So far..We have 30 new baby chicks...advice on DOS and DONTS??

[new_2_chick_world]

Okay, so even with a very high "spike" at the end we have had a great turn out so far..We had about 90 eggs in the bator and have about 30 plus that have hatched. ...

NOW I am looking for advice on best ways to do this OR that...Any advice is helpful,
never have incubated and hatched eggs before this was so exciting!!

Thanks for reading our post!!

 

[danielle82]

90 eggs in the bator? wow you are serious about hatching huh? and 30 have hatched? so you are in lockdown now? Congrats!

 

[afishel]

what Questions do you want do's and don'ts on?

 

[new_2_chick_world]

Thanks ,
We now have about 50! yeah wow..this is the first time we have hatched...didnt know the work intailed. (we also have a alomst two year old and a 13 year old, both girls, what were we thinkning?) anyway..

How do we know if they are warm or cool enough? We have them in the garage, (attached to the house) with a light on them, but Im still affraid they are not warm enough. Our house temp is about 75, the garage is about the same. ..Too cool??
Thanks all information is greatly appericated!!

 

[undergroundchickens]

Is the light you have on them a heat lamp? You can tell if they are to cold or hot by how they are acting. If they are all huddled up under the light they are to cold. You are supposed to keep a heat lamp over them that keeps the one area of your brooder about 95 degrees for the first week and then slowly lower the temps weekly until they are feathered out.

Here is the link to the BYC page for newly hatched babies up to 60 days care instructions. https://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-first60days.html

Congrats on those cute little fuzzy butts!

 

[Rozzie]

With that many chicks you may want a couple of heat lamps. This has two purposes: It keeps them from all huddling up in one big mass, potentially smothering other chicks or smushing (accidentally) some of them. It also is protection if one heat lamp burns out during the night.

If your electrical service has frequent outages then you'll also want to think of a secondary way to keep them warm BEFORE that happens, not during an outage.

 

[new_2_chick_world]

Thanks everyone, Ive got him picking up another heat lamp to keep them from smothering one another and the site is great information.

Again thank everyone so much!! these little chicks are so cute, I cant wait for them to get a little bigger so we can watch the run...(before the snow and ice flies)!!

 

[Happy Chooks]

Also give them a few days before you put them on shavings. Start them out on paper towels until they learn where the food is. And you can put small rocks/marbles in the waterers to help prevent drowning. (they will fall asleep standing up, and if they are next to the waterer....)

 

[Rozzie]

Rubber shelf/drawer liner also makes a great base for chicks. Get the kind that has the tiny holes and a lot of traction. Some are more slippery than others. You want the kind that won't be slick if water gets on it. It's pretty cheap, too. One nice thing about it is that you can remove it and put in a second set of liner while you hose and dry the first set. You can swap it out as needed to keep clean bedding under the chicks.

In between batches of chicks it would be possible to sanitize this stuff, I think, by soaking it in some bleach water then drying in the sun. I just have small batches in small brooders, typically, so tend to replace it for new batches.

 

[Surehatch]

Congrats on your great hatch!