Starting over..again. We might be cursed.

[Egghead_Jr]

With those kind of temperatures you don't have to brood very long at all and can even turn off the heat source for most the day. If it's a warm spring we turn chicks out to coop at 3 weeks of age and those temps are nowhere near your heat.

Overheating brooders is a common problem. Provide plenty of space in brooder for chicks to move away from heat source and keep an eye on panting. Brooders are either too small or heat lamps too large being the culprit. Back when we brooded small batches of birds I'd only use 75W or even 60W incandescent bulb to one side of large plastic tote. Now we use a water trough for brooder in unheated garage and 125W heat lamp.

 

[Kater_tot]

We ordered a heating pad that does not shut off, and will have it on low during the day when it's hot. Plenty of water and their entire run and coop are shaded almost all day. I was also going to do a brick in a shallow dish, so they can stand on it and cool their feet.
Anything else I should do for them so they don't get too hot?

At night the temps are 50-60* so I'll turn the heating pad up so they can be on top or under their faux mom lol.

I'm so nervous about picking them up at the post office!!! We're pretty rural so hoping it doesn't take them too long to arrive.

My 8yo's homeschool project this week was to research chicken breeds and to select ones that were good in both cold and hot, friend,y and okay layers. She chose two australorps, and 2 brahmas and then 3 random lol

 

[azygous]

Good, people-friendly breeds. Those chicks will be lots of fun!

Watch your tracking on the chicks and call the postmaster to find out when the truck will arrive from the sorting center. You can then be there to meet it, and even if it's before regular hours, they'll let you have the chicks once they scan them in.

You'll swear you're a mama chicken what the peeping will do to you when you hear them in the back of the mail truck calling to you.

 

[jeria]

Mine PO it depends on where they are coming from. My first batch was flown in from Ohio, they called @ 3am- 2 days to arrive ; the second batch I was almost to work @ 6:35 am--they were probably a truck as they were from here in the state scanned in @ around 9pm and here the next morning .

 

[lazy gardener]

I would not leave any open water for the chicks to stand in until they are about 3 weeks old.