Tough Chicks

[Uzuri]

I think I need to buy this year's batch biker jackets.

So I'm doing my peeps without a consistent heat source (so no heater, light, etc) this year. Instead they get a hot water bottle before I go to bed, and if conditions warrant, they get another in the morning. Last week, conditions certainly weren't warranting -- still hitting the 90s in the daytime, and not getting below 75 a night.

This week, I was starting to get a little nervous. Predicted lows at 52 (which means, functionally, 48 at home). Well, I started this thing, so let's see it through...

This morning: 49 when I wake up. I go out to the peeps.

They're waiting for me. Standing and looking at me through their little "screen door". Not huddling, not even bothering to be on the side of the water bottle away from the opening. Just looking like "well it's about time you woke up." I open the big door, and the little barred rock meets me with a chest bump (which, I think, in her world, is becoming sort of like a fist bump. "Dude! What up!"), the EE rockets to the ceiling to show me how wonderfully feathered her wings are, and the Gold Star -- who is just generally calmer than the other two -- saunters over to see what's going on. Water bottle is probably at 60 degrees. I replace it and close the door, and they head back to the window to see me off. Not a peep the whole time.

Tough chicks. Much tougher than I think most people give them credit for. It'll be interesting to see how this continues to play out, but from tracking them against my first year's batch (when I took daily pictures through week 4) they seem to be right on track or a little ahead. I imagine if I run into any specific issues (cocci scares the daylights out of me at the moment) I may have to rig a lamp, but for now they're happy as little chickie clams. I'll admit that I'd like to see the temperatures head back to being more seasonable, but I think they're worrying about it less than I am

 

[Ridgerunner]

I agree they are a lot tougher than most people give them credit for. I sure did not keep the heat on mine earlier this year, but I had enough that they could keep each other warm if they needed to. They did not.

I'll continue to quote the "recommended" temperatures for most people because they are like most of the other guidelines given on here, intended to keep people everywhere under all kinds of varied conditions out of trouble most of the time. Think of somebody in a colder wet climate with three or four chicks trying what you are doing. The results could be different. And you never know who is going to read these posts and not understand the context.

 

[Uzuri]

Very true. It's always best to have a "best practice" to aim at, especially when you're just starting out.

 

[lauriej57]

They are tougher than we give them credit for. I had 3, oh, about 10 day olds that I tried to put under my broody who had 4, three day olds with her. It didn't work. This was in May, and I wasn't able to bring them into the house, so I put them in a tote in the the other side of the coop where I had 4 2 10 week old banties. The days got hot, so had to take them out of the tote and left them with the banties. Those 3 chicks did fine, with no heat, they feathered out about twice as fast as normal. At one point, they had all these fuzzy feathers standing out about an inch, they looked hilarious, but I think it was natures way of them growing extra fuzz to keep warm. The first week, the 3 slept behind the tote, where the others couldn't get to, but within a week, they started hanging out with the bantie girls, and all went well. Those 3 are probably the healthiest ones I have.