and will they go to the heat lamp on their own when they are cold or does it need to cover the entire area? Also is there anything else we should be doing with these little dudes.

 

[GodLovesU]

They will go to the heat lamp when they get cold. You could try to hang the heat lamp higher, as it does seem they are hot and they need to be able to get away from it, or buy a bigger tub. The tub would give them more space anyway, but may not be necessary. Can you post a picture of the setup? Also…

 

[ewodonnell]

They will go to the heat lamp when they get cold. You could try to hang the heat lamp higher, as it does seem they are hot and they need to be able to get away from it, or buy a bigger tub. The tub would give them more space anyway, but may not be necessary. Can you post a picture of the setup? Also…

 

[GodLovesU]

For now, I would just hang it a little higher and see how it goes. They’re very cute!

 

[rural mouse]

Wait a minute...where's Mama? She will keep her 8 warm, show them where food is, break up food for them, lead them to water, and beat the feathers out of any thing getting to close to her babies. No need for heat, tote ....crumbled food does help as does a water source the babies can't fall into. Mom will show them the rest. (The store chicks are a separate issue)

 

[ewodonnell]

Wait a minute...where's Mama? She will keep her 8 warm, show them where food is, break up food for them, lead them to water, and beat the feathers out of any thing getting to close to her babies. No need for heat, tote ....crumbled food does help as does a water source the babies can't fall into. Mom will show them the rest. (The store chicks are a separate issue)

We would love to do this, but where we live they would not survive with just mom. There are too many predators around here. The fact mom somehow survived for a month away is a miracle, but we have already had some that got out and were eaten. We had to really fortify out coop and run to keep them safe.