Some things have to be learned the hard way. I learned several things last night but mostly bigger brooders are not always better for young poults.
For this season I built several larger brooders for my poults and chicks. Last year they looked way to crowded at times. Most are in my garage where I can control temperature the best. Over the past 2 weeks I have moved my 1 and 2 week old poults to a larger 4'x4'x15" brooder. It has been warm except for a few hours at night so the garage stays warm. Still, the poults do gravitate a little to the heat lamp at night. Well last night got just a few degrees colder and the last one into the house, maybe me, left the garage door next to that brooder a crack open. Woke up to 2 perfectly healthy poults permanently asleep. Very peaceful, just about 1 foot each away from the main cluster. I am guessing that they fell asleep, chilled quickly and never woke up. I am pretty meticulous in my routines of checking my babies often so to my eyes they were happy as clams at last check. All the others were acting normal this morning. I will add a second lamp as some insurance against this problem and wait till the poults are 3 weeks old before putting them in a brooder that big.
Really bothers me because almost all the poults I have lost previously were within 24 hours of hatch for the usual unavoidable reasons. This one was avoidable. Don't mean to sound so melodramatic. Now I am down to about 20 poults and 30 chicks with about that many more on the way. Maybe someone can learn from my mistake. Oh, can't move that particular brooder as the rest of the garage is overoccupied. May have to clean and reorganize soon.........again!!!!!!!!!!
For this season I built several larger brooders for my poults and chicks. Last year they looked way to crowded at times. Most are in my garage where I can control temperature the best. Over the past 2 weeks I have moved my 1 and 2 week old poults to a larger 4'x4'x15" brooder. It has been warm except for a few hours at night so the garage stays warm. Still, the poults do gravitate a little to the heat lamp at night. Well last night got just a few degrees colder and the last one into the house, maybe me, left the garage door next to that brooder a crack open. Woke up to 2 perfectly healthy poults permanently asleep. Very peaceful, just about 1 foot each away from the main cluster. I am guessing that they fell asleep, chilled quickly and never woke up. I am pretty meticulous in my routines of checking my babies often so to my eyes they were happy as clams at last check. All the others were acting normal this morning. I will add a second lamp as some insurance against this problem and wait till the poults are 3 weeks old before putting them in a brooder that big.
Really bothers me because almost all the poults I have lost previously were within 24 hours of hatch for the usual unavoidable reasons. This one was avoidable. Don't mean to sound so melodramatic. Now I am down to about 20 poults and 30 chicks with about that many more on the way. Maybe someone can learn from my mistake. Oh, can't move that particular brooder as the rest of the garage is overoccupied. May have to clean and reorganize soon.........again!!!!!!!!!!
