One week old chicks won’t stop crying!

[Kjm279]

We have 5 one week old chicks and 7 two week old chicks. They’re all housed together and they all are active, eating, drinking, foraging, peeping and chirping, napping, sleeping at night. Two chicks though cry A LOT. If they’re not sleeping, they’re crying. They cry when they are in the middle of eating and foraging too.

1. I feel bad if they’re uncomfortable but I can’t figure out what their problem might be.
2. They’re currently in the bathroom that is in my 8yo’s bedroom and at least one of them will still be crying at 8-9pm and it’s (just another thing) keeping him awake.

One is a Dark Brahma (we have two).
One is a Salmon Faverolle (we have two).

What are these silly chicks crying around?!

 

[Sally PB]

Some ideas...

Too cold
Pasty butt
Some kind of injury to a leg or toe, or maybe one of the bigger chicks stepped on them?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Sounds like they're too cold. Mine never cry just because of pasty butt and it's more of a startled cheep when they get stepped on than continuous crying.

Some are just screamers though. Seems every batch of brooders or broodies I have has at least one that screams constantly. Then they grow up to be a talkative but quieter bird

 

[Kjm279]

Sounds like they're too cold. Mine never cry just because of pasty butt and it's more of a startled cheep when they get stepped on than continuous crying.

Some are just screamers though. Seems every batch of brooders or broodies I have has at least one that screams constantly. Then they grow up to be a talkative but quieter bird

They’re not huddling or anything. Sometimes they sleep under the lamp, other times they don’t. Maybe they’re just screamers. They’re not even the smallest of the bunch!

 

[artbykarenehaley]

Do they follow you or your son constantly? When you or your son or any other particular person in the household holds them, do they calm down, and make content little peepity peep noises? This sounds like a case of "where's my mama?!" to me, haha.

Try this:
go in there and give them attention when they cry. Have your son give them attention when they cry. And anyone else who handles them a lot in your home. One by one. They may have imprinted on one of you and think they lost their mama when they can't see that specific human. They are hardwired to seek out their parent, some chicks more than others.

You can do a couple of things to remedy this.
1 ) Cry it out, just like people who are weaning their babies off of night time attention. Doesn't always work right away... Our first chicks never got the message, haha! They chirped at night until they squawked at night. I was seven. I still remember my parents wondering what on earth to do with these noisy birds!

2 ) Keep these chicks closer to the person they are imprinted to when they sleep. Our button quail have imprinted on my son. We keep them in a clear tote that he sleeps beside. They all sit on the edge of the tote at night and watch him sleep while they also fall asleep. When he stayed the night at my mother in law's, they called for him all night. Next two options are what worked for me to get them to sleep that night:

3 ) try a heat plate. maybe they are awake because of a heat lamp or a light being on. Heat plates warm the chick without lighting the brooder. Worked for about half of the quail.

4 ) put in a stuffed animal or article of dirty laundry that smells like the imprinted person. The less convinced quail snuggled up under this and they slept the rest of the night.

 

[Kjm279]

Do they follow you or your son constantly? When you or your son or any other particular person in the household holds them, do they calm down, and make content little peepity peep noises? This sounds like a case of "where's my mama?!" to me, haha.

Try this:
go in there and give them attention when they cry. Have your son give them attention when they cry. And anyone else who handles them a lot in your home. One by one. They may have imprinted on one of you and think they lost their mama when they can't see that specific human. They are hardwired to seek out their parent, some chicks more than others.

You can do a couple of things to remedy this.
1 ) Cry it out, just like people who are weaning their babies off of night time attention. Doesn't always work right away... Our first chicks never got the message, haha! They chirped at night until they squawked at night. I was seven. I still remember my parents wondering what on earth to do with these noisy birds!

2 ) Keep these chicks closer to the person they are imprinted to when they sleep. Our button quail have imprinted on my son. We keep them in a clear tote that he sleeps beside. They all sit on the edge of the tote at night and watch him sleep while they also fall asleep. When he stayed the night at my mother in law's, they called for him all night. Next two options are what worked for me to get them to sleep that night:

3 ) try a heat plate. maybe they are awake because of a heat lamp or a light being on. Heat plates warm the chick without lighting the brooder. Worked for about half of the quail.

4 ) put in a stuffed animal or article of dirty laundry that smells like the imprinted person. The less convinced quail snuggled up under this and they slept the rest of the night.

They’re a lot better now that they’re a little older, but yes, as soon as I’d pick them up, they’d fall asleep in my hand. They kind of reminded me of babies that liked to be swaddled!

My son ended up getting used to the crying and ignored it when we was trying to sleep at night.