Roosting and Night Peeping

[M_Clucker]

Hello all!
This is my first time raising baby chicks. I’ve got 7 2 week old babies (1-welsummer, 1-noir maran, 2-amberlinks, 1-RIR, 1-RI blue, and 1-buff brahma) from a hatchery via USPS. They’re growing so fast! The wee ones started practicing to roost probably within their first week and now are spending a lot of time on the two makeshift roosts I have attached to their brooder, each have a different height and thickness. However, over the past 2 nights, the ladies seem to get very loud before going to sleep, louder than they are during the day, lots of peeping. They’ve slept through the night (or at least they’ve been sleeping/quiet when I check on them) since day one, our bedroom is one door down. I have a Brinsea EcoGlow heating plate and have a red light on in a lamp in the background to help them see at night for the first couple of weeks. Well, after watching the ladies during their peeping session, I observed that my buff Brahma was doing majority, if not all, the peeping. The rest of the ladies were roosting and falling asleep until one would get annoyed, get off the roost, run around with the Brahma, join her peeping, and then get back on the top roost. Several ladies rotated this scenario until they all decided to go to sleep under the heating plate together over an hour later. Silence after they went to sleep. The Brahma seems to be the runt, but I’ve seen her on the top roost with the other ladies and there was still room for her to hop up and join. Is there anything additional I can do to help? Thoughts on this scenario? Also, when can I stop leaving the red night light on for them at night? TIA!

 

[DuckGirl77]

Welcome to BYC!
Sometimes they can be noisy going to bed. I would stop using the lamp now if you have a heat plate. Having the dark may help them settle down faster.

 

[Percheron chick]

2 weeks is super young to be trying to sleep on a roost. The Brahma is protesting being left behind. Mine tend to stick to the ground until they are about 10 weeks old . Remove the roost at night if it causes problems. Remove the light. They need to sleep at night.

 

[rosemarythyme]

The red light is not needed at all. More natural for them to sleep in the dark at night, than to be artificially kept up so they're eating and drinking at all hours.

 

[M_Clucker]

Took away the red lamp tonight and no difference in night noise level. I agree that the ladies are just settling in for the night and figuring out who gets to go where and when to all fall asleep. I left the two roosts though. They’ve been practicing and napping on them during the day; they seem to be pretty comfortable with the occasional flop. Seemed like a natural instinct and didn’t want to take that away. If they feel confident enough to sleep on them, I figured there was no harm . We will see how this goes though, they seem determined to sleep on the top roost tonight and all 7 are snuggled together.