New silkie and mystery bantam babies aren’t settling in?

[Casastash]

hi all!

I have raised 65 chicks this year and only lost 4 but the last batch of chicks I picked up has me worried :/

I got 9 silkie chicks paint, splash, black, partridge and 2 mystery chipmunk coloured bantams without feathered legs. They from my usual chicken dealer today and they don’t seem to be settling down...

I gave them water with honey, dipped they’re beaks and showed them the food but they are huddling in corners! They aren’t even huddling where the lamp is?!

It’s 76 in the house and I have a 75 watt bulb 12 inches off the ground.... given that they are huddling in far corners I don’t think they are cold. And the floor temp definitely isn’t to hot!

Any suggestions on how to calm these little buggers down

Are silkies particularly hard to raise?

I have bearded paint silkies that I bought as older pullets so these are my first silkie chicks

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Probably frightened. It's always best to use a thermometer to check brooder temperatures just to be sure that it's comfortable for their age. Were they hen hatched? They definitely look older than day olds so they are probably more frightened about be moved to a new house. They should eventually get better.

 

[Casastash]

Probably frightened. It's always best to use a thermometer to check brooder temperatures just to be sure that it's comfortable for their age. Were they hen hatched? They definitely look older than day olds so they are probably more frightened about be moved to a new house. They should eventually get better.

They are incubator hatched and about 3 days old


I tossed my thermometer after raising my second batch of chicks because at 90 degrees they were panting. I started just judging temp by the chicks habits but I guess it’s going back in for these guys!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I have always started at 85 degrees, I find 90 to be too hot for chicks. I go by behaviors too after my initial setting of the temperature. It's always nice to not worry about whether the temperature is okay. I just used a cheap wall thermometer.